Music Directors' Top Records of the Week

Welcome to this year’s first installment of the WESU Music Director’s Blog! We had a large number of adds this week, and Zach Ezer and Ethan Hill are here to tell you about a few of our favorites.

Zach’s Pick: Heems – Eat, Pray, Thug from Megaforce Records
Coming from the brink of near bankruptcy, the dissolution of his Greedhead label, and some deep personal issues, Himanshu Suri (Wesleyan alumnus and former member of Das Racist) returns with a very soulful, incredibly personal record that strikes a counterpoint to his ironic and distant work with Das Racist. Heems brings in more direct references to his Hinduism as well as an R&B soundscape to the table on this record in order to make a name for himself as a solo artist distinct from his former bandmate Kool A.D. and the “hipster-rap” of his past.

Ethan’s Pick: Jeff Rosenstock – We Cool? from SideOneDummy Records
The former frontman of underground heroes Bomb the Music Industry! returns with a fantastically poignant album chock full of heart-wrenching tunes. The album screams of sentimentality for lost youth, the sort of retrospective longing for those moments of idiotic high school summers that we love remembering but hated living. We Cool?‘s scuzzy guitars and overdriven, chanted vocals make you want to jump around with all your angsty suburban friends and just feel something. According to Rosenstock, “malt liquor doesn’t make you young,” but listening to We Cool?, you can at least fool yourself for a couple of hours.
Other Great Adds: (Band Name, Name of Album, Record Label)
ELEL – 40 Watt, Mom and Pop Records
Riley Walker – Primrose Green, Dead Oceans
Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders – Playmates, Fat Possum Records
Ecid, Pheromone Heavy – Fill in the Breaks
Ewert and the Two Dragons – Circles, Sire Records
Beto Hale – Rebirth, Lalo Records
Lady Lamb and the Beekeepers – After, Mom and Pop Records
Diamond Drugs – Cosmetics, Sycamore Records