TAMPA, FLORIDA – APRIL 14: EDITORIAL USE ONLY Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner perform onstage during “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Raymond James Stadium on April 14, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Octavio Jones/TAS23/Getty Images for for TAS Rights Management)
The Felice Brothers – Jazz on the Autobahn
well, I didn’t know this – The duo craft these vivid, at times even violent, images through a sweet, sweet melody, an ironic balance of sound and content. As the song’s starring sheriff does, “Jazz on the Autobahn” drives us “through the principalities of unreality” in its whimsical, albeit tragic version of the end of the world.
Listening to the Felice Brothers, I don’t think I agree with this. But, this review was written in 2008. This song is from their upcoming album.
From Pitchfork:
Who knows whether or not the Felice Brothers– brothers Ian, Simone, and James, plus a friend called Christmas– are actually, consciously trying to come as close as possible to replicating Dylan an/or the Band on their self-titled latest. Regardless, the point is, whether they intended to or not, they’ve come eerily, awkwardly, creepily close to capturing that familiar mix of mood, mystery, atmosphere, and aesthetic.
Allison Russell – 4th Day Prayer [feat. Mumu Fresh] – dim star Remix (official audio)
Allison Russell has won or has been nominated for an incredible number of awards and from Rolling Stone a look into her upcoming work.
ALLISON RUSSELL STOPPED by Jimmy Kimmel Live to deliver a raucous, soulful performance of her song “4th Day Prayer”. Backed by a live band that included the duo Sista Strings and singer-guitarist Joy Clark, Russell gave the song a vibrant sensibility that matched the colorful stage backdrop.
“4th Day Prayer” comes off the singer-songwriter’s debut solo album Outside Child, released last year. The album is nominated for three Grammys — including Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Performance for single “Nightflyer.” Russell performed that track on Jimmy Kimmel Live last year, with accompaniment from Brittney Spencer and Brandi Carlile.
And from Wikipedia, a really impressive list of award nominations and wins
Kelly Fraser – Sedna
From her album Sedna released in 2023. Kelly Fraser tragically died by suicide in 2019. From a CBC article:
The death of musician, advocate and Indspire youth laureate Kelly Fraser was met with shock and sadness by those who knew her, her music and her advocacy work.
When Fraser released her Inuktitut cover of Rihanna’s Diamonds in 2013, it quickly went viral. Her success was followed by a Juno nomination for her second album, Sedna, and a 2019 Indspire Youth Award, which honours the outstanding achievements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.
Terrific Montreal-based Japanese psych-rock band has been on the show before. This is from their upcoming album and their music has such incredible energy.
Acclaimed Montreal-based Japanese psych-rock band TEKE::TEKE have released “Gotoku Lemon,” the second single from their upcoming sophomore album, Hagata, out June 9 via Kill Rock Stars
and this
The result is something of a drunken bluesy calypso, with a lingering intensity just below the surface.
That could be a new genre of music!
Finally…
Translating to “Lemon Enlightenment” in English, the track sees lead vocalist Kuroki spinning a whimsical short story about a world in which glow-in-the-dark lemons are found to be the cure for all ills
Hurray for the Riff Raff – Broken Arrows
again, another band that I have never heard of (my bad) but Hurray For The Riff Raff has been around for 17 years.
From Pitchfork:
Fifteen years ago, Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff chose their band name to celebrate outsiders who threatened the status quo: “the riff raff” being “the weirdos and the poets,” they once said, “the rebellious women and the activists” whom society disregarded. These were the people who kept Segarra going as they carved an itinerant path from their fractured Bronx upbringing to their longtime home in New Orleans,
Now I realize I know this – here is a song from 5 years ago – Living in the City
Beach House – “Holiday House” from the Become EP
Beach House is an American band that has been kicking around since 2004. For lack of a better term, Beach House is often categorized as “dream pop”. They have released 9 albums to generally favourable reviews. The new EP was an official Record store Day release. To quote the band, “The Become EP is a collection of 5 songs from the Once Twice Melody sessions. We didn’t think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own. To us, they are all kind of scuzzy and spacious, and live in the spirit realm. It’s not really where we are currently going, but it’s definitely somewhere we have been. We hope you enjoy these tunes”.
