Ken's Best of 2025 - #9: Model/Actriz - Pirouette

By -


Model/Actriz started out in Boston and have since relocated to Brooklyn. We'll try not to hold that against them, especially when they're releasing albums like Pirouette. The album is a collection of nine songs that are equally beautiful and punishing. It's probably best described as post-punk meets noise rock, but that is just a surface description. The songs on Pirouette are shockingly dance friendly. I was lucky enough to attend two of their live shows this year, and songs like "Cinderella" and "Diva" are perfect for an audience to dance and/or mosh to. You know how a lot of people refer to moshing as dancing? At a Model/Actriz show, that's actually what's happening. I truly can't think of any other band that makes music this intense that you can fully dance to. If you haven't listened to Pirouette yet, give yourself plenty of room and crank this fully.

Songs of note: "Vespers," "Cinderella," "Audience," and "Ring Road"

On Repeat...

Minibeast - "High Sea"

By -
Image
Somehow Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns has another band that I never knew about. Minibeast already released an album that I completely missed back in 2012, and they are currently at work on the follow up, Free Will. Based on a track from the upcoming album, "High Sea," Minibeast shares some common sonic ground with Mission of Burma, but with an added emphasis on the groovy side of things. It's basically the noise and dissonance of Burma but heard through a 60s surf groove, as if Frankie and Annette were punks. You can listen to "High Sea" below. Minibeast currently have a Kickstarter to help fund the final production of Free Will. You can get more information on that here . It should be out sometime in June.
Read more

The Beths - "Mother, Pray for Me"

By -
Image
Photo by Annabel Kean For their latest single, New Zealand's The Beths have released "Mother, Pray for Me." This is a heartbreaking ballad consisting of Elizabeth Stokes' vocals and guitar with just the slightest hint of organ. It's a deeply personal song for Stokes, made obvious with how intimately the song comes across. It truly feels almost confessional, and it's quite simply beautiful. The Beths are most known for huge little indie rock gems perfect for bopping along to, but "Mother, Pray for Me" is quite the opposite. Stokes' vocals and lyrics are right up front on this one, and I can't imagine it any other way. Elizabeth Stokes says of her latest single: “I cried the whole time writing it. It's not really about my mother, it's about me — what I hope our relationship is, what I think it is, what it maybe actually is, and what I can or can't expect out of it.   “My mother is a first gen Indonesian immigrant, and very Catholic....
Read more

There's a new Limp Bizkit video, because sure, why not?

By -
Image
Earlier this week I was expressing sympathy for Limp Bizkit. Limp Bizkit just don't seem to be riding that surge of 90s nostalgia that all sorts of other terrible bands from that era are. Sure, they're terrible. But are they really  that much worse than Filter, Alien Ant Farm, and other bands on those 90s nostalgia packages. And then this video is released. The first lyrics to the song are literally "Go fuck yourself." It then features Fred Durst sitting on a toilet, bikini clad chicks pretending to fellate garden hoses and leaf blowers, and Fred Durst talking about fucking bitches, all while wearing a hoodie and a backwards red baseball hat. Then Lil Wayne comes out. Please keep in mind Fred Durst is a 42 year old man.
Read more