My Back Pages: 8/8/26
Nirosta Steel, Neptune's Core, Nick Kivlen
Welcome back to My Back Pages, a weekly digest recapping everything of note from the last seven days—pods, bylines, appearances, plus a few odds and ends.
Let’s get to it.
Piece of the Week
This week on the ‘Stack, I spoke with Nick Kivlen of NYC power trio Sunflower Bean. Nick recently released Addicted to the Sunset, a great little solo record influenced by any number of 2010s indie rock icons—most notably, the late, great Girls. Our conversations was equal parts downer and hopeful, mirroring the sentiments of the record.
Pods of the Week
Big one this week as we wind down our summer interview series ahead of Jokermen 4 (which on that note—stay tuned for an announcement next week): Steven Hall, AKA Nirosta Steel.
For anyone who’s been living under a rock—or who doesn’t inhabit my little corner of music geek Twitter—Hall is a former friend and collaborator of the legendary Arthur Russell. His new record My Skyscraper is a massive collection of unreleased tracks and demos touching on every genre from club classixxx to acoustic folk to avant-garde Mandarin-language compositions. Running nearly two hours, the record has somehow become the viral hit of the summer.
In case that description doesn’t already make it clear, My Skyscraper is less a proper LP than a career-spanning survey of the many shades of Steven Hall. Feel free to skip around the collection, hit shuffle, pick your favorites—there’s no “right” way to listen to the record. Hall told us as much in our interview with him, which was one of the most thrilling conversations I’ve ever had the pleasure of participating in. Here is a man who has lived a life and is ready to tell you about it.
Shoutout to my friend Eric Deines of ULYSSA for taking a flier on this stuff and getting it out into the world. He’s doing us all a service 🫡
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On Never Ending Stories, we went back to our bag with this exquisite 1994 tape from Hiroshima, Japan. Everything here is great (“Jokerman,” “She Belongs To Me,” a positively vicious “I &I”), but the headliner is Bob’s first acoustic “Masters of War” in 30+ years. Sometimes it’s hard to tell how intentional he’s being with setlist choices, but in this case it’s crystal clear. This performance of “Masters” is not an accusation but an elegy—a small but heartfelt gesture towards the many thousands who lost their lives in the nuclear devastation of 1945.
We also touch on the conclusion of the Long Hot Summer Tour, the upcoming fall European dates, and my trip to the North Country to see Bon Dylan and Hibbing, Minnesota. Much more on that here if you’re interested.
Chune of the Week
Neptune’s Core: “Lemon Car”
Allow me to direct your attention to Pivot, the debut record from Neptune’s Core, a Chicago quartet composed of two pairs of sisters. Lead single “Lemon Car” is easily one of my favorite tracks of the year, a tight chunk of bubblegum garage pop that verges on addictive. Dig the elastic, wordless chorus they explode into at the 0:57 mark, which *pops* with just as much force as “Taxes” does at the 1:33 mark. If there’s a more satisfying 15 seconds of rock music released this year, I haven’t heard it.
I’ve been spinning Pivot a ton recently. The record scratches any number of itches: imagine a cleaned up version of the first Vivian Girls record with the catchiness quotient dialed way up, plus the laconic lyricism of early Courtney Barnett and a dash of Room on Fire guitar tone. An utterly self-assured debut, perfect for the dog days of summer. I fully expect big things from this crew in the future.
The full album just dropped yesterday, and I’ve got an interview with the band coming here in the near future. In the meantime, smash that play button.
On a related note: I’ve started a running Spotify playlist of all my Chune of the Week picks so far this year. Give it a follow to keep track of all the goods in the weeks to come.
Fit of the Week
I wore this on Sunday, August 2nd for a quiet day futzing around Wine Country.
Despite the fact that it was hotter than a crotch, I wanted to look somewhat put together. I feel compelled to dress well when I’m out of town, even if I’m only an hour away. Up top, I went with a tried-and-true summer formula, layering a standard beater with this neat short-sleeve camp collar shirt from Portuguese Flannel. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, the shirt is a thick cotton in a wide open weave, allowing maximum airflow as I walk around. Down below, I paired it with breezy, broad linen trousers from the kings at Casatlantic and a roasted pair of Tevas that look even more handsome than they did ten summers ago.
Everything is in a warm, natural palette that makes sense for bright, bone-dry Sonoma afternoons—even my clip-on eyeglasses shade. The purple Industry hat adds a touch of color contrast and sorta “settles” everything below. (I also like how it looks like a standard piece of company swag from a financial services firm to anyone not in the know)
I actually took this picture at the end of the day, after arriving back home in San Francisco. I appreciate the occasional opportunity to record a look after it’s been worn, wrinkled, and otherwise mussed. Fit pics are all good and fun, but clothes are ultimately for wearing. Sometimes it’s hard to keep that in mind.