Fecund Year-End Roundup 2022
FECUND '22
FECUND '22
FROM HEIDI’S WORM TO COOKING A STEAK, FECUND COEDITORS IAN ABERNATHY (HUCKLEFAIRYFINN) AND MEG COOK AND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR STEVEN MEIDENBAUER (LAZY GAY) SHARE THINGS, NEW AND OLD, THAT TITILLATED THEM IN 2022.
1.
Azealia Banks “Fuck Him All Night” vs Iggy Azalea “Iam The Stripclub”
Putting the feud to “bed”
In 2013, Iggy Azalea was booked as a headliner for SUNY Purchase Culture Shock, and everyone in our hallway thought it was Azealia Banks. After a few replays of “Work,” we were regaled with the Australia-cum-Miami rapper’s struggles of being a 16-year-old industry workhorse.
Whether any of this is objectively true doesn’t matter; but in the years that followed, Azalea would enjoy a brief tenure as one of the most streamed female rappers of all time. This hype would quickly die down, as Banks’ star would continue to rise, ultimately troughing with the release of Broke With Expensive Taste, which was slated to be a monumental album but was met more or less tepidly.
The feud between Azalea and Banks (see what I did there?) has nebulous origins but often centers on Iggy “stealing” Azealia’s name (is this where music industry people say “interpolating”?) , which was fuel for a chambré early 10s saga that lapsed as soon as everyone realized that the two artists couldn’t be more different.
Cut to 2021, wherein Azalea and Banks release two power-tracks on what any liberal media pub would call “sexual liberation.” In “Fuck Him All Night” (which Banks says is her best song, exceeding “212”), Banks graces the single cover with nails that read Kanye West (not interesting enough for me to comment on—but the single was originally titled “Kanye West”), offering a trancey, dynamic surplus of bars about cock, with expected digs at Lizzo and a reference to Casino that distance her further from the late-trap glut machine (something that Azalea has never shaken). Take it from Banks, herself. On IG she wrote:
"such a 2006 indie/electronicclash/trance to be on the beat Very Berlin ??? NyC. Cool you caught that!!!! Everyone else thinks it ''house''."
At one point, Banks coos, “I get higher than you can, don’t try to get higher than me babe”.
I wouldn’t dare.
Then we have Azalea, who is always eager to gain new fans. I like her; she makes weird decisions but always comes off as affable and genuine.
She’s a fag hag drag queen, and this shines in abundance in “Iam The Stripclub.” Why get in an Uber Black and take the 405 when Iggy can pop what needs to be popped and drop what needs to be dropped in the comfort of her own home?
That said, I’m honestly not sure if she can “pop it on a handstand,” but I like to believe in the underdog. Unlike “Fuck Him…”, “...Stripclub” is not cool—it’s hot, brazen, and almost too fast to criticize. There are definite trap trappings, but the hook is arguably more potent than Banks’. I mean: “Iam The Stripclub”—she’s the performer, she’s the manager, she’s the cocktail waitress, she’s the bathroom, she’s the coke, the music, the sweat; she’s I-G-G-Y.
2. Club-kid-for-one-night
Heidi Klum
I’m sick of fags calling everything “camp.” If anything, Heidi’s worm is high-glam club-kid-for-one-night dramatics. Camp is done with a wink, but Heidi's worm was executed with Spielberg blockbuster precision and delivered with a chilling jaundiced stare. Girl, she’s literally a worm.
3. “Cônes Tropicaux” for Contributor
Submission-based magazines can be a crapshoot ;), but there are always gems to be unearthed—take this beautifully lit and tightly conceived story by Eric Lamothe and Farah Benosman for Contributor, which leans on stormy pathetic fallacy instead of AI or “futuristic” aesthetics (I’m so sick of seeing a pink bubble and neotribal squiggles shoehorned into every editorial).
4. Giant beans in tomato sauce
Idk, I, like, can’t explain it…
5. “Burning” music video by Yeah Yeah Yeahs directed by Cody Critcheloe
Cody Critcheloe is a talented musician (under the SSION pseudonym), visual artist, and director. Among his visionary music videos (including for the likes of Robyn, Yves Tumor, and his own SSION project) smolders “Burning,” for friends and two-decade-long collaborators Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Drawing upon Golden Age of Hollywood aesthetics with a Waters-esque twist, Critcheloe is deft at executing big budget ideas with relatively few resources. Directing multiple videos for YYY allows him the opportunity to flex his knowledge of cinema and movie making, but not without an injection of his own weird. Fun fact: Critcheloe actually designed the artwork for YYY “Fever to Tell” album in 2002.
