After Skins, What For?

For a while I kept a playlist of every track that ever ran on Skins. Chemical Brothers, Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ludacris somehow—and Toro y Moi, a track called Low Shoulder tied specifically to Pandora’s arc, which made it feel like a private discovery even though the whole country was watching the same episode.

Skins eventually killed itself with a string of limp special episodes, but Chaz Bundick kept going. His record What For? lands somewhere between chilled-out 70s power pop and indie rock with a very specific indoor pallor. Not background music—it has opinions—but music that doesn’t demand you stop what you’re doing to honor it. That balance is harder to pull off than it sounds.

He played the Lido in Berlin in support of it. I’ve always liked that room. The confused souls who show up not quite knowing who they’re seeing tend to make the best audience—they haven’t pre-decided how to feel yet.