Here’s the official video
The National – “The Alcott” (feat. Taylor Swift) from the album First Two Pages Of Frankenstein
The National is an American band based in Brooklyn. Band members are Matt Berninger , twin brothers Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards), as well as brothers Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf. They produced a couple of indie albums and in 2005, released their breakthrough lp, Alligator. The National have now released 9 albums in total garnering Grammy nominations along the way. Since 2020 Aaron Dessner has co-wrote and produced several blockbuster albums for Taylor Swift. Here, Swift returns the favour by performing a wonderful duet.
Polly Jean Harvey is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. She has been creating music since the late eighties to overwhelming critical acclaim. Among the awards Harvey has received are both the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Prize for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and Let England Shake. She has also eight Brit Award nominations, seven Grammy Award nominations and two further Mercury Prize nominations. “A Child’s Question, August” is from her upcoming 10th studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying. Any song that references both Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Elvis in the space of 2 and half minutes is alright in my books.
The Gaslight Anthem is a New Jersey rock band formed in 2006. Possibly their finest moment was the 2008 release The ‘59 Sound which updated the urgency of Bruce Springsteen for a new generation. The band took a break in 2015, returned briefly in 2018. In March 2022, the band announced that they had reunited and returned to “full time status”, and that they had begun writing their sixth studio album which would be the band’s first new music release in nine years. “Positive Change” is the lead single for the upcoming album.
Speaking of New Jersey, here’s The Gaslight Anthem with Bruce himself
Lana Del Rey – Did you Know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
Nickybaby – She Sees Me
The Weather Station – Endless Time
Dart Trees –Bong and Mcquade
Valerie June – Stay
new video for the June release of Weathervanes
I seem to be going for the dark songs.
This one is compelling. Would love to see this live.
This is what Rolling Stone wrote, I would like to know lots more.
“Death Wish” immediately evokes a feeling of urgency with its sweeping guitar arpeggios and Isbell’s tense vocal delivery. “Did you ever love a woman with a death wish?/Something in her eyes like flipping off a light switch,” he sings, recounting a story about trauma and substance use seeping their way into a couple’s relationship. By the end, the song has grown to massive proportions, with swirling strings and multiple tracks of Isbell’s voice giving it a head-spinning effect.
I don’t know this band, but they sound a bit like Lou Reed’s second coming.
Here is a video of them, not the song we are playing – this is more interesting
The Nude Party – Things Fall Apart (Nude Years Eve)
A review. I think this is their second album. Definitely a vintage sound. A review:
Following a debut EP and two albums with Black Lips‘ Oakley Munson in the producer’s chair, the Nude Party offer up their first self-produced effort, Rides On. It’s the culmination of an over-two-year period that generated over 20 songs — among them experiments with county and electro-pop — all tracked at the septet’s leisure in their own barn studio in upstate New York. When it came time to sequence the record, they homed in on songs that favored ’70s blues-rock à la Sticky Fingers-era Stones, albeit with conspicuous diversions into the ’60s among the 13 tracks that made the cut on an album full of vintage flair.
Lana Del Rey – Did you Know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
Not worth watching, but here is the song.
Pretty haunting, could I say dark?
Pitchfork would seem to agree that this is where she was at in 2014:
In 2014, Lana Del Reytold a journalist that she wished she was dead, and for what seemed like years after, scarcely an article was written about her that didn’t mention it. Back then, the singer was still miserable at the sour critical reception of her debut album. She was, perhaps, peddling its underlying fatalism, pushing back on allegations that her noirish Born to Die persona was fabricated. Almost certainly, she was harboring the sort of creative ambition that craved association with tragic geniuses like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.
