Agony Shorthand #4

After months wandering in the wilderness, we're back with a 4th edition of the program. This one's all new material, and by "new" I mean = came out within the past 20 or so months. And some is so new it literally came out of the oven 20 minutes ago. All of it is highly, highly worthy of your time and investment over the next 76 minutes.

Track listing:

DEBT RAG - Solar Shirt
BLURRIES - Heat Dome
THERESA SMITH / ERIC CECIL - Helium Farm
BUNGEE JUMPERS - Wall
YOO II AVEC NOLAN POTTER - Ralliement
MODERN NATURE - Totality
JEANINES - Till I See Your Star Tonight
THE HOBKNOBS - Easier Listening
ADDED DIMENSIONS - My Dumb Luck
PUPPET WIPES - Do You Wanna Touch My Safety Pin?
SAN KAZAKGASKAR - Drive Ate
SETTING - Gum Bump
ETERNAL MUSIC SOCIETY - Plain
GWENIFER RAYMOND - Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Is this thing on? Okay. Um, this is Agony Shorthand Radio.

SPEAKER_05 2:17

That is what I want.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Welcome to a long-delayed edition of Agony Shorthand Radio. My name is Jay. I'm the host of the program, and I haven't been here for five months. I was taking a breather, as they say. I was enjoying being a consumer of music, but what I've noticed about myself is after a while, when you consume a lot, uh when I consume a lot, I it kind of builds up and you're just I'm just like, I want people to hear this stuff. And so to that end, I have a show for you today, the fourth edition of this program. Most of it has come out in the last few months. Um over the past year, and I think there's one tracker that's all of like 20 months old or so. So everything here is from 2024 to 2026, uh including what you just heard there in that rag doing that rag from Olympia, Washington, and it's from a forthcoming record that's coming out in June of 2026 called It Is Clear What's Going On the Post President Medium labeled their trio. Imagine or deal who used to be in green is in that band. Lillian Marion, who did a project called Ruby Penn and was earlier in Rad Widow, is also in the band, and somebody named Marissa Magic in the trio and they're great, and we played them on my shows before. Maybe I should just give you like this is your first time listening to any of the things I do. My background here is that I've been doing podcasts under different names for a while. For many years, and from like 2012 to 20 and 20. I created dynamite hammered radio 200 dynamite edition. Every title of the program comes from an early flash. Because that's one of my all-time favorite bands. And uh anyway, yeah, sorry, my printer just went off there, and I thought it was like some phantom or something. Anyway, yeah, so you can see it's gonna be off the freewheeling and fucking freeform, ladies and gentlemen. Uh rag solar shirt, and now in Oregon Blurries. And one is called Nowhere Flower, and it was a solo project of hurt. And now it's a full band called Blurries, and they're great. This is from a new uh compilation called The Dot Dash. Mixtape Volume 4 is an annual mixtape auto put out by the dot dash with a sound label from New York. And one of the tracks is a earlier nowhere flower song that I know I played on the show called Heat Dome. Again, this is Blurries from Portland with Heat Dome, and it sounds like this. All right, you guys are still with me, right? That was you two avec Nolan Potter, and it's this kind of mashing up of multiple groups. Uh You Do Right from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Population two from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and a guy named Nolan Potter, who's from Austin, Texas, United States of America. This is one of my favorite releases of the past year. And um one of the reasons I wanted to come back and do a show is just so I could play it for you. That was called Raleigh Mont. And it's from U2Avek Nolan Potter. And the U2 Write stuff is great. They're obviously named after a can song. That track in particular that I just wanted to be very can like, especially the second half. Um I hope you liked it. Raleigh Mont by U2 Avek Nolan Potter. Before that, a group called Bungee Jumpers. Bungee jumpers are from Chicago, Illinois. The track was called Walt, and that is from a tape called Not Today. Really great stuff. Uh Teresa Smith and Eric Cecil before that did Helium Farm. They're from Brooklyn, New York, and they just they don't have any releases. They just have individual tracks on Bandcamp. Somebody that I follow on Bandcamp had bought some of their stuff. And I, of course, I followed the link, and I'm like, this is great. I hope they put it together for an album. The Helium Farm is probably the oldest track on the show today, meaning that it is like 20 months old and came out in late 2024. Um they have some newer stuff that they put up on their bandcam. Check it out. Teresa's Eric Eric and Blurries started that set off with a heat down there from Portland. This is Agony Shorthand number four. My name is Jay. Check out the other shows, all of which were recorded in December of 2025. I was just kind of like bang bang bang, and then I stopped for five months. Um but agonyforthand.com is a link. Um I used to do a blog twenty-something years ago called Agony Shorthand, and I brought the name back just because I figured after two decades it was okay to sort of recycle the thing. Now I'm gonna play you another thing that I've really been enjoying since the last time we spoke. Um Modern Nature from the UK. They have a few albums out before there's a new one called the Heat Wars. I don't really like the older ones, at least when I went and checked them out, but I love the heat wars. This is a very developing record. I don't know if they sort of compare themselves to television.