6. “The Weekend” by Michael Gray (but only on the weekend)
If you had a sleepover in the 2000s, it’s likely you were, at some point, subject to the music video for 2004 funky house track “The Weekend” by Michael Gray. A straightforward tune about clocking out then going out, I only allow myself to play the song, or watch the questionably choreographed video (I’m the blonde girl; who are you?), on Friday and Saturday, and now it’s something I look forward to every week. Featuring vocals by Shèna and a sample from "Back at Ya" by Kerr, “I can’t waitttt” for you to listen to this track.
7. 2000s dubstep
I'm an electro slut, and anyone who knows me gets it. I could write about the genres that tickle me most; mid–late 90s UKG, late 90s big beat, mid-2000s electroclash, early 90s hard trance, or just PC Music, but if anything deserves more appreciation given its current status, it’s early 2000s dubstep. Not to be directly equated with the American-led bass zeitgeist that came with the likes of Bassnecter (no ma'am), but also not entirely distinct, dubstep itself came from the development of 2-step and UKG as the early 2000s made way for the mid-2000s’ explosion of bass. Listen to Zomby, Benga & Coki, and Joker—and get your life.
8. Kate from “Below Deck”
I tend not to like non-competition reality shows, but Steven turned me on to “Below Deck.” Having worked those kinds of service jobs, I can't resist the interior drama. Kate is a cunty capricorn Chief Steward whose below-belt quips I don’t always agree with, but her cool demeanor is something I always aspire to uphold.
9. JuneShine Tropical Rum Mai Tai
Okay, I actually hate JuneShine kombucha so much, and I think anyone who drinks them to get drunk deserves what comes out of them. Basically, I couldn’t stop pissing and eventually threw up going to a party in San Luis Obispo. That said, their Mai Tais are kombucha-free and feature only a few well-selected ingredients: Malahat spiced rum, white rum, sparkling water, orange, cherry, lime, pineapple, and coconut. Now, every time I eat shrooms I make sure to have a pack of these around to sip on.
10. “Let Me Down Gently” by La Roux, George FitzGerald remix
Though it didn’t appear on any music recap list, “Let Me Down Gently” was my song of the year. I’ll admit, it’s hard for me to get on board with unbridled emotion (and La Roux, lmao), but this remix of the mediocre original is about things hurting no matter how they end, and, to me, the necessary flow of energy that begets.
I listened to it repeatedly for 5 hours on the bus to Syracuse, reflecting, sharing cigs and joints with single moms, and smelling the sticky CNY breeze meld with Burger King fry oil. I bought two seats so I could just sit and chill (if you judge me for buying two seats you can eat dirt), and gaze at the view I’d seen 100 times before on a Greyhound. It’s always nerve-racking to return to the place you went to high school, and it probably always will be. “But when you let me down gently, it still feels hard”.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Maison Margiela Artisanal Couture Fall 2022 theatre-cinema by John Galliano
Kristen McMenamy’s Instagram (again)
Wearing sunglasses on your hat
Not leaning into AI
1. Mary Gaitskill’s Substack
How lucky are we, to have new and free content from Gaitskill—on everything from incels (and femcels), to the goals of fiction writing, to the ways in which the Internet has irreparably changed interpersonal relationships, to rare folk recordings she’s enjoying on YouTube? Gaitskill’s fiction has always been fraught with the knowledge and implications of one’s place in the abjection of modern life, the humiliations and desires of it. To feel those same machinations at work as she ruminates in these blog-like personal essays is a rare turn from the “artistic” to the “investigative” that is thrilling to witness. One detail is that her writing is impeccably thoughtful, but Gaitskill never differentiates between “its” and “it’s”. It’s an endearing Easter egg; I am giddy whenever the “mistake” pops up, because I’m reminded that I’m reading her unmediated thoughts, and she’s coming at her audience with ideas only rooted in good faith.
2. Frederick Wiseman documentaries
In a version of this list that I published last year, I mentioned a Wiseman documentary The Store which I still consider essential Christmas viewing. Here I must plug his entire oeuvre, which should be required for every American and is probably more useful than attending high school. Documentary is at its best and truest when there is little intervention. Life is capable of presenting narrative to us if we only make the attempt to observe. To start, I recommend: Titicut Follies (1967), his first, a horrifying classic, Hospital (1970), and Domestic Violence (2002). Available on Kanopy, through your local library.
