Observations on Butt Rock + New Music for You
Surprise newsletter with a brand new, cleverly-titled section
Gonna try out something new today and I hope y’all like it. New section aside, we’ve got a mid-length diatribe on the resurgence of butt rock, and a list of the stuff I’ve been enjoying since the last newsletter.
Is Butt Rock Back? Yes. Is It Here To Stay? Maybe.
In 2023, the Texas Rangers won the World Series. As confetti rained down and champagne foamed across ski-google clad faces, one song roared in the background, Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open.”
Now, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear this song enjoyed ironically. However, the irony that is so often associated with that song, and several other Creed-penned hits, including “Higher,” was stripped away. In its place stood a genuine love for an overly sincere, effortlessly digestible piece of music, that had long been regarded as, well, shitty.
Where did this come from? How did a band that was literally synonymous with the concept of bad, low effort music, full circle themselves into widespread enjoyment nearly 30 years after their day in the sun?
Frankly, I don’t find it that hard to understand why. First, trends are by nature cyclical, and it’s been at least 20 years since a hard rock band reached any sort of critical mass (by my estimate, the last big hard rock hit was either a Nickelback song or “Paralyzer” by Finger Eleven). That’s roughly the right amount of time for a trend to re-emerge, and, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Secondly, and this is important, the people whose parents blared butt rock while driving them to baseball practice, were literally playing in that World Series game. In 2023, the average age of an MLB player at the start of the season was 29.33, which was almost exactly my age at the start of said season (add an extra .33 for me). I grew up with my dad playing Creed in the car, and I unironically, deeply loved the music.
So, that leaves us in a world where the sports playing near-30 year olds have begun to reclaim the once derided music of their youth. Sure, there are tinges of irony to it. You can’t call a genre butt rock without understanding that it is, indeed, ass. Still, the enjoyment on the faces of Rangers players is tangible and obvious. They’re not having a lark at the expense of a now-defunct pop-rock band. They’re having a blast.
My next question is of course, will butt rock be back soon? My guess is a declarative ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I think, personally, that we are primed for a resurgence of popular rock music. Mk.gee just played SNL, and while he’s not even close to butt rock, he’s a new rock artist that is gaining traction in the spaces where it matters.
Closer to the actual butt rock side of things, we’ve got groups in the metal and nu-metal spaces that are taking the Creed x Shinedown sound and turning it into something more palatable. Take Moon Tooth for example. They’ve grabbed the catchy hard-rock formula and added a few melodic twists and turns (and a more capable singer than most hard-rock bands) to make the genre feel fresh, exciting, and just a touch nostalgic.
So, while we may never live in a world where a band like Creed can top the charts, I get the sense we’re moving closer to a world like that. The hip-hop of the 2010s functionally coughed up its dying breath with the Drake x Kendrick feud. I think that sound is very much on the outs. You can see the movers and shakers, and people who have a good ear for where things are going, starting to attach themselves to people who make guitar music (see Drake working with Mk.gee). I get the sense a rock revival is on the horizon. My only hope is that we’re shifting away from softer, easier listening, and moving into something with a bit more tooth, even if that comes with a bit of butt.
Some Music of Value
Second Album of the Newsletter to feature a cross this year. Is Christianity trending? Inquiring minds want to know.
It’s been awhile (remarkable segue, c’mon) since I put one of these out. To keep the list manageable, I’m just gonna focus on metal adjacent stuff. If you’re one of the few people reading this who does not like metal, I’ve listed out, but have not provided write ups for, the non-metal albums I have enjoyed since the last newsletter:
Chat Pile - Cool World: My current favorite metal band followed up their remarkable debut with an also excellent sophomore album. It still sounds like someone through a bass guitar down the stairs into a room where someone was dying from norovirus (compliment).
Uniform - American Standard: New York hardcore’s weirdest guys outdo themselves again with an album that’s upsetting, loud, and fiercely abrasive.
