You interview “world-class music fans” for this newsletter. What does it mean to be a world-class music fan?
My criteria is that the folks I ask for playlists have dedicated a large portion of their life to the search for music in some capacity. They don’t have to work in music, but music informs their work and is a big part of their inner life or sense of self. -SV4
The truth is, obits are fun to write. You can wax poetic without too much embarrassment cause people want to be caught up in the feeling and really get to the heart of someone in an emotional way. There is perhaps a blandness to the modern obit in the social media world, a flood of tropes and screengrabs, and on to the next. Folks like Jeff Weiss strike hot and fast and I have tried my hand on the Ghostly socials. But Herb Sundays gives me a better outlet for such a thing. But back to the living.”SV4
Season
03
01.22
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05.22
S.03 E.29Dave1
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Alts
S.03 E.30Jonnine Standish
“My favorite Sunday mixes are a bit shambolic in the flow. This Sunday playlist is for specifically the following: you have a close friend who needs an early morning lift to the coast, they have a lot of bags, probably something heavy has gone down, stop for petrol and coffee, a friend is attempting to roll a cigarette but they haven't smoked in years, the weather changes its mind a bit” - JS
S.03 E.31Josh Marcy
“I didn’t last long in LA. I lack a certain something to pull it off. Those long 4pm stretches of sun were melancholy for me. I felt pulverized by them, eviscerated by their stillness. But Midwesterners often do well out West. Freddie Gibbs is as much California as he is Indiana now, and Dilla’s Donuts is as much an LA record as it is a Detroit record. The Stones Throw crew knew how to treat Jay Dee, they understood Dilla before the rest of the world did.“ -SV4
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S.03 E.32Simon Reynolds
S.02 E.17
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Reynolds has made his way through his own musical archaeology with a specific lens as both a rockist and a raver, but not afraid to incise either persona when needed. Ultimately, for all his love of underground culture, Reynolds is a musical populist: He wants you to have a good time. The work he’s done on aberrant music genres (electronic, shoegaze, post-punk) have been meaningful for me. While others have written these off as antisocial or nihilistic, Reynolds gives them an ecclesiastical light. -SV4
S.03 E.33Trevor McFedries
“Before creating Brud and FWB, Trevor was known professionally as Yung Skeeter and worked as a DJ, producer, and director for acts including Ke$ha, Azealia Banks, and Katy Perry. McFedries has performed at music festivals Lollapalooza and Coachella. He currently serves on the board at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and Rhizome (New Museum, NYC).”
“The arc and violence of the heartbreak that we all will face is unknown, but perhaps music prepares us for it and sculpts our capacity. In a world that can show up as very dark, art shows us the human spirit is indelible, and our shared love of it is a strength beyond borders.” - SV4
S.03 E.35Vivian Host
I met Vivian early in Ghostly’s development when she was based in San Francisco as editor of the essential XLR8R magazine when it was in print mode. The Bay Area was a very different place musically in the 90’s and early 00’s. It was a major capital for electronic music in the US and globally. The beloved house sound and party culture of the 90’s also helped pave the way for a new generation of labels like Tigerbeat6 and artists like Blectum From Blechdom helped give experimental music (IDM, glitch, etc.) more of an art/punk character which helped it gain precedence in early 00’s indie circles. Under Vivian’s leadership, XLR8R became a global document of this and other global scenes and helped usher in new fans who may have thought electronic music was mainly a European game at the time. -SV4
S.03 E.36Jeremy Deller
More than an artist, I see Deller as sort of an unlikely community organizer who kickstarts the machine but can’t seem to turn it off (for the better). Similar in some ways to Eno in setting up a “system” and letting it unfurl, Deller ideates, organizes, and lets it fly, the results often surprise. He shares some space with other mischief artists such as The KLF where the stakes jump from low to high very quickly, depending on the mood of the public. -SV4
S.03 E.37Sasha Frere-Jones
“Like some of his musical subjects, SFJ has also courted controversy over the years and became a celeb of sorts, an Obama-era coastal elite baddie. You could find him haunting Charlie Rose’s table looking like an ENO acolyte or a Billy Zane for the Abel Ferrara set.” -SV4
S.03 E.38Marcus J Moore
S.03 E.39Michael Cina
As a wise person once told me “you can’t hear what you can’t see” which has informed how we’ve approached design at Ghostly. The visual aspect of what we do has always been of huge importance to being able to help elevate the music we release. Image and type have perhaps defined my relationship to the arts just as much as music. It’s when all these things come together that you approximate ecstacy. Cina has hit this mark in our catalog more than a few times, I believe.-SV4
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“The arts exist in a fascinating cross-section of utility vs form because art can provide indefinite functions in divergent contexts. Most of this music was not made under the guise of a ‘gospel/spiritual genre’ and the ones that were, crossed those lines. The best music to me often occurs when people blend ideas and concepts to create something new and unique.” -Cina
S.03 E.40Jeremy Greenspan
The Junior Boys galaxy forms a universe where even a less glamorous guy (and the object of his affection) are made into silver screen heroes. For those of us who weren’t confident in our looks (though looking back I can finally dig myself), there was a relatability to the Junior Boys as Greenspan in his own words relishes that he may “not look the part” of his sonic image. In listening to the JBS, all of our mundane relationship stuff and our personal idiosyncrasies are worthy of dramatic retelling. If you can elevate the mundane into the cinematic, you should be so lucky, and this is why Greenspan is one of the great herbs of the era. A true believer. -SV4
Greenspan in Studio
S.02 E.24Bradley Zero
Zero’s hour-long Herb mix is as inviting as a Zero DJ set, always effortlessly cool but not insincere. Regarding the playlist, Zero states "A bit of heartbreak, summer nostalgia & a continuing and undying love for The Beatles." - SV4
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S.03 E.42Barbie Bertisch
S.03 E.43
Paul Raffaele
Barbie Bertisch and Paul Raffaele live “the music life” which I define as a steadfast dedication to the discovery and dissemination of the good stuff. As writers, curators, DJs, party throwers, and archivists, they are exceedingly generous in spirit and reverent of a certain strain of music, namely Disco and Soul adjacent dance music. The code they live by evokes the inclusionary and sacred practices of the Paradise Garage or David Mancuso’s The Loft. Music is serious stuff and should be treated as such, on heavy Klipsch speakers of course. -SV4
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