What's Good (Week of 3/23/25)
Happy Opening Day week to those who celebrate. Hopefully this edition of What's Good can provide you with some tunes to bump on your way to the ballpark. This week we've got:
New Albums
- Backxwash
- Butcher Brown
- Deafheaven
- Lt. Headtrip & NorthernDraw
- SPELLLING
- Willie The Kid & Real Bad Man
- Yukimi
New Singles
- Ain't
- Asterisk
- Butcher Brown
- Kamasi Washington
- McKinley Dixon
- Milc & Wynne
If this is your first time joining me, What's Good is a weekly music blog where I give you a bunch of new music out for the week. Up front, for your convenience, I've got the playlists on their own but below that I've got an MTV style spread of the videos, completely with pre-order and purchase links, and the Bonus Beats section, which has interesting music news and features from around the web. Let's get started.
Playlists
TIDAL
TIDAL: What's Good Playlist - Week of 3/23/25
BNDCMPR
BNDCMPR: What's Good Playlist - Week of 3/23/25 part 1
BNDCMPR: What's Good Playlist - Week of 3/23/25 part 2
BNDCMPR's having a bit of fit right now and I can't get it to save playlists past a certain point. Once it's working right, I'll update, but for now if you want Bandcamp links for anything past SPELLLING, check in the Music section below.
YouTube
Bonus Beats
Mike LeSuer
The members of clipping. detail a few of the influences on the cyberpunk vision of their latest album Dead Channel Sky for FLOOD Magazine.
TDR’s design for WipEout, WipEout 2097, and Wip3out
Until Dead Channel Sky, we had designed all of our album art in-house. Because of the rave music influences on the album, it was hugely important to me that Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic do the art for this record, and we did our best to give him free reign (he might disagree). Although I had first encountered his work through various albums on Warp Records, learning that he had also designed one of my favorite video game series was a revelation. As an F1 fan who cares a lot about liveries, I love WipEout’s iconography almost as much as I do the soundtrack and gameplay—its precision and its visual density. I can’t even describe what an honor it is to have had Ian design this album. I kind of still can’t believe we got to work with him. Real life bucket list shit.
PremRock pulled up on The Rap Music Plug Podcast to break down his excellent new album, Did You Enjoy Your Time...?, with in depth discussions on how songs like "Receipts" came together, working with Sebb Bash, and more.
Goya Gumbani visits The Lot Radio for a set including cuts from his latest album, Warlord of the Weejuns.
Jeff Weiss
Jeff Weiss revisits the killing of Drakeo the Ruler and how there still aren't answers three years later.
The case of Drakeo is distinct, and not just because his art and iconography have achieved posterity. There is some other incalculable quality: In death, as in life, he’s somehow managed to remain a center of attention and object of controversy. There are circles in L.A. in which it’s considered unwise to even speak his name out loud unless you’re looking for disrespectful rebukes or menacing silence. In others, often among his diehard (and heavily Latino) fan base, he’s revered with almost messianic intensity.
Over the last half-decade, Los Angeles has been plagued by a string of high-profile rap slayings, including Nipsey Hussle, PnB Rock, Pop Smoke and Slim 400. In each circumstance, the motives and conditions were vastly different, but law enforcement nonetheless caught and convicted the shooters (save for a defendant in Pop Smoke’s murder trial who recently took a plea deal in exchange for a 29-year prison sentence). Last October, federal authorities arrested Lil Durk and charged him with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire against rival rapper Quando Rondo after a gas station gunfight near the Beverly Center left one man dead. These other cases make the lack of justice for Drakeo that much more painful.
