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1 month ago | 
herbsundays.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV |Sean Monahan |Nick Sylvester |Kyle Fitzpatrick
“I have an embarrassing admission or maybe not embarrassing when you consider the current options for music discovery: a substantial portion of this list came from Shazamming songs in television shows and movies. For example, the first song “Dur Dur d’être bébé!” by Jordy was a recent find when I was watching The Real World: London. The song introduces Australian model and actress, Jacinda Barrett. She’s from the era when reality TV didn’t doom one to be a reality TV star.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
adhocprojects.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV
Sam Valenti is the founder of Ghostly International, a record label celebrating 25 years in business, that has released music by artists such as Ginger Root, Julie Byrne, Dua Saleh, Mary Lattimore, and Kate Bollinger, and also works on product collaborations (Vans, Timex, Warby Parker).
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Aug 18, 2024 | 
herbsundays.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV |Kyle Chayka |Jason Stewart |Blackbird Spyplane
“This is a playlist of songs I listen to on the drive from Harpswell to Brunswick, ME. I take a single road along the peninsula for about 20 minutes, on a summer day I roll down my windows and let my hair blow around and the small quantity of trash I have thrown into the passenger side is probably blowing around too. I can’t see the ocean for the majority of the drive, but I can smell it, layered under pine and the occasional puff of woodsmoke.
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Aug 11, 2024 | 
herbsundays.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV |John Higgs |Gary Hustwit |Ben Cardew
"Drummond did not look like one of the most successful and credible pop stars on the planet. He was forty years old with an everyman haircut and the sort of thoughtful, respectable demeanor you might associate with a secondary school teacher. Nevertheless, he had produced a string of global number-one singles and had just come first in Select magazine’s ‘100 Coolest People’ list.
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Jul 14, 2024 | 
herbsundays.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV
A global survey of Herb, from artists, writers, and enthusiasts. Not a “best of” or a critical compendium. The prompt: “What song hit you hard in 2024 (new or old)?”In a fight against recency bias, the old blends with the new, but it is mostly new. I added a few of mine as well. I couldn’t include every song mentioned or every blurb, but I did my best. Please enjoy and share your song below and they may get added too. A lot of these were new to me and moved me deeply.
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Apr 19, 2024 | 
snake.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV |Sami Reiss
Snake covers design and explains it. For a representative sample, read the best selections from this week’s auctions, and the most recent designer profile and explainer. Today on Snake: Every other Friday or so an interview with a person in good standing of the newsletter whose taste in vintage, furniture and adjacent is worth recording.
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Mar 17, 2024 | 
herbsundays.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV
Herb Sundays 108: Michael Azerrad. (Apple, Spotify). Art by Michael Cina“In the early-to-mid 2000s, I was pretty disenchanted with contemporary rock music — so many of the hippest new bands were recycling music that I had listened to at least 20 years earlier (and, in my opinion, not doing it particularly well). Then, in 2007, I discovered Dirty Projectors and I was reborn.
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Feb 4, 2024 | 
herbsundays.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV |Philip Sherburne |Matthew Schnipper |Gabriel Szatan
Herb Sundays 102: Huerco S.(Apple, Spotify) Art by Michael Cina “put it on and go for a cruise… “There's some bands from the 90's/early 2000's Kansas City/Lawrence, KS scene spread throughout (Giants Chair, Shiner, Shallow, The Casket Lottery, The Appleseed Cast, Frog Pond, Boys Life, The Stella Link, Vitreous Humor) some classic post-hardcore (Unwound, Far, and Lync) newer music (Her New Knife, Narrow Head, Stab, Psn15, Lifeguard, Callahan & Witscher feat Ana Roxanne, Eazyhead, Touch Girl...
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Jan 23, 2024 | 
whyisthisinteresting.substack.com | Sam Valenti IV
Sam Valenti (SV4) is an old friend of WITI. He’s the founder of Ghostly International and runs the essential music Substack Herb Sundays. Sam here. A few years ago, Patrick Adams, a music producer I love, passed. While he received a kind obit from the Times and various music sites, his work requires a bit of effort to access.
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Nov 7, 2023 | 
snake.substack.com | Sami Reiss |Sam Valenti IV
Housekeeping:Buy CICADAS, the Riley Gale comics anthology, released Monday by Lockin Out Records. It features work from Lale Westvind, Jason Tarpey, Anya Davidson, Nick Kucway and other artists. More info | BUYI was profiled a couple weeks ago in’s Herb Sunday Substack, and was thinking about thoughts Sam wrote up in another letter, a while ago: About canon, its remaking and how it’s shifting from mainstream to the edge.