Nails - Every Bridge Burning: Nails is back and they’re just as fast, loud, and violent as they ever were. Every song except the closer is under three minutes. Powerviolence is back folks.
julie - my anti-aircraft friend: Surprise release of the year for me. Reminds me a lot of White Lung, though it’s noisier and much more experimental .Recommended for fans of loud shoegaze.
Foxing - Foxing: Emo album of the year by a country mile. Just enough hardcore to keep me screaming in the car, just enough melody to keep everyone else singing along.
Ornassi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja: The prog levels in this album are sky high, and the death metal blends into it perfectly. A true AOTY contender in the metal space. It might be better than Mestarin kynsi.
Escuela Grind - Dreams on Algorithms: The best grindcore band in the business continues to prove why they hold the belt. Fiendishly heavy, and shockingly approachable.
Underneath - IT EXISTS BETWEEN US: Not gonna lie, I only listened to this because I misread “Underneath” as “Underoath.” This was much better than underoath though. Think Knocked Loose but for people who were tired of any softness.
Fit for an Autopsy - The Nothing that Is: Had never listened to these guys before literally today, and I can see why so many people like them. Very breakdown-y, and they manage to stitch together some great riffs between said breakdowns.
Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere: So so so happy to have these guys back making metal. They’ve seamlessly blended their love of atmospheric ambient music into one of the more compelling expressions of blackened death out there.
Non-Metal Stuff
Baking the Fallen
Those of you who have known me for a while are aware that I’m obsessed with baking. Considering I’ve found it harder to write (and keep up with music) as of late, I figured I would try writing about other things I’m interested in, namely cooking and baking.
This does not mean the rest of the newsletter is going away. I’ll still be delivering metal to your inboxes. The only difference is that now your metal will come with a recipe review, photos of what I’m baking (maybe), cookbook recs, and tons of other food-focused content.
I hope y’all enjoy this, I enjoyed making, writing, and eating it.
Format:
Difficulty (not affecting final score)
Clarity (affects final score)
Final Product (affects final score)
Cost (does not affect final score)
Availability of ingredients (does not affect final score)
Strawberry Almond Tart
From The Cookie That Changed My Life and More Than 100 Other Classic Cakes, Cookies, Muffins, and Pies That Will Change Yours by Nancy Silverton with Carolynn Carreño
Difficulty: ⭐⭐
Clarity: ⭐⭐⭐
Final Product: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cost Total: $48.35 ($19.35 is eggs, flour, etc, $20 is extracts) Special Ingredients total $9
Availability of Ingredients: Easy
Time: 6 hours and 30 minutes
Serves: 12-16 depending on slice size
A Brief Overview of How This All Works
While some of you know me as a guy who writes about music, I’m also big into cooking and baking. I wouldn’t go so far to claim greatness in either discipline, I mostly follow recipes, but I know my way around a kitchen and it brings me a lot of joy. After running into a few frustrations with a recipe recently, I figured it would be worth reviewing recipes themselves rather than just the final product.
To do this, I’ve devised a simple scoring system. On a scale of one to five (represented with stars) I judge the clarity of the recipe and the quality of the final product. Those are (currently) the only categories that affect the overall score I give the recipe.
Of course, quality and clarity are not the only things I think about when cooking/baking. I also consider the availability of the ingredient list, the cost of ingredients, the difficulty of the recipe, and the time investment. I’ve also scored some of these items and listed the general cost/time investment. These items do not affect the overall score of the recipe because it’s asinine to give something a bad score because it is expensive or difficult to make. That said, those categories are always relevant, because sometimes I don’t want to spend $30 to make muffins or have 12 hours to bake something for a party.
That all make sense? Any questions? I didn’t see anyone raise their hands so I think we’re good to go. (on a serious note, leave a comment if you think I could improve the categories and the way they’re laid out. Just because I don’t think about something doesn’t mean it’s not worth consideration)
About the Book
As of late, I’ve been baking my way around Nancy Silverton’s latest baking book. In general it has been a delight, if a bit challenging. The book, as one might expect of a Nancy Silverton product, cuts no corners and allows for no cheating. As a result, most recipes take a long ass time to put together (even simple items like brownies and chocolate chip cookies have 10-15 steps) but taste amazing.