SPEAKER_08 34:30

Everything is dead and barren, and I've got so much to carry When I raise my eyes up to the sky.

SPEAKER_06 37:00

With them makes the glass look to the ground. They might have a good book for you, but the chances are slim.

SPEAKER_09 37:28

They knew all about shock impressions, they talked about it with discussion. No one ever taught them unless. They know all that's enough. Shock comes with his deep expenses, people thought they were overreactions. No need for a deeper analysis. There's a whole new world to discover. The voice of reason Never sounded so pleasant. Never thought to be easy to listen.

SPEAKER_06 38:08

Nothing comes cheap to see for free. They shook them down and got to keep the things they found. Must each other so honestly. It's always super a lie. Not a lie.

SPEAKER_09 38:43

Out each eyes, so ice. I've faced it, but they made it, under estimators, in a pharaoh of the stages, hopefully don't mind. The voice of reason never sounded so pleasant. Never thought to be easy to listen.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

All right, that is the Puppet Wipes from Calgary, Canada, doing Do You Wanna Touch My Safety Pin? That was from their most recent record, Live Inside or Live Inside, on Silvery's 2025 show. It came out last year. I actually played some on the show, I think, earlier. But that's such a great track, and I actually did not know. The first time I heard it, I didn't know it was a cover. I thought it was just their sort of ironic uh jokey take on punk rock. But yeah, it was a band called Deceptimus from the UK in 1977. I don't know if it was fake punk or real punk or what, but I need to learn more about it. Great track. But why do you want to touch my safety pen question mark? Added dimensions before that doing my dumb luck. That's a cover of Chris Knock. Added dimensions are from Richmond, Virginia. Put out a terrific album last year called Injune from Occupied America. Um and also they've got a reissue of their first game coming out on Divinal Hosak this year, very soon, I think. Um, and then the track My Dumb Luck that we just heard is from that dash and dot-excave number four that has recently come out. That blurries are also on that we played earlier in the show before out of dimensions. We heard the Hob nod from the Netherlands doing easier listening. That's a brand new from a forthcoming record called Helmet Hot coming out on the American label 12XU. They are like I said, and uh they formerly were a loser. That's a band that really uh blew people's minds a couple years ago. Everyone was kind of talking about loserbird for about 10 minutes there. And so I think both members are coming from that man again. Hot nods with easier listening to me before that, and the best hot man on the planet, if you ask me, that was until I see your star tonight. I did not play that on any shows before 45 from the late last year, and they're from New York, and they're coming to play my hometown of San Francisco, California in August, and I've never seen that. I'm very excited about that. Modern Nature started things off with totality from their album from the UK. And Agony Shorthand number four has a few more songs for you. Like I said, this is the all-new stuff in the show. Including this album that really is more of an album. It has a gas car. They've been around for twenty years. They're from Sacramento, California. And so their record of this vlog has just come out. I just got it in the mail yesterday, in the fact. And so we're playing a track from it called Drive Assange has a gas car, and it sounds like that. Alright, that's some excellent stuff from a group called Eternal Music Society from Malmo, Sweden. And it contains some of the folks who've been making some great music out of Malmo for at least a last the last decade, if not longer. Sophie Herner, who records as Leda, is in that band. She was also in Neutral and NHET for free music. I think some other folks from the latter are in this group, Eternal Music Society. They have some releases before this new one, which is simply called Eternal Music Society. But I have not checked that out yet. This is my introduction to the group, and it's really great. It was called Plane. It's the first track on the first side of the album before Eternal Music Society. We heard Setting from North Carolina doing Gumbump. That is brand new. They are from North Carolina. I think I just said that. Thrill Jockey. It has just come out. I saw this group at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, just this past March. And it was a really unassuming show at a very small venue. A trio just basically sitting down at keyboards and and doing their thing. And it was great. It was very mesmerizing, and it was definitely one of the best things I saw there. Um some folks in this group, like Nathan Bowles, have been in some bands you might have heard of, like Black Twig Pickers, again setting, doing gumbump on the new album, also just called Setting. San Kazagaskar started things off with Drive 8. That is from the new album, This Slog. They're from Sacramento. And that was that all instrumental set. And guess what? That's the end of Agony Shorthand number four, the new music edition. I will try to come back not in five months, but possibly as little as five to seven days. I have so much I want to play for you. There's been a just kind of a backup. Um, like I said, it was great being a consumer, and now I want to be a sharer of whatever uh things that I like, and hopefully you'll like them too. Uh also who uh woman that played at Big Ears 2026 in Tennessee was Gwen Raymond. I also got to see her right before that festival in San Francisco. So I saw her, what, on a Friday, and then just a few days later I saw her in Tennessee. It was great. I've been wanting to see her forever. She's one of the best sort of modern uh primitive guitarists going right now. She's from Wales, and her third album, Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark, uh, is out now, and this is the title track from it, Gwen for Raymond, and we'll see you next time.