3. Girl Talk mashups
In April, I will turn 30. This isn’t that big of a deal, really, but I’d be lying if I said that there is some unspoken-and-hardly-felt existential quandary bubbling up inside me (probably “society’s doing” or whatever). I can’t quite verbalize how I feel about entering the decade my mother was in when she had four of her six children, but I’m dealing with whatever it is by leaning hard into my most true identity: that of being a millennial. I’ve been craving content and media that I might usually find solace for only in cringe-based nostalgia, but actually just make me happy. I dare you to put on a mashup that contains both Avril Lavgine and T-Pain and not feel it like an IV of pleasure straight to your frontal lobe (mine is now very, fully formed). Plus, Gregg Gillis is kind of a rogue early-aughts cowboy of the Internet; I appreciate the knife of legality on which he danced, so we could. Mad respect, forever.
4. MTV’s True Life (1998-2017)
The Wiseman docs of the Bush-era MTV set. I know we all remember, from a voyeurism-as-entertainment POV, the “I Have Tourettes” episode (“Grandma, I said I didn’t WANT STEAMED VEGETABLES!”) and have collective trauma associated with the guy putting on his deodorant from the episode entitled “I have OCD.” But there are so, so many more treasures to revisit or unlock for the first time; some really incredible, legitimate documentary filmmaking from the era when young people were eager to be themselves on reality television, because telling “your story” was a privilege, not a right given to everyone with a social media account. It was a rare opportunity to learn about people your age with a vastly different experience than you (or, finding a rare moment of relief through connection to someone whose experience mirrors your own). Needless to say, the episodes stop being as effective once we enter the collective (self-) consciousness of self-promotion (circa 2013 or so). Some new-to-me favorites are “I’m a High School Freshman,” “I’m Getting Out of Prison,” and “I’m Polyamorous.” Available on Amazon and Hulu.
5. Being a jock
One of the coolest feelings in the world is that of doing something for which you feel proud, completing something tangible and measurable (e.g. running a race). The other is feeling strong; present in your body, your heart beating (e.g. lifting a heavy weight). Both of these things (feeling pride and strength) I strive for daily but rarely achieve. I am someone who lives in my mind and pretty much constantly feels dissociated from the physical, feral being of my animal self. In doing jock things, I regain that connection to myself, and that’s punk to me. Being a jock is cool, sorry.
6. Making steak at home
I guess my real suggestion is: take small pleasures (or big ones) where you can—it’s really not that hard, actually. Get cheap cuts from Trader Joe’s and use a cast iron. Grow up.
7. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (2007)
Back to jock mode. I’ve admittedly never read much of Murakami, as usually those sort of magical realist-lite novels don’t do it for me, and so I’ve always had a wall up when it comes to his work. This brief memoir, written in 2005-2006 as Murakami prepared for the New York City Marathon while weaving in memories of running and writing past, however, made me a stan of his for life. Murakami’s view on both distance running and novel-writing ring with Capricorn energy that is both motivating and practical: The best—in fact, the only—way to achieve long-lasting success, in whatever you do, is not to contain some secret chemistry of innate talent, but rather, to be 1) consistent, 2) diligent, and 3) work really fucking hard, as hard as you can, every day.
8. The Rehearsal on HBO (2022)
It feels basic to recommend this, and I absolutely abhor how he rounds out this first season, but I can’t pretend that watching Nathan Fielder’s autistic exploration of free will, self-consciousness, and the freaks of Oregon is anything other than groundbreaking television (ugh): formally, ethically, and comedically.
9. Mating by Norman Rush (1991)
I feel about this novel the way I felt upon completing Helen Dewitt’s The Last Samurai last year (which I also included in my year-end roundup): completely in awe to come across a piece of literature that gnashes my skull and spits me out anew. The short of it: In apartheid-era Botswana (circa 1980), an unnamed (white) woman—a flailing-academic—who, after her anthropology dissertation research fizzles, finds her way to a remote female-only commune and becomes entwined with its male founder. The best book ever on topics including: love, sex, intimacy generally, gender dynamics (not in an annoying way), colonialism (not in an annoying way), academia, ethics of community and economy, being the smartest person in your own brain, etc. Like The Last Samurai, I later learned that a whole bunch of people feel this way about Mating. At first I felt miffed by this information (can’t I come across something that’s incredible and also entirely my own?), but that quickly fell away and I’m giddy with the possibility of discussing it with as many people as I can, for the rest of my days. I can’t recommend it enough.
10. Licorice Pizza (2021)
Nothing like rounding out a 2022 year-in-review by including a film from 2021 that I only just got around to watching last week. PTA is in his element, artistically, when he sticks close to the San Fernando Valley; Boogie Nights is genius in no part to the place as well as the time. So, too, Licorice Pizza shines in its ability to capture the Valley as what it is: the outskirts of Tinsel Town where the runoff still dredges and permeates; a place of dreams, made and broken in so many ways, that also happens to be some people’s boring hometown. The nuance of the Valley is reciprocated in the careful, precious intimacy of the film’s two leads: Alana Haim as Alana, an ageless and aged-out townie muse, and Cooper Hoffman (Philip Seymour’s son—who inherited all the greatness of his father, it seems) as 15-year-old Gary Valentine, who I would describe as “precocious” if he weren’t such a star, such a leading man.
