Philly Twist

What do Scott Walker, Tres Warren, Lana Del Rey and LeRoi Moore Have In Common?

Well, for starters, none of them are featured on this month’s Swan Fungus Mix Tape. I can say that confidently because you will find this month’s tape below the paywall, and none of those names appear on the J-card. Oh, what’s that? You’re new here? You don’t subscribe to this Substack? Well then you’re missing out on a monthly curated mix tape! Remember the old Swan Fungus Sunday Mix Tapes? It’s kind of like that, except the themes are more-fully realized. Aside from 90 minutes of unique music spread across two 45-minute sides (like we used to do back in the day), you get custom artwork, and sometimes I’ll even add my own samples between tracks to show off my editing skills. They’re way more interesting than in the old days, when I just perused my hard drive for what sounded cool.

I still haven’t found a “free” version of Photoshop to install on my new computer, so if anyone out there has any leads or ideas how to make that happen, by all means let me know.

Beyond that, I don’t have much to discuss. My sister came to town last week so we basically spent five straight days eating intense meals and drinking our fill of beer and wine and spirits. We enjoyed a great birthday dinner for her boyfriend at Chi Spacca. I planned and executed a Saturday taco truck crawl for them with stops at Carnitas El Momo, Mariscos Jalisco, Macheen, Tacos De Birria La Pely Grossa, and Taqueria Frontera. Later that same night we shared a lovely birthday dinner for a friend at Tsubaki in Echo Park.

Last night we saw This Will Destroy You at the Echoplex. It wasn’t the best performance, if I’m being honest. I know Jeremy and Christopher “broke up” and they’re both still keeping the band name, but I couldn’t help feel what this iteration put forth last night was all that compelling. I’ve seen TWDY what, ten times now? And this was the worst one yet. Maybe just lose the band name altogether and do your own thing, yeah? If you want to throw some of your favorite songs into your new band’s setlist, go for it. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Beady Eye still played Oasis songs live even though they hate one another. Do that. Don’t drag the fans into your awkward bullshit.

Anyway… I think it’s time to insert ye olde paywall and get to chatting about this month’s mix tape.