milk crate

They say you die twice, once when you stop breathing, and again when people stop saying your name. As far as Amy Winehouse is concerned, it seems like she’ll live forever.

Though it’s easy to commodify and repackage newly released music as another brand of ‘indie girl’ or ‘sad girl,’ the electric chemistry between Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus is too exceptional for any label and more genre-bending than it gets credit for. Before I say anything more, the songs on this EP felt reminiscent of boygenius’s self-titled EP, stripped back but with better production—it indicates growth and expansion for the artists, both in their personal careers and as a trio.

The ability to be unabashedly weird is what I suspect has finally brought upon the rise of Eurodance in western culture.

But I also think that Zodiacs deserves ample recognition for a creation unlike anything I’ve heard before. It creeps up on Salvia Palth and Fox Academy, but like the ocean, recedes into itself and returns anew.

There is so much compatibility, experimentation, and emotion tied to this project.

At the crux of the fest is its community, a love for performance and soul.

The Milk Crate staff is feeling a little spooky! Below are their picks for what they’re playing while they prep for Halloween, presented with blurbs worthy of a promotional sticker on a jewel case. Tune in Fridays from 3-4PM EST to the Staff Pix radio show.

For a moment I forgot I was just sitting in an AMC on a Monday afternoon. Somehow, I felt like I was sitting in the front row in the Pantages theater. 

(P.S. Olivia is often compared to both Taylor Swift and Lorde,  which is a fair comparison, but for the purposes of this article–the fact that if you like Olivia Rodrigo you’ve likely heard of those two already–I won’t be including them on the list! All love <3 )