Pitchfork
I learn nothing from garbage writing like this, but it fills the pages but says a little about the song we are featuring.
Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd arrives as a sweeping, confounding work-in-process. It’s full of quiet ruminations and loud interruptions; of visible seams and unhemmed edges, from the choir rehearsal that runs through its opening moments to the sound of the piano’s sustain pedal releasing at its end. Beauty—long Lana’s virtue and her burden—fades or is forgotten, like that titular tunnel, its mosaic ceilings and painted tiles sealed up and abandoned. Here, Lana is after something more enduring, the matters “at the very heart of things”: family, love, healing, art, legacy, wisdom—and all the contradictions and consternation that come along with the pursuit.
Yes, more Pitchfork.
The Weather Station – Endless Time
The Weather Station – Endless Time (Official Video)
But it’s only the end of an endless time We laughed so much, we wore lines around our eyes You can see it in that picture of us from long ago How we changed And it happened so slowly, we couldn’t even say I gotta find that picture, I want to look again I used to think that I could see everything That met my eyes
Tamara Lindeman from an interview on Pitchfork
“When I wrote Ignorance, it was a time of intense creativity, and I wrote more songs than I ever had in my life,” the Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman said in a statement. “The songs destined to be on the album were clear from the beginning, but as I continued down my writing path, songs kept appearing that had no place on the album I envisioned. Songs that were simple, pure; almost naive. Songs that spoke to many of the same questions and realities as Ignorance, but in a more internal, thoughtful way. So I began to envision How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars, a quiet, strange album of ballads. I imagined it not as a follow-up to Ignorance, but rather as a companion piece; the moon to its sun.”
Valerie June – Stay
Valerie June Stay
much more interesting, from another show
Since darkness seems to be my theme for the week, here is an excerpt from a New York Times article about her written in March, 2021.
Above all, a willed and unblinking optimism courses through Valerie June’s songs. “One of my lessons for this life is, how can I keep my energy?” she said. “I know darkness. I know the blues. And so how can I use the blues as a fuel for what I wish to say? You know, the negativity is always going to be there. It’s just, how do you work with it? We all have these seeds of darkness within us and we all have these seeds of light. We get the choice.”
Montreal’s Blesse are a trio from Montreal who have just recently released the lp Normal. Members Léo Leblanc, Charles-Antoine Olivier (aka CAO), and Xavier Touikan used to be members of Polaris nominated Zen Bamboo. Blesse display an eclectic mix of sounds ranging from psych-pop to bedroom lo-fi LCD Soundsystem grooves. The song “Gant Noirs” sounds like a male Quebecois Wet Leg.
Logan Richard – “See Me Like This” from Learning to Love ep
Logan Richard has been described as the Canadian East Coast’s answer to John Mayer, Bahamas, Billy Joel and Colin James all rolled into one. While that may not be a good idea, this track is:
Richard reminds me more of Scotland’s late great lamented The Thrills
Logan Richard‘s latest release, “See Me Like This,” is a fantastic blend of retro and modern sounds. It is the kind of song, for me, that Harry Styles would pay good money to have written for him. The piano takes the lead in the song, with its live sound providing a sense of authenticity. The bass line is groovy in an old-fashioned Paul McCartney sense, while the percussion gives the song a nice swagger.
Nicholas Goszer, who records as Nickybaby, was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As evidenced, his music is influenced by Elliott Smith, Silver Jews, Jonathan Richman and The Velvet Underground.
However, don’t confuse him with this Nickybaby
Always request the Canadian one!
Nickybaby features 10 deeply personal tracks with themes of addiction, loss, doubt, friendship, and love Winnipeg’s Nickybaby (Nick Goszer) shares his debut self-titled LP with the world via Slow Shine Records. The album features Nicky’s deep and honest songwriting and poetry backed by a full band. The album was produced by Adam Soloway and Gilad Carroll (Living Hour) and mixed by Brady Allard (Warming). The album also features contributions from Sam Sarty and Brett Ticzon (Living Hour).
