Month: October 2026

Alaska_Atoms: Optimism Revisited

I first interviewed Alaska for Serve ’em a Sentence back in 2021. We talked about books, baseball, and Cargo Cults, his project with Zilla Rocca. Since the first Cargo Cults album dropped in 2020, he has continued releasing music including “Reverberations of Dead Man’s Ego” with Steel Tipped Dove in 2024 and one of Mike McAuley’s cemetery photos on the cover. Now Cargo Cults is back with a new album from Fused Arrow Records where the lyrics tackle all-too-relevant topics such as the deaths of friends. He’s also playing a short set at Mike’s memorial show this Saturday, October 10.

I hate that I was able to sneak up on Alaska with the news of Mike’s passing as we were solely in touch by email rather than the fear-inducing phone calls referenced in “Same Song Same Rhyme”. In light of recent tragedies, I was curious if he had changed his optimistic perspectives reflected in past work. So I asked him in the one question interview below.

On prior albums you have referenced being “hopelessly resilient, an opulent optimist” (Hangar 18 – Boombox Apocalypse) and “a black ops optimist” (Cargo Cults – Time is too Valuable). Has your perspective evolved with time and after losing many friends as discussed on the new record?

This perspective has continued to grow, I am highly skeptical but in general I think I am an optimist. I come from a long line of “plan for the worst, hope for the best” people. I think I tend to lean more heavily towards the second half of that axiom. Getting older and losing friends and loved ones has only hardened this perspective. I think of all of the wonderful times and the love I experienced with these people and I cannot help but feel fortunate. I have a line on the new album “it makes it hard on my aorta but I’m so fortunate I found myself in your orbit”. These people shaped who I am and what I believe. How can I have anything but positive feelings about that. It is always bittersweet, but the memories are always of the good times and the love. I treasure that and because of that I am an optimist. 

Check out Cargo Cults – Kingdom Music for the Hard Rocks on Bandcamp, CD, and vinyl, and now streaming everywhere. Though either the CD is too new to play in my car, or my car is too old for the CD.

More context from Bandcamp and Fused Arrow Records:
https://daily.bandcamp.com/label-profile/fused-arrow-label-profile

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOBOa2akYCGn-LP3ArROFlQ

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7pUDUtFrXT6ZUOzfo2hkPh

Good Problems: Angelo Mosca from Unfortuneteller

One of the fun parts about releasing a comp has been thinking about comps in general and asking other people about their favorites. Angelo from Unfortuneteller (track 9) is the first to answer these questions for some background into the people and bands featured on A Good Problem to Have from Memory Loss Records. I look forward to doing more of these over the next few months – find them here and on Instagram at @memorylosshc.

Screenshot

Favorite comp?
Before you were punk vol. 2. A lot of great covers, especially The Get Up Kids cover of The Cure’s “Close to Me”

Favorite band on the comp beside you?
God’s Favorite!

Favorite side of the comp?
Side B

Clear green or solid green?
Honestly, it’s hard to choose. They both came out great!

Talk about how your song came to be:
Jeff and Eddie used to play together in a band called Easy Lover. They had written a bunch of songs together and played out a few times, but the recording never came out. “Lucifer’s Bandolier” was originally one of the songs. We did some minor revisions to the song, made some parts shorter and other parts longer, and I wrote my own lyrics to it.