Music
Buddy - Hopped Out feat. Huey Briss (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Larry June, 2 Chainz, & The Alchemist - Life Is Beautiful (From Life Is Beautiful, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Thee Heart Tones - Forever & Ever (From Forever & Ever, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Big Crown Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Butcher Brown - Unwind feat. Melanie Charles (From Letters From The Atlantic, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals and merch via Concord Jazz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Luke Titus - Sidelines (From From What Was Will Grow A Flower, out on 4/25/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Sooper Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Emma-Jean Thackray - Maybe Nowhere (From Weirdo, out on 4/25/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Merch and physicals via Emma-Jean's store, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Ain't - Pirouette (From the Pirouette / Jude single, out on 6/13/25. Preorder/Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Milc - Mr. & Mrs. Smitch feat. Wynne (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Yukimi - Make Me Whole (From For You, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Ninja Tune, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - Going to Raleigh (From What Did The Blackbird Say To The Crow, out on 4/18/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Rhiannon's Official Shop, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Age of Apocalypse - Mortal Coil (From In Oblivion, out on 5/23/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Merch and physicals via Closed Casket Activities, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Boldy James & V Don - RSNS (From Alphabet Highway, out on 4/4/25. Hasn't hit streamers yet.)
Harry The Nightgown - Bell Boy (From Ugh, out on 6/6/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Leaving Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Venna - Prophet (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Lionmilk - all i have (From WHEN THE FLOWERS BLOOM, out on 5/30/25. Preorder/Purchase: Bandcamp | Stones Throw, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
McKinely Dixon - Could've Been Different feat. Blu & Shamir (From Magic, Alive!, out on 6/6/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | City Slang, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Archibald SLIM - Time & Money (From Playas Fuck Up Too, out this Summer. Purchase the single: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Kamasi Washington - Vortex (From Kamasi Washington's version of the Lazarus Soundtrack, out on 4/11/25. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Papo2oo4 - Counter Strike (Out now.)
FKA twigs - Childlike Things (From Eusexua, out now. Purchase: FKA twigs Official, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Asterisk - Spines feat. Lungs & Hester Valentine (From No School, 5/2/25. Preorder: Bandcamp)
Illingsworth
Illingsworth - take your shoes off (From ceiling off, out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Five Steez - Wild Jamaicans From Kingston feat. Sly Rankin (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Kipp Stone - Rap Game Bob Ross (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Seun Kuti & Egypt80 feat. Pos of De La Soul - Stand Well Well (Grand Stand Version) (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
yaya bey - merlot and grigio feat. Father Philis (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | drinksumwtr, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Disinblud (Rachika Nayar & Nina Keith) - Blue Rags, Raging Waves (From Disinblud, out on 7/18/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals via Smugglers Way, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Deafheaven - Winona (From Lonely People With Power, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Vinyl and merch via Deafheaven's website, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Avalon Emerson - Treat Mode (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Niontay - mumbleman (From Fada♡of$, out on 4/25/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | 10k Global, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
dreamcastmoe - flowers feat. NAPPYNAPPA (From The Lost Tape Vol. 3, out on 6/6/25. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
SPELLLING - Ammunition (From Portrait of my Heart, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Sacred Bones | Hello Merch, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Brainorchestra. - Eye of the Tiger (From ETHERGRAMS, out on 4/4/25. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Ghostboyrj - 40 Below feat. Kyle Genesis & Gritfall (From State of Mind, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Eiko Ishibashi - Mona Lisa (From Antigone, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Drag City, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Raz Fresco & Futurewave - Ok Lets Go (From the upcoming Stadium Lo Champions. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 17, 2017
14KT - What Chu Mean? feat. Buff1 (The next track in iMAKE GOLD!, the album that 14KT is release track-by-track. Purchase: Bandcamp)
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - Gemini (From Gemini, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Colemine Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Lt. Headtrip & NorthernDraw - La Hache feat. Le Biscuit & Something Something Brax (From Novel Path, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Willie The Kid & Real Bad Man - All Day With It feat. Lord Sko (From Midnight, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Backxwash - Black Lazarus (From Only Dust Remains, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
CRIMEAPPLE - Sabado Gigante (From JAGUAR ON PALISADE 3, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Batsauce - Synesthesia (From Echolocation, out on 4/8/25. Purchase: Bandcamp | Full Plate, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Black Ends - Pour Me (From Psychotic Spew, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Youth Riot, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
That'll do us for this week! Be sure to subscribe or add me to your RSS feed to make sure the heat gets delivered to you as soon as it goes live, and share me with your friends. Take care of each other, and as always, make good choices.
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