Dart Trees –Bong and Mcquade from “Consider Two Beers”
I believe Dart Trees is one of the first Ottawa bands featured on this venerable podcast and what a good choice it is! I’m gonna get lazy and describe Dart Trees as giving off a slacker stoner “Mac Demarco” vibe but there you go. This ep is a lot of fun.
The track reminds me of the Parquet Courts which is definitely a good thing.
Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers – Bad Night
Robert Forster – Go Free
Sunny War – “New Day” from Anarchist Gospel
Sunny War is actually Sydney Lyndella , a singer/songwiter based in California. She started playing guitar at 13 and became enamoured with punk/folk rock and a wide variety of music as evidenced by her participation in The Anus Kings.
She spent a rough period combating substance abuse and poverty and she eventually shifted to blues and folk and adopted the moniker Sunny War.
Mary Wallopers – “Love will Never Conquer Me” from The Mary Wallopers
The Mary Wallopers are an Irish folk music group based in Dundalk, County Louth. The main members are brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy who also front TPM, a comedy rap duo. If you liked The Pogues, you’ll like these folks.
The Mary Wallopers name has an interesting backstory. To quote, “We were named after a boat; the harbourmaster at the dock had a little rowing boat and he wrote on the side, the “Mary Walloper”. “Walloper” actually means “a mad person”. When Seán was a child, his father would say, “There’s the Mary Walloper!” as a joke. It was a tiny row boat and those don’t even have names on them. But this fella wrote a massive name for Mary Walloper on his boat. We only found out later on that there was actually a sex worker who used to work around the docks called Mary Walloper. She used to drink cider and like starting riots and having craic. So, he named the boat after her.”
“Love Will never Conquer Me” is simple but powerful.
Gina Birch – I Play My Bass Loud from I play My Bass Loud
Gina Birch is an English musician and filmmaker. She is best known as a member of the seminal late 70’s band The Raincoats. Probably their most “famous” song is this one:
The Raincoats broke up in 1984. Birch went on to attend art college. She has spent the last 40 years directing film, video and painting. This year at the age of 67, she created her first solo album. An AllMusic review noted that “It’s a loud, celebratory album that perfectly boils down Birch’s 40-plus-year journey as a tireless, boundless, and most of all fearless, creator”
Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers – Bad Night
The Steep Canyon Rangers have been together since 2000 and have produced nine albums, two with Steve Martin. In 2013 they won Best Bluegrass Album at the Emmys. They toured with Martin for a few years and produced two albums with him.
A great band, glad to include them here. They are still playing, but there have been several personnel changes. I would think there was lots of comedy during their touring time with Steve Martin including this one.
Crown Lands
We saw this band when they opened for July Talk this week. We didn’t know anything about them, but they are pretty amazing. Just a band of two with an incredible story.
a little from one of their interviews:
“We don’t really do a lot in solitude for this band,” Comeau says. “When I’m alone and making music, it’s synth music, kind of like Vangelis or Tangerine Dream or John Carpenter. And when Cody’s on their own, Cody’s playing all these amazing flutes these days, and that’s a whole other world. But when we come together, it’s like, what would Pink Floyd do if they jammed with Rush? It’s a different kind of headspace.”
Their influences (from e-talk) include Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. If you hear them this makes lots of sense.
They also do a great version of Come Together. They were asked to play this for the FIFA World Cup.
July Talk – After This
Everything this band does energizes. We saw them this week at the NAC, and really I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage. Every song was a dynamic dialogue among the members, especially Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay.
They have been together since 2012 and won a Juno for Alternative Album of the Year. Their new two albums also won Alternative Album of the Year – why not Album of the Year?
