Staff Pix 3/7
The Milk Crate staff’s favorite tracks of the week, presented with blurbs worthy of a promotional sticker on a jewel case. Tune in Sundays from 5-7 EST to the Staff Pix radio show.
Nat Szczepanski
Garden - Meet Me @ the Altar
Without “Garden” by Meet Me @ the Altar, I wouldn’t have gotten through quarantine. It captures this distinctly older pop punk feel while still remaining modern: most likely due to Téa Campbell’s insanely catchy guitar riffs. The song’s message itself is uplifting, as lead singer Edith Johnson tells us she “won’t ever drop you like you are old news.” The single garnered the attention of fan-favorite record label Fueled By Ramen—representatives of other alternative bands such as Paramore, All Time Low, and The Front Bottoms. This marks the label’s signing of an all-female Black and Latina band for the first time. The single’s infectious mosh-inducing qualities (thank drummer Ada Juarez for that) was enough to get me up and about dancing about my room, imagining that live shows are still a thing. Obviously I cannot recommend this song enough. “Garden” is just the beginning of Meet Me @ the Altar’s great legacy.
Mara tatevosian
Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again - Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland
It’s 1963, Streisand is barely twenty-one and a nobody from Brooklyn with hair as high as it goes. Judy Garland is, well, Judy Garland – established, exploited, adored, loathed, disposed of, then finally deemed camp. She would be dead only 6 years later. But on October 4th of 1963, it wasn’t the ingenue and the hag, it was just two powerful voices singing for the television screen, reveling in each other's genius. The outcome is difficult to put into perspective because it’s no use describing a moment so ethereal, so religious. The best I can do is compare it to WALL-E’s unrequited love affair with Hello Dolly! That’s what this duet feels like to me – it’s the comfort of a moment so distant yet so pertinent. When the world around me was crumbling and nothing made sense, I’d listen to two women sing about happier days and happier times – and for those four minutes, I’d be right there with them.
Reina Garcia
A Trip Through Space To Clear My Mind - Tanerelle
Hailing from the black mecca that is Atlanta, Georgia, Tanerelle is a goddess walking the earth whose voice will have you transcend time and space. Hence the title ‘A Trip Through Space To Clear My Mind,’ a beautiful song choice to get you acquainted with this artist. On days that I wanted to escape the confines of my room, I would play Tanerelle and find myself in a whole new world. She does a good job of connecting with the listener while painting the lyrics of her journey.
Kyle Woolery
party 4 u - Charli XCX
For me, the highlight of the entire quarantine experience was undoubtedly the six week stretch from April 6th to May 15th when Charli XCX recorded and released her fourth album, How I’m Feeling Now, broadcasting basically every step in the process via a series of Instagram Lives and Zoom calls. It truly gave me something to look forward to everyday. The entire How I’m Feeling Now album is pop perfection, and it’s incredibly difficult to pick a favorite song. However, it is safe to say that one of the tracks almost universally regarded as a standout is “party 4 u,” a melancholic and wistful electropop number evoking a sense of nostalgia for a time when we could still get together and, as the title suggests, party. Fans had long been demanding an official release of this particular track ever since she premiered it in an early demo form at a concert in 2017. Thus, as an easter egg to her devoted followers—and as a callback to an era when we could actually experience live music—Charli includes a sample of the audience cheering at this aforementioned show in the outro of “party 4 u.” It’s brilliant, but I expected nothing less from one of pop’s greatest innovators.
Annie Wojnarowski
seven - Taylor Swift
When Taylor Swift surprise released her eighth studio album, Folklore, never in my wildest dreams did I think she would go full indie folk. Because Swift knew she wouldn’t be touring with this album anytime soon, she decided to make something that wasn’t for the stadiums that she sold out. Soft, simple, and full of childhood reflection, this song levitated me through the summer months of quarantine. There would be mornings where before I even spoke, I would put this on like muscle memory. A short escape from our version of groundhog day, Swift created a small woodland world lightyears away from the childhood bedroom I was sat at.
Nia Tucker
I Know Alone- HAIM
At the start of 2020 I moved to a new city to go to a new school and I felt more like a fish out of water. I felt as if I was a defromed meteorite that had crash landed from space and broke the whole atmosphere. So, when quarantine came around, the loneliness of newness was exacerbated, I felt like a prisoner in limbo without any real anchors where I lived and would be staying for years to come. Then, in April, HAIM dropped “I Know Alone,” a gorgeous, minimal track saturated with the visceral sadness that a lot of us were feeling in those moments of complete isolation. There’s truth and a sense of feeling seen in every verse from “Been a couple days since I've been out / Calling all my friends but they won't pick up / Found another room in a different place,” to “Days get slow / Like counting cell towers on the road / I know alone / And I don't wanna talk about it.” And, at the start of the song, a sound reminiscent of an old door creaking open plays, and I can’t help but compare it to my oft-closed bedroom door during that time, dusting up wanting to be opened and wanting to let me out. HAIM has a firm grasp on the ability to express the dynamism, and specificity of being a woman, and being someone cast aside—their emotions forgotten.
Sarah Fournell
What Makes You Beautiful- One Direction
Instead of going back to school in the fall, I became a nanny for the sweetest 1 year old boy. His name is Emmett and he absolutely loves music videos. Instead of watching tv, he would sit in front of the screen, dancing to country music videos. I eventually got tired of the same country songs on repeat everyday so I slowly weaned him off of it. I started slowly, with country Taylor Swift. He took the bait. Country Taylor Swift turned into modern Taylor. He loved the bright colors of “We are Never Getting Back Together” and the catchiness of “Bad Blood.” The suggested videos section on Youtube slowly became full of One Direction. He became absolutely obsessed. This new obsession came at a pivotal point of his growth, when he was beginning to talk. One of his first words beside “mama” and “dada” was “beautiful.” His vocabulary became full of words like “eyes,” “boys,” and even “bad blood.” Being with him everyday got me through quarantine, and seeing my impact on him taught me so much about life and love. Watching him grow was amazing, and seeing him become the biggest One Direction fan was even better.
Kate Mettetal
Taking Up Space — Mustard Service
Quarantine was an unrivaled mental feat for all of us. For the first time in our lives, the playing field was somewhat neutralized — society, as we all knew it, was ending and we were all forced to grapple with our existential dread without any distractions, entirely alone. Days blended into weeks and weeks felt like years. I can’t say that I remember much of that time or that any of it entailed profound silver lining. But, I can distinctly remember that each one of my early-spring joy rides around Chicago, listening to the wave-like, springy-reverb sounds of Taking Up Space by Miami-based group, Mustard Service, always felt like a good day. Guitarist Gabriel Marinuchi incorporates rubbery surf rock chords with smoothe jazz melodies that only bolster the authenticity of frontman Marco Rivero’s eighties-new-wave-style vocals. Taking Up Space was, ultimately, a remedy for my COVID-19 despair. It provides listeners with an impressive and satisfying blend of jazz, surf rock, indie, new wave, and even some elements of 60’s pop — a genre Mustard Service calls “zest pop” — all while communicating a friendly reminder to find the joy and humor within life’s stress.