Swallower: Chelsea Wolfe, The Aces, Caroline Rose

Songs on the pod this week: Chelsea Wolfe, The Aces, and Caroline Rose This week’s episode is for Dolly, and Alex opens with a career retrospective and commentary that shows just how much influence she had in just about everything. We will always love you, Dolly Parton. Truly. Consider a donation to The Imagination Library in Dolly’s honor. Now, a drink! ——— **SWALLOWER** - 2oz bay leaf and celery infused gin - .5oz white vermouth - aquavit rinse - 3 dashes celery bitters - saline spray (add pinch of sea salt to shaker) - lemon and bay garnish Infuse gin for up to four days. Add ingredients to cocktail shaker over ice. Swirl chilled martini glass with aquavit, then discard the liquid. Shake cocktail shaker vigorously, then strain into glass. Garnish with a lemon peel and a bay leaf. This martini is seriously dry - it’s a 4:1 ratio of gin to vermouth. If you like something slightly sweeter, change that to a 3:1, or add in a quarter ounce of a green liqueur. Chartreuse would be amazing here, but if you don’t want to spend $90 on a bottle, Dolin’s Genepy le Chamois will get you somewhere similar for $20, and I bet finochietto - that’s fennel liqueur - would work too. ——— This week we start with Chelsea Wolfe’s “Swallower.” Jana immediately hears Tori Amos in the atmospheric piano / drums / bass vibe here. Amy Lee and Evanescence also come up immediately. Chelsea’s lane is doom metal, gothic rock, and folk? (As Alex says, “murder, arson, and jay-walking.” The vocals shine here, and Chelsea’s voice is sublime. She goes from quiet and intimate to a wail of a chorus. We love the fuzz guitars, the rhythm section is on point, everything here is just good. Lyrically, the vibe is vague but poetic, and fits in the pocket of this gothic doom metal genre. We’re excited to dig into the whole Chelsea project, which is out now! Next up: The Aces and “Wet Cement.” We love a hazy shoegaze pop live song, and The Aces deliver. They have been a solid four-member indie pop band for a long time, delivering solid jams for a long time. They’re also from Utah which is a bit of a surprise, but they sing openly about queerness so it takes all kinds, as they say! “Carve your name into me like wet cement.” Is a great hook line, a bit of a left field metaphor we love. The track is so solid, acoustic guitars are wide and doubled or quadrupled which makes it lush. Overall, a solid entry into the “I’ll Stop the World (And Melt With You)” pantheon. Lastly, Caroline Rose gives up a bop with “Chow Mein.” Chelsea is an artist that has from a folk singer-songwriter background and has evolved into retro pop and now more of a pop rock sound. We love this song…lots of OTT compressed guitars and interestingly panned vocals with more compression. Lyrically we love it a lot, “Uh oh, it is all coming up now / Regret chow mein.” Caroline encapsulates a drunken night out full of regret and bad choices…a classic party song on the surface tinged with sadness. ——— Last but not least this week, we are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have an editor, you guys! You might remember Marin Wilts as our special guest commentator on the MUNA full album episode. Marin has graciously agreed to join team Mixomusicology, chopping up our weird thoughts and taking our our um’s and er’s (and also skillfully using Foley as an asset instead of a hindrance when Jana drops her drink shaker). Welcome, Marin! We are so glad you’re here. Also, we have our own Instagram now! Follow us at: https://www.instagram.com/mixomusicology