i am a twenty-year-old white woman. i love autumn. sue me ….
it feels a bit juvenile to still be laying claim to a favourite season outside of the context of a fourth-grade classroom, but autumn is incontrovertibly mine. i believe it has the greatest capacity for emotion — there is just no better time to consume media and feel melancholy than in october. this is in part because music sounds best when you’re wearing a sweater and a skirt at the same time, and in part because nobody looks good smoking a cigarette in direct sunlight.
here are my rules: when it’s sunny, listen to folk and old country. when it’s cloudy, listen to shoegaze. when it rains, stay inside and watch movies with the window open. you may listen to taylor swift’s Red at any point.
In July, we listen to So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings. In October, we listen to Squirrel Flower’s cover of So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings.
There is a very specific genre of music that my roommate calls “jazz cafe staffed by skeletons”. i call it “the bar scene in Shrek 2”, but it doesn’t really matter because it’s really mostly just Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs. this is a hall of fame autumn music choice, particularly if you’re my grandpa.
^ this song will make you feel like the most unhinged woman at your local Sephora, which is a feeling i chase regularly.
seriously, listen to Rain Dogs.
Squatweiler is an early-90s punk band from North Carolina that’s both incredibly cool and criminally underrated. I checked, and my boyfriend and I are literally the only two people in Canada who listen to them (they’re currently clocking in at 124 spotify listeners). they’re my official esoteric woman pick of the month. this song fucks.
i’m a simple woman: any piece of music that even vaguely alludes to the chord progression of Pixies’ Where Is My Mind is one hundred percent guaranteed to make me come. in. my. pants. it’s seriously criminal. this track by toronto rapper Nue heavily samples Pixies’ famous riff and i seriously can’t stop listening to it.
my modern indie rock pick right now is obviously indigo de souza. i tried to interview her this month but she was too busy and i forgive her because she is just so talented. this song makes me feel like i’m going through a breakup even though i’m not (this is a subtle reference to my perfect relationship).
this song is about furries but in a way that makes me want to be a furry?
some shoegaze for the femcels in the room… there is no better cloudy-weather song than this one:
and if you’re in the mood for a classic:
i have been talking constantly and incessantly about country music lately and it’s because there is literally no better music for crazy women. johnny cash just gets me!!
^ this song is about george bush, btw.
i’m reading Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados right now, which explicitly takes place in july, but this is okay because every book about new york city is at least a little bit autumnal. i’m also getting started on Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem, so i’m about to get a lot more insufferable — expeditiously!
you must rewatch When Harry Met Sally, unless you’re casually dating someone, in which case don’t because it’ll trick you into thinking you like them more than you actually do. if you forgot that Elliott Smith is on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, watch that too. we should read some elliott smith interviews, now that i’m thinking about it. this one is quite good.
obviously, elliott smith is mandatory autumn listening, too — this is my favourite of his.
and my full autumn playlist is here :))
thank you for 1000 subscribers on here by the way — crazy!! i’m working on some bigger pieces that will hopefully be heading ur way soon… in the meantime feel free to reply to this email with harsh criticism to keep me motivated. xoxo
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indigo de souza spirals me into depressive episodes but i forgive her because her music is amazing
My favorite country right now is Tyler Childers Purgatory