Tag: The Church (band)

Toy City Bring a Great Sense of Rediscovery and Outgrowing the Past in the Introspective and Earnest Melodies of “Mountains”

Toy City, photo courtesy the artists

Paul Burke and Steve Shaheen of Toy City met while playing in the alternative rock scene of Boston in the 1990s but returned to music during the 2020 pandemic lockdown period and traded files recorded in studios in New York City and San Francisco. The self-titled debut album mixed by John Russell of modern noise rock legends Kal Marks and mastered by Joe Lambert released on May 5, 2023. The single “Mountains” has an unvarnished yet sophisticated charm like something these guys recorded in their practice studio but the songwriting reveals a keen ear for interlocking rhythms and an intimate mood even within a song that pulses with energy and is both brooding, yearning and hopeful with expressions of missing someone or perhaps one’s old self as one grows in new directions, perhaps outgrowing old associations and a past life to which one cannot return even if you’ve returned to familiar activities and pastimes once put on the shelf for years. It’s like a theme song for the project and the album and mentions of taking things one step at a time even if it’s clear Toy City have a command of imbuing its songs with an earnestness, elegance and economy of expression. Fans of early Failure and more recent songs by The Church will find something to appreciate in the introspective soundscapes and sincerity of the songwriting not just on “Mountains” but on the rest of the eponymous debut. Listen to “Mountains” and more on Spotify and follow Toy City on Instagram.

“The Art of Losing” by Summer With Monica is a Wistful Pop Song About Learning to Stop Struggling Against Yourself

Summer With Monica, photo courtesy the artist

Summer With Monica is the solo project of Julien Staartjes, guitarist for the Amsterdam-based band The Vagary. For his song “The Art of Losing” Staartjes was inspired by Elizabeth Bishop’s 1976 poem “One Art.” The jangle-y pop song is reminiscent of a more folk The Soft Boys or Robyn Hitchcock’s solo with its easy pace and poetic phrasing. Maybe a bit of the early music of The Church can be heard echoing there too. Though melancholic in tone at times the sense of the song is one of a kind of hope born of learning to overcome the habits of ego that end up causing us misery even as we think we’re pursuing what’s best for us when at times we should not cling so tightly to notions, dreams and desires that no longer suit us. The chorus of “It’s not so hard, it’s not so hard to let go, to let go” is like a mantra and the closing passage of the song in which Staatjes describes someone who has seemingly hit bottom but who is finally at a place where the ego bound mandates held back his real potential have been washed away in the rain is the fulfillment of an evolving realization that sometimes when you’re struggling the hardest you’re actually fighting your own forward progress. Listen to “The Art of Losing” on Soundcloud and follow Summer With Monica at the links below.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbXK43yzpziI6fwja53-ZsQ
https://www.instagram.com/summerwmonica