Patrick Lyons

Portland

Writer at Freelance

opinions are like kittens, i'm giving them away | patlyons91 at gmail dot com | https://t.co/wmyR9NwFqh

Articles

Huremic: Seeking Darkness

1 week ago | pitchfork.com | Patrick Lyons

One of the first sounds you hear on Seeking Darkness, the debut by Parannoul side project Huremic, is an elephant trumpeting.
Debut Album 'Animaru' And More

3 weeks ago | stereogum.com | Patrick Lyons

The first time you hear Mei Semones, you’re likely to contort yourself into some weird shapes in an attempt to describe her music. My first pass, “Pat Metheny and Gilberto Gil start a Midwest emo band with a folk singer who’s fluent in English and Japanese,” nearly tore my hamstrings. That was in reference to fall 2023’s “Wakare No Kotoba,” and in fairness, it’s quite an ambitious blend of pastoral jazz, bossa nova, emo, and baroque pop.
Toro y Moi

2 months ago | hotnewhiphop.com | Zachary Horvath |Cole Blake |Danny Schwartz |Patrick Lyons

SongsWe are so happy Toro decided to share this with the American fans.
Album Of The Week: Mount Eerie 'Night Palace'

Oct 29, 2024 | stereogum.com | Patrick Lyons

Winter in Northwest Washington’s temperate San Juan Islands may not be the freezing, brutal onslaught faced by comparable latitudes further inland, but four months of uninterrupted wind, rain, and minimal daylight can be a taxing monotony. Locals yearn for the summer, whose balmy lack of rain remains a well-kept secret. For tourists, the region may as well not exist from October to June.
Undeath: More Insane

Oct 17, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Patrick Lyons

In the 1970s, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann set the NFL on fire with a previously unseen level of nimble athleticism. Once his accomplishments began to prompt high-profile interviews, their headlines largely focused on one unique aspect of Swann’s background: This star of America’s roughest, most physical sport was a trained ballet dancer.
Wild Pink: Dulling the Horns

Oct 9, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Patrick Lyons

There’s an easily understood message inside of “Eating the Egg Whole,” the second song on Wild Pink’s fifth album: “Sometimes a dream ain’t meant to be lived in, it’s meant to be forgotten.” Impermanence is a fact of life—holding onto something fleeting usually isn’t healthy. Pretty universal message. You might miss this kernel of wisdom, though, as frontman John Ross spends the rest of the song wrapping it in flashy sports metaphors.
Awful Records At 10: What Happened To Atlanta's Most Exciting Rap Collective?

Jul 25, 2024 | stereogum.com | Patrick Lyons

“I was like, ‘Damn, we comin’ up on being old heads. It’s about to be our 10th anniversary. I should probably go ahead and tap in and make sure I set something up.'”That’s Father, de facto figurehead of the Atlanta-based collective Awful Records, when asked what prompted the anniversary gig he put on last month in his hometown. He only began thinking about a 10-year commemoration after his longtime heroes the Cure announced an anniversary reissue of one of their classic albums.
Thou: Umbilical

Jun 2, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Patrick Lyons

Thou have always reveled in misanthropy. Onstage, the band might antagonize a disengaged audience by taunting them, or turning around and ignoring them. In lyric sheets, they paint humankind as a failed endeavor, once full of potential for good but chronically unable to pry itself from pitfalls as old as civilization itself.
Merch is Dead, Long Live Merch

May 31, 2024 | inbox-infinity.com | Patrick Lyons

On Tuesday, GQ ethered my entire identity with a thinkpiece entitled "The End of Merch." In it, fashion editor Samuel Hine argues that the era of the graphic tee, the dad hat, the branded mug, is over, with these shallow signifiers of one's cultural taste ripe to be replaced by clothing that's not emblazoned with logos and/or screenprinted images. He argues that this period "when graphics were the language of style and fashion embraced souvenirs and novelty" started in 2013.
Steve Albini and the Hardest Drum Break of All Time

May 10, 2024 | inbox-infinity.com | Patrick Lyons

The first drum break I ever truly loved is the one that opens Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks." Thunderous, echoey, swaggering, it rewarded me for sticking around until the last track on the band's blockbuster fourth album, an LP that my mom received for her 13th or 14th birthday, the same beat-up one I spun on an old turntable as a tween.