For music like the music of musician Brock Bierly of $quib, who came into my life by way of email. $quib is Brock’s band with an individual known as Fish (“not a real guy,” Brock says). You refuse to buy into his delusional self-mythologising, the egomaniacal sputtering of an addled mind so typical of the mobile phone generation. $quib is a solo venture, and you treat it as such.
In a rare moment of lucidity, Brock sends you a release titled “83” by Bucket of Ohms, a band he’s in with friend Matt. You hear shards of quirk’d up and kook’d out pop music, scrambled and gooey and multi-textural like a well-constructed gourmet sandwich. You bite your lower lip to the point of pain and moan sensually, due to the high quality of the music.
You continue to correspond, and more music follows. You host the music video for the schizophrenic bedroom jazz-noise-pop that is “Shiny mu midiskirt,” a heart-shredding gem you can’t believe emerged from a mind. It yields telling comments like “is this even possible”, “Holy Fuckig Shit !!” and “I love it, it’s like Jacob Collier meets Trent Reznor”. More moaning, more lip gnashing.