Along with Islands Of Love, Hotline TNT are another exciting addition to the Third Man Records roster in 2023. On Cartwheel, the band display a studious love of 90s shoegaze and slowcore, but with a freeform experimentation that places it firmly in the here and now. An absorbing comforting listen, full of election and escapism that should place it in any self respecting end of year list. As the year draws to a close we caught up with the band’s Will Anderson for his Sound & Vision picks.

Favourite TV Show:

Home Improvement

 had to knock Jerry Seinfeld’s TV show out of the top spot in my 90s comfort watching due to his irl political stances. Unfortunately Tim Allen isn’t a lot better, pretty sure he’s a Republican who also narced on some drug dealers back when he got pinched for smuggling 2 pounds of coke through an airport back in the day… NONETHELESS Home Improvement holds up to this day, almost every episode follows the exact same format but I could watch the DVDs front to back and they literally make me comfortable enough to fall asleep on the couch without even making it to the sink to brush my teeth. 

Two favourite albums:

SWV – It’s About Time

More 90s. This decade is just undefeated! The production on this record reminds me of my favourite video game Donkey Kong Country and the three voices weave in and out of each other perfectly. I don’t think there is a single skip on this record and it’s on my wishlist to find on vinyl somewhere but as I recall it goes for a pretty penny. 

Hüsker Dü – Savage Young Dü box set

 

I got this when I was just starting the band in Minneapolis and naturally felt quite connected to all the artefacts in this incredible collection. I remember after buying it that I specifically wanted to wait for a snow day (I was a substitute teaching at the time) so I could sit on the carpet with my dog and put my nice headphones on, listen to all of it and look through the book that Numero compiled. Since it was Minneapolis there was probably a snow day within 2 weeks and I did just that. The best band to ever do it. 

A favourite film:

American Movie – Chris Smith

This film is a huge deal in my circles – Mark is a Wisconsin folk hero for his tenacity and public demeanour, he’s a direct inspiration to me, just a guy from Wisconsin who watches football and wants to make cool shit. His counterpart Mike’s passing last year was the first “celebrity” death that actually caused me sincere grief as he was a true mensch. Every single line in this movie makes me laugh and it’s all completely real, the filmmakers captured lightning in a bottle with the pacing and wherewithal to just let their subjects do their thing.

A favourite Book:

Last Summer in the City – Gianfranco Calligarich

Haven’t had much patience for the literary arts lately but I picked this book up at Powell’s in Portland because I liked the cover and the blurb on the back intrigued me. My own description probably isn’t much different than that blurb – it rests somewhere between Catcher in the Rye and Call Me By Your Name, both favourites of mine. I found it to be a really satisfying read; the way this guy writes – even when translated from his native Italian – just keeps pace with my admittedly short attention span, I felt like I was stumbling around right next to the prickish antihero lazily getting in and out of trouble in 1960s Rome. 

A song that means a lot to you

Fast Car – Tracy Chapman

First time I heard this song was in my 8th grade English class. My teacher printed out the lyrics and played the song about 10 times during our 40 minute period and we all just tried to figure out what Tracy was going through or these characters. It was a corny but awesome exercise that totally worked on our whole class, we were all obsessed with it for weeks and I still think it’s top 3 all time. I ripped the main guitar riff for a song on the previous TNT album, but definitely subconsciously! 

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