Their latest album Remember Never Before is now out. Exclaim loved it saying this is a return to their “hurl yourself into the moment” style of playing. I really didn’t know that they had to return to this – looking at their material it’s always been there.
Listening to Paper Girl right now – produced ten years ago now. And of course – Picturing Love which they played perfectly at the NAC.
Caroline Rose – Miami (Official Music Video)
Caroline Rose
Just because I’m brooding And wanna kill everything moving It doesn’t mean I’m losing my marbles I’m just moody
Carolyn Rose – Miami
I keep on hearing this song. What really captures me first is the ending of the plaintive song. The video is dramatic and she comments on the featured song Miami
“I’m not one to shy away from drama, and so this was a perfect opportunity to really bring out every ounce of desperation and anger and all those confusing emotions that happen after a big heartbreak,” Rose elaborates on “Miami.”
This is the hard part The part that they don’t tell you about There is the art of loving This is the art of forgetting how
This is gonna break you You’re gonna rip your own heart out There is the art of loving This is the art of forgetting how
This is the art of forgetting how This is the art of forgetting how This is the art of forgetting how This is the art of forgetting how
You’ve gotta get through this life somehow You’ve gotta get through this life somehow You’ve gotta get through this life somehow You’ve gotta get through this life somehow
Joe Henry – “Mission” from All the Eye Can See
Joe Henry has had an illustrious and varied career as an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He has released multiple studio albums and produced countless recordings for other artists, including three Grammy Award-winning albums. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina he moved to Brooklyn in 1985 after graduating from the University of Michigan. He has produced Solomon Burke, Billy Bragg, Louden Wainwright 111 , Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello and many others.
He has co-written with Madonna as he has been married to her sister since 1987. From his 15th solo album, “The Mission”
Robert Forster – “Go Free” from The Candle and the Flame
Robert Forster is a a former of the great 80’s Australian band The Go- Betweens mainly with the late great Grant McLennan. The Go-Betweens broke up in 1989 after six stellar underappreciated albums. Fave track? This gem:
The Go – Betweens reformed in 2000 and miraculously didn’t lose a beat releasing three more wonderful albums. Unfortunately, MacLennan succumbed to a heart attack in 2006 at the age of 48. Since then, Forster established a career as a music journalist in Australia and has over the years, released solo material. From his eighth solo lp, “Go Free”
Rahul Sipligunj, Kala Bhairaa, M.M. Keeravani – Naatu Naatu
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Electric Youth Remodel)
Begonia – Married by Elvis
Cassandra Lewis
I could listen to her voice all day. Maybe I’ll do that.
“Darlin”-Official Music Video- Cassandra Lewis
Something about her
Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter Cassandra Lewis played her first real show in a retirement home. As a child, she grew up loving music and “dissecting” the voices of other singers she listened to. By five years old, she hosted little concerts in her basement, singing to a little karaoke machine her grandparents had bought her.
“When people ask,” says Lewis, “I just tell them [I create] Cosmic Americana. Dolly Parton on acid. Janis Joplin on Jesus. I think people are starting to get what that means. I’ve gone through a lot of phases musically, but I’ve always been deeply rooted in classic country western, the blues, soul, and psychedelic rock.”
Hall of Fame DJ Marco Collins’ Top 10 PNW Artists He’d “Sign Right Now”
Historic DJ Marco Collins is one of two Seattle disc-jockeys honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Collins, who broke bands in the ‘90s like Beck and Pearl Jam on his now-infamous radio station 107.7 The End
His number 1 choice is Cassandra Lewis:
“Cassandra is hand’s down one of the most authentic and striking voices I’ve heard in decades. I first saw Cassandra play on the Willamette River in front of a tugboat, in her hometown of Portland, Oregon where she stunned and brought an unfamiliar audience to their feet for a standing ovation. Not many artists can bring me to tears, Cassandra does it within three songs. That’s how pure this shit is.”
