Trestles- The Beach Betrayed Me
Every month I listen to the majority of bands and musicians who are playing in Los Angeles and select some for a monthly playlist. It includes a variety of genres and usually newer work by the artist.
This month includes the song above by Santa Cruz band, Trestles, from 2025’s Postcard EP.
Below are July’s selections-
Max Cooper and Aho Ssan- When I Sit Alone. In My Thoughts. I Am Crushed.
This song is from Max Cooper‘s latest album, On Being, released in February of this year. He has released several videos for the songs on the album, each directed by a different artist and based on a quote from a prompt on his website.
This video above was created by Simon Kounovsky aka axonbody.
More information on the album and song from Cooper in the Youtube video description–
The quote arrived on my album website after I asked “What do you want to express, which you feel you can’t in everyday life?”. Using thousands of anonymous quotes, my On Being album attempts to capture the experience of being human, now.
This was one of the first quotes from the database that reached out and grabbed my guts and squashed them. I had to tackle it, and I immediately contacted Aho Ssan with the idea, because his approach to music contained some of the intensity and noise elements that I felt were needed to deliver the quote.
It was submitted anonymously, so over the past few years I had a story in my mind about who submitted it and why. But then ahead of the Bristol show I heard from Robbie Evans, the writer of the words, who I met at the show. If any of you submitted any of the words in the project I’d love to hear from you so I can put a face to the name of the words I’ve spent my last 3 years with.
The writing process began with a live improvisation on Void and Vista Folds, which formed the structure of the 7 minute sequence. I then jammed with my hardware synths and pedals to introduce the aggression, and sent everything to Aho Ssan, who mangled and layered on his special blend.
The final touches came from a visit to Taichung, where recordings of the night market feature in the track, and finally, over compression to pump a sub bass into obliterating everything else to reach for some new chaos, for any you who have the full frequency response available. It was pure catharsis, and maybe not something many people will enjoy listening to, but that’s where the quote sent me, and hopefully it will be worthwhile for some of you.
3D/AV, Max Cooper’s live immersive audio-visual experience, is currently on tour and will be at The Belasco in Los Angeles on Saturday, 8/30/25.
Buckets- Slipping
Los Angeles based band Buckets released this single in June of this year.
They are playing on Sunday, 8/24/25, at The Bamboo Club in Long Beach- part of the free two day music festival Happy Sundays. (RSVP here).
Host Family- Rodeo
This song was recently released on Host Family‘s 2025 EP, Extended Play.
They are playing at Dada Echo Park this Saturday, 8/16/25, as part of the annual FREE festival Echo Park Rising. The festival includes numerous venues and a TON of bands.
Chalk Talk- Time Again
This song is from Chalk Talk‘s recently released album, Sun Lies Heavy. The band is playing at The Echo in Los Angeles with Charlie Havenick on Thursday, 8/7/25.
Black Sabbath- War Pigs
Ozzy Osbourne passed away last week at the age of 76. The Birmingham musician started as a singer in the English rock band Black Sabbath.
After leaving the band in 1979, he began his successful solo career with manager, and later wife, Sharon. In the 1990s he and Sharon started the very successful music festival Ozzfest, which included a Black Sabbath reunion. The yearly festival continued until 2010.
Along with his distinctive singing voice, he would also become notorious for his wild antics- including biting the heads off doves (at a record company meeting) and a bat at a concert (that may, or may not have been alive). The drug and alcohol fueled stories from his tour with Mötley Crüe in 1984 also added to his reputation.
From 2002-5 he joined his wife and two of his children for the popular family reality show, The Osbournes. He also continued making new music throughout the years, toured, and played reunion tours off and on with Black Sabbath- most recently only a few weeks before his death.
While it was sad to hear of his passing, he lived an incredible life.
Coral Grief- Starboard
This song is from Seattle band Coral Grief‘s recently released debut album, Air Between Us.
They are playing at Scribble in Los Angeles on Thursday, 7/31/25, with Mo Dotti and Cupid & Psyche.
Harry the Nightgown- bellboy
Every month I listen to the majority of bands and musicians who are playing in Los Angeles and select some for a monthly playlist. It includes a variety of genres and usually newer work by the artist.
The song above is from Los Angeles band Harry the Nightgown‘s 2025 album Ugh.
Below are June’s selections-
Folk Bitch Trio- God’s A Different Sword
This song is from Australian band Folk Bitch Trio’s upcoming album, Now Would Be A Good Time, releasing 7/25/25.
They are playing three shows in Los Angeles this week- Thursday (7/24) at Permanent Records Roadhouse, Friday (7/25) at KXSC House with Truman Sinclair and Brookelen (free with RSVP), and at Sibylline Records in Pasadena on Sunday (7/27) also free with RSVP.
Kentucky Route Zero is a point-and-click adventure game created by Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and musician Ben Babbitt working together as Cardboard Computer. Started in 2011 with Kickstarter funding, it contains five parts and four interludes that were released over several years, with the final section completed in 2020.
The game begins with a truck driver named Conway arriving at a highway gas station with his dog. He is having trouble finding the address he was given for his delivery. From there you travel with him over various roads, an underground highway, and eventually even by boat. Along the way you stop at museums, an abandoned mine, local bars, an odd office building, a cave filled with bats, and more while meeting several of the area’s residents. You can choose to learn more about the characters and often join them to explore locations. The story unfolds with no sense of urgency and you are often given the choice to move on or to stay and explore further.
Filled with magical realist elements, it is often a world that can still feel depressingly familiar. Most of the characters are struggling in some way with the effects a failing economy, something that feels even more relevant since 2020. But there are also glimmers of hope in the ways the characters show up for each other- adapting, creating, and forming communities.
Below are a few selections from the game’s interludes that provide engaging breaks from the main story.
In Limits and Demonstrations three characters visit an art museum. You can check out several artworks including- Overdubbed Nam June Paik installation in the style of Edward Packard, which pays homage to Nam June Paik’s 1963 work, Random Access.
Scenes from The Entertainment– a play directed by one of the characters-
One of the phones from Here and There Along The Echo– you dial the number and the character Will (played by musician Will Oldham) reads information from the Echo River’s Bureau of Secret Tourism.
Scenes from Un Pueblo De Nada take place at the public access station- you can also find a live action version here.
Kentucky Route Zero is a game that stays with you long after it finishes. There are lots of things to discover and it’s worth playing more than once to find them. The website Highway Zero is good for things you may have missed.
The game is available for purchase on their website and can also currently be found on Netflix.