Some new, some old, some sad, some joy. Giving you the top 10 moments in music that sent me to another space and time this year.
1. Bbymutha - Left4Dead 2
“Put that Birkin away, so pretentious.” Energetic instrumentals and lines that will be on repeat in your head for days, Bbymutha is my favorite artist in the game right now. Coming out of Tennessee, this magical being makes me smile everytime she releases a new track. EXCLUSIVELY on bandcamp, you better pay up to listen, because she knows what her music is worth. She is truly one of my favorite writers in the rap scene and her style is unparalleled. Plain and simple, I <3 Bbymutha.
Check out her early discography on Spotify and Apple Music
2. MD X-Spress -
GOD MADE ME PHUNKY
One of the CLASSIC House jams to come out of Chicago in 1994, Mike Dunn produced a masterpiece of dance, love, and community. This toe-tapper is a vibe that will make you want to “clean up your neighborhood.” Mix this track in at your next party to get the vibe up instantly.
Listen to God Made Me Phunky on Spotify and Apple Music
3. Peach Kelli Pop - III
This queer queen coming out of Ottawa, Canada has blown my mind with her discography of garage rock pop songs of love and self-discovery. Her simple structures and melodies will have you singing along immediately. Allison’s PKP III is the perfect mix of lo-fi rock and 1960s pop. I hope you fall in love <3
Listen to PKP III on Spotify and Apple Music
4. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur - The Distance
When I listen to T.E.E.D I just want to sit him down and ask “who hurt you?”. This electronic genius captures so much nostalgia through sounds from out of our galaxy, reflecting on heartbreak and yearning. His production skills are next level and will take you on a journey with every song you listen to. And don’t even get me started with his mixtapes on SoundCloud…
Listen to The Distance on Spotify and Apple Music
5. Tegan and Sara -
So Jealous
This album… She did a number on me this year. The emotion and energy these sisters deliver is so raw. Songs of love, loss, and battling with the ego. Layers of guitars and synthesizers echo in a cacophony of swooning pop hooks and a dash of emo, this album will be sure to find a place in your heart.
Listen to So Jealous on Spotify and Apple Music
6. Bowery Electric - BEAT
I’ve never tried heroin, but if I did I imagine it would sound like this album. This minimal, post-rock, drum and bass masterpiece has coffee house vibes for sure. Deep bass and washed out vocals pull you closer to transcendence as each song progresses.
Listen to Beat on Spotify and Apple Music
7. Quay Dash - Transphobic
Ever since this EP was released in 2017, I always find myself bringing it back into rotation every few months. This bitch is a true Queen of NY. Her flow is buttery smooth with lyrics that will have you feeling like you're one of the dolls. Droney hip-hop beats that will make you want to roll up a blunt immediately.
Listen to Transphobic on Spotify and Apple Music
8. Mr. Twin Sister - Almundo Azul
Now this album is a true gem. This group melds genres together, delivering exotic tracks. One minute you’re on the beach in Mallorca, the next you're back in the moonlit streets of Barcelona running around with your weekend ballarino. Throw this album on next time you’re cooking a big meal and dance in the kitchen.
Listen to Almundo Azul on Spotify and Apple Music
9. Phoenix - Alpha Zulu
When Pheonix releases something new, I instantly get transported back to 2009, driving around and being a chaotic teenager. Their recipe for indie pop is so delicious. Mixed for the gods, you hear every element coming at you. These catchy tunes are easy listening for your next road trip.
Listen to Alpha Zulu on Spotify and Apple Music
10. My analog journal
For those who work from home or are planning a cocktail hour with friends, I got the mixes for you. This channel brings a range of DJ’s curating vinyl goodness that’s candy for the ears. It’s been my go-to when I need an hour of music I don’t want to think about. Grab a coffee or a gin martini, sit back, and discover some world music.
Check out this City pop mix and more on YouTube and Soundcloud
HONORABLE MENTION
Drake - Honestly Nevermind
I love Drake. He’s so corny and truly does whatever the fuck he wants. When he released More Life in 2017 and started introducing the gay dancehall vibe it was over for me. Then he blessed us with Honestly Nevermind. Almost every track segues into the next, taking you on a journey full of love and lust. Honestly, someone needs to fuck him in the ass already.
Listen to Honestly Nevermind on Spotify and Apple Music