With a dusty baritone as bright as an eternally lit jukebox and tattooed fingers around the fretboard of a rare guitar, Stephen Sanchez tunes into longing and love with the acuity of a triedand-tested troubadour—yet he’s only 19 years-old. Transcending eras, he writes the kind of songs that can play just as well from your parent’s vintage record player as they could from the main stages of festivals a la Bonnaroo. If somebody told you he just pulled up from the fifties in a gorgeous Caddy, you’d have a hard time disputing it.
Just love this song. It is trending in Canada – on CBC’s Top Twenty this week, so I am a little late to this, but he has a great voice and the song has a unique sound (IMO).
Two videos featuring Stephen Sanchez – the second one is amazing – Unchained Melody!
Unchained Melody – Stephen Sanchez The Newport Columbus Ohio
He is ONLY 21 years old and his career seems to have started during COVID.
In June 2020, Sanchez posted a cover of Cage the Elephant‘s “Cigarette Daydreams” on TikTok and he built an audience through a steady stream of content, attracting over 122.1K followers on TikTok.[1]
After sharing a snippet of “Lady by the Sea”, singer-songwriter Jeremy Zucker reached out offering to produce the official version, which was released in July 2020; as a result Sanchez signed a deal with Republic Records. Sanchez worked with producer Ian Fitchuk on his debut EP What Was, Not Now which was released in October 2021.[1]
On November 4, 2022, he released a single with Ashe, titled “Missing You”.[2]
January 25, 2023, he then released a single titled “Evangeline” which kicked off his upcoming headline tour.
Sanchez appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to help promote the new song and his headline tour. Sanchez performed his song “Evangeline” on the show.
Rahul Sipligunj, Kala Bhairaa, M.M. Keeravani – Naatu Naatu
“Naatu Naatu” Wins Best Original Song in a Motion Picture | 2023 Golden Globe Awards on NBC
From Pitchfork:
RRR’s “Naatu Naatu” Wins Best Original Song at 2023 Golden Globes
“I’m very much overwhelmed with this great moment happening,” M.M. Keeravani said upon accepting the award. “It’s been an age-old practice to say that this award actually belongs to someone else. So I was planning to not say those words when I get an award like this, but I’m sorry to say I’m going to repeat the tradition because I mean my words.” Keeravani then went on to thank RRR’s director S.S. Rajamouli, actors N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan, and the song’s lyricist, co-composers, programmers, and scene animator.
M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose triumphed over Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and more – Pitchfork
Naatu Naatu Full Video Song (Telugu) [4K] | RRR | NTR,Ram Charan | MM Keeravaani | SS Rajamouli
an additional interesting story – the Naatu Naatu dance scene was filmed in the Ukraine just before the Russian invasion – From Screen Daily
The search was on for a grand civic residence that might look as if it were in colonial India, but was actually in a part of Europe that was accessible to white western performers. The producers settled on Ukraine’s Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv. In August 2021, just six months before the Russian invasion, Rajamouli’s team decamped to a setting that would soon be known by the wider world for very different reasons.
Momma consists of Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten, who have been friends with each other since meeting at Viewpoint School, as well as drummer Zach Capitti Fenton
The Brooklyn duo’s cheeky spin on Gen-X slacker rock asks: What does it take to become a 1990s alt-rock star right this minute?
Should Momma indeed become household names, it’s the hooks that will get them there: The beefy riffs and call-and-response chorus of single “Speeding 72”—their best shot at a true hit—just barely outweigh its cliché of a good old-fashioned joyride.
The singer isn’t new to the game; before going solo as Begonia she spent years kicking around the Winnipeg music scene, perhaps most notably as a member of the prog-folk unit Chic Gamine. With Fear, she decided to rip up her own playbook and push herself artistically, supported and guided by producers Matt Peters and Matt Schellenberg of ’Peg indie heroes Royal Canoe. Two-and-a-half years went into the writing and recording process, leading to Fear being hailed as an under-the-radar masterpiece by tastemakers (NPR, CBC, The Line of Best Fit) around the world.
