EPISODE 73
Rhymes With Brammies'
The banter is insufferable. The music is impeccable.
February 5th, 2026
I am currently staring at a stain on my ceiling that looks suspiciously like the cover art for Unknown Pleasures, if Peter Saville had designed it using only water damage and indifference. It’s fitting, really, because I’ve just finished listening to the latest episode of Let’s Play Ten, titled “Rhymes With ‘Brammies’,” and the structural integrity of my patience is deteriorating faster than the drop ceiling in my room.
Here is the premise of this week's audio spectacle: MP and Ben, the hosts/mascots of 40FI Creations, spend a significant portion of the runtime engaging in a circular, humble-bragging standoff about who actually invented the podcast. It’s a level of "No, you hang up first" energy that makes me want to throw my espresso, a single-origin Ethiopian roast (that cost me $7 dollars), directly at this Joy Division knockoff.
They claim neither wants the credit. I claim they are both pre-formatively modest in a way that suggests they were theater kids who got cut from West Side Story.
But, as is the tragic, recurring theme of my employment here, the music they actually played is solid. It forces me to put aside my disdain for their camaraderie and admit that, yes, fine, the playlist works.
Let’s dissect the damage.
The episode opens with Maia Toakley’s “Don’t Blame You.” It’s Australian. Of course it’s Australian. The Antipodean indie scene currently has a stranglehold on the "sad but catchy" market that used to be the sole province of Midwestern emo bands. Toakley sounds like she’s singing from the inside of a packed venue that smells like $3 bottle necks and broken dreams, which is a compliment. It has that Courtney Barnett detachment but with a melody that actually bothers to resolve.
Then we pivot to Middle Class Fashion with “Criminal Sound.” The track? It’s tight. It’s got this nervous, piano-driven energy that reminds me of an early panic attack I had at a Cold War Kids concert in 2004.
Then there is Sweet Pill. I generally refuse to engage with the "emo revival" because most of it is just guys in their 30s trying to recreate the feeling of being dumped at a mall food court. But “Slow Burn” is a legitimate jam. It’s math-rock for people who actually like choruses. It sounds like Paramore if they started listening to American Football. It’s angular, it’s anxious, and it made me tap my foot. I have it on repeat.
MP and Ben wrap up the episode discussing the previous show called "Brammies”, an awards show named after their boss, Bram. It is the most corporate indie thing I have ever heard. It’s like naming a punk venue "The Zuckerberg." The guys seem to be having fun, and MP discovered they have a public playlist for each year of LPT, a fact that apparently shocked him, despite the fact that Ben has told him multiple times, and he’s hosting the show.
EPISODE PLAYLIST:
1 Maia Toakley, “Don’t Blame You”
2 Middle Class Fashion, “Criminal Sound”
3 Bleech 9:3, "Cannonball"
4 The Empty Page, "Death On Our Side"
5 Masca, "Diggin'"
6 Martina and the Moons, "Higher Than A Hawk"
7 Always Morning, "This Is It"
8 Modern Woman, "Dashboard Mary"
9 Low Girl, "This House Is On Fire"
10 Sweet Pill, "Slow Burn"
11 Fime, "Soft Science"
12 Cliffords, "Marsh"
13 BONUS TRACK: Low Girl, “No Reasons"
With thanks to Telemathematics and Joaquin
- Cornelius Bakersfield XXXIV