So far, my only complaint about the book is that it assumes you know what you’re doing. To this point, that hasn’t been a major problem. Everything I’ve baked (sans the Pound Cake) has come out virtually flawless despite some head scratching along the way. I have to imagine this is because Silverton is such an experienced baker that certain points of clarification never even occur to her or her cowriter. If you (like me) prefer a book that will tell you to take the lid off of a jar of peanut butter before adding a tablespoon of it to a stand mixer, this is not that book.
The Recipe Review
This is a seasonal recipe, as it calls for “farm fresh strawberries” however, it could be made as a delicious almond tart without the strawberries and you’d be happy to eat it I promise. I mentioned earlier that Silverton does not cut corners, and she strongly advises you to stick to the book. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s right, still, I’d be thrilled to eat this with grocery store strawberries (the farm fresh ones are much better though).
First noteworthy element of the recipe is that it’s a two-parter. You have to build the sweet tart crust prior to doing anything on the actual recipe. Fortunately, it’s easy to put together, requiring only six ingredients, all of which you should have on hand. Building the dough takes about 10 minutes and then it needs to go in the fridge for two hours.
Putting the tart together is where things start to get a bit wonkier. First, the recipe lists pie weights as “essential special equipment” and then you don’t blind bake the tart. So you don’t need pie weights. I have to assume this was a mistake in writing.
The tart filling plus strawberries requires just 10 ingredients.Of these, the hardest thing to find is almond meal, which my grocery store didn’t have. Fortunately, Silverton includes a method to make it, which just requires some powdered sugar and unskinned whole almonds. You will need a food processor for this though.
Building the filling is easy, though the book elides telling you when to mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones. You just add them as soon as the dry ingredients have been stirred together.
While not a huge issue, I wish the book told you to do it, since it’s usually so thorough.
Shockingly, it was the baking portion I found most unclear. You turn the oven to 350 and, when it’s hot, you insert the whole tart in, raw dough and filling. Here’s how it’s listed in the book (bold emphasis mine for future reference):
“Place the baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven and bake the tart for 20 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet front to back; if you see that the tart is puffing up push it down with the palms of your hands. Bake the tart until a crust has formed on the top and the outer edges of the tart are deep brown, an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the tart from the oven and set aside to cool to room temperature.”
Because the filling is sticky, and the step just before this one tells you to put the filling into the raw tart shell, being told to push on it with your palms sends a mixed signal. It has to be some sort of mistake in the book, but who knows. Just know that there is no blind baking at all for this recipe, should you find yourself in possession of this book.
After this final hiccup, things came together nicely. The strawberry steps are simple (just halve or third them and cover them in sugar) and you do that while waiting on the tart to cool.
Despite my difficulties, you can see that the tart turned out wonderfully, and it tastes even better than it looks.
The Easiest Part
Most of it. There are no complex techniques in this recipe.
The Hardest Part
Deciphering unclear instructions and putting the tart shell onto the tart ring. Silverton gave clear instructions on how to do it but my dough still broke a little.
Notable Mistakes I Made
I spent a lot of time confused, but only made one major mistake. Because I found the baking step unclear, I did try to blind bake it. And because I’m a fool, I forgot to spray the bottom of my foil (filled with dried beans as a weight) with cooking spray. The dough stuck fast to the foil after 10 minutes of baking. Luckily, I (with the assistance of my lovely and patient wife) got most of the dough off the foil and patted the tart shell back into place using my hands.
Concluding Thoughts
On the whole, the recipe lacked some of the clarity I hoped it would have. But once I figured out some of the confusingly worded parts, everything went swimmingly. The recipe took a long ass time, about six and a half hours from start to finish, though a majority of that was waiting for dough to firm up in the fridge.
Luckily, my confusion was no obstacle to the quality of this dish. The almond really sings in this recipe and the brightness of the strawberries is just what you need to cut the richness of the filling. I just wish I cooked it for a party because now I have to get through 16 pieces of an exceedingly rich tart with just my wife and myself. There are worse problems to have, unless you’re my waistline.