A CBC video The Other Side
Begonia | The Other Side | First Play Live
a little too serious, this works much better
Begonia – Married By Elvis (Official Music Video)
Boygenius – Cool About It
Boygenius is a group formed in 2018 by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. If those names sound familiar, it’s because Dacus and Bridgers have been featured on Old Fellas in the past. This “indie supergroup” released their first full-length album simply called The Record, earlier this year. “Cool About It” seems to be the lead single
Lucy Dacus explains that boygenius sardonically refers to “the archetype of the tortured genius, [a] specifically male artist who has been told since birth that their every thought is not only worthwhile but brilliant. The “boy genius” trope as boys and men we know who’ve been told that they are geniuses since they could hear”
Valley – “Good But Not Good Together”
This is the second or third Valley song featured on the Old Fellas podcast. The Juno-nominated band is about to embark on their first headliner North American Tour. See them if you can.
A new album is forthcoming. Valley has developed a rabid fan base in Asia. Here’s a clip of the band performing last year in Seoul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TotigJntc30
The New Pornographers – Really Really Light (Official Music Video)
Ryuichi Sakamoto – “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (Electric Youth Remodel)
Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away last week at the age of 71. Few people can claim to have made their mark on classical music, synth pop, dance music and hip-hop. His musical career began with the Japanese electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra, which he co-founded in 1978. The group’s fusion of pop, rock and electronic music helped to pave the way for the emergence of synthpop in the 1980s. Sakamoto composed scores for several films, including The Last Emperor (1987), The Revenant (2015) and, perhaps most famously, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983). Canadian duo Electric Youth have reimagined the classic 80’s track for a new Sakamoto tribute album.
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – Electric Youth Remodel | A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto (Music Video)
I can recall picking up a second hand copy of this single at Vortex records in the early eighties
Lemon Twigs – “Anytime of the Day” from the Everything Harmony being released on May 5th
This is the second Lemon Twigs number to have aired on the podcast. We played one from their previous album back in the Old Fellas “Jurassic” period. The band are principally Brian and Michael D’Addario. Their music and sartorial style seems frozen in about 1972 but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “Anytime of Day” could have been lifted off a Todd Rundgren or Carpenters album. Blogger Burning Wood elaborates:
Blues Lawyer – “Chance Encounters” from All in Good Time
Although this podcast is about listening to new music and pithy penetrating conversation, sometimes we all learn something. I picked Blues Lawyer because of their intriguing name. Well… who knew there’s a whole story there?
https://killerguitarrigs.com/what-is-a-blues-lawyer/ As a semi-musician, I had never heard this term before. Oakland-based Blues Lawyer are anything but “Blues Lawyers”. Chance Encounters is wonderful punchy song with a great retro video
Yo La Tengo – “Aselestine” from This Stupid World,
Critics’ faves Yo La Tengo have been kicking around for almost 40 years now. They have released fifteen studio albums, six compilation albums, fifteen extended plays, twenty-two singles, two film score albums, four collaborative albums, and one album of cover songs. Hoboken’s finest (not counting Frank Sinatra) have just released This Stupid World. Drummer Georgia Hubley takes lead vocals on “Aselestine”
Pitchfork evaluates:
On their liveliest album in at least a decade, indie rock’s most steadfast institution squares up against ubiquitous darkness.
To fully dig the manifold charms of This Stupid World, it’s best to take a single step back into Yo La Tengo’s 38 years-and-counting catalog. In July 2020, amid that first summer of extreme pandemic disorientation, the trio surprised devotees not only with a new Bandcamp page but also with a fresh album, captured at their Hoboken practice space just weeks earlier and offered up like a timely postcard from a friend you’ve missed—we’re OK, and we hope you’re OK, too.
Yo La Tengo rocking out in 2013 at the Pitchfork Festival
Brad Mehldau – “Your Mother Should Know” from Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles
Everybody artist at some point tackles a Beatles cover; it’s inevitable. Bradford is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. As a jazz guy, he takes a fresh approach covering one of Paul McCartney’s minor songs. Mehldau doesn’t, like many jazz guys, stretch the original tune in length or go off on fancy tangents. The actual playing time is very close to the original track. Here he playing live.
Don’t know if I would call this a country song, but it certainly is a banger as the kids say. The lyrics are really interesting to, so I had no problem making this my first pick this week.
About the song – from Wikipedia
“This Hell” is a “glammy, country pop inspired” song which contains references to numerous country and western motifs such as cowboys and horseriding.[3] It was produced by Paul Epworth and Clarence Clarity, and written by Sawayama alongside Vic Jamieson, Epworth, and Lauren Aquilina.[10]
Sawayama has noted Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves as inspirations for “This Hell”, as well as Shania Twain, whom Sawayama has described as “The queen of country pop”.[11]
Sawayama wrote “This Hell” while reflecting about attacks against LGBT people, which are often motivated by religious beliefs, stating: “When the world tells us we don’t deserve love and protection, we have no choice but to give love and protection to each other”.[12] The song contains a guitar solo which was described as “over-the-top” by NPR.[3] The singer makes references to some gay icons such as Britney Spears, Princess Diana, and Whitney Houston,[10] and references Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” with the beginning line, “Let’s go, girls”, as well as Paris Hilton‘s signature catchphrase “that’s hot”.[12] Sawayama stated: “I put in as many iconic pop culture moments as I can, but the song is more than that.” [13] Upon the song’s release, Sawayama posted to Twitter: “I wanted to write a western pop song that celebrated COMMUNITY and LOVE in a time where the world seemed hellish.”[11]
Arctic Monkeys – Body Paint
Another band that has been around for a long time that I didn’t know about. Body Paint, like all the songs on their latest album is so interesting, certainly a cut above the music I was hearing on the Top Lists this week. The Car is Arctic Monkeys’ seventh album.
a bit about the song – interesting notes here.
Musically the song has been described as a “lounge-y piano ballad”, and Beatlesque,[6] with “gorgeous string arrangements” reminiscent of Burt Bacharach and George Martin‘s work with said group.[2] The band has been said as being “in introspective lounge lizard mode over sparkling piano and slowed-down drums.”[7] Robin Murray of Clash, thought there was a “sense of Bowie‘s mid 70s peak in the arrangement”.
More and more I am choosing songs that I think we have played before, but I checked and we haven’t. We have (I forgot) played Arctic Monkeys beforte – different song.
I like everything about Ethel Cain. Bob thinks her last name comes from a Band Song – that is pretty interesting, but I couldn’t find anything on that.
A bit about Ethel Cain from Pitchfork.
“Growing up I was surrounded by visions of NASCAR, rock’n’roll, and being the one who would change everything,” Cain said in a statement. “They make you think it’s all achievable and that if nothing else, you should at least die trying. What they don’t tell you is that you need your neighbor more than your country needs you. I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things the ‘American Teenager’ is supposed to be but never had any real chance of becoming.”
Yet another long-time famous musician I hadn’t heard of before. Bob talks a lot about him during the podcast – I am adding a few notes, mainly for me so I can catch up. This for me would be a great album to pick up soon. I have included below an NPR episode featuring some discussion of his latest album. Plus I found – again from NPR – a great session including Horace Andy and a great group of musicians.
Horace Andy is a reggae legend and a beloved Massive Attack collaborator. On his new album Midnight Rocker, producer Adrian Sherwood sticks to the basics: a full band adorns Andy’s golden voice with rich arrangements, as he offers messages of care in an uncaring world. We open the best music of the month show with “Watch Over Them,” and it’s easy to get lost in Andy’s voice.
Today, right here, we get to peek into the decked-out living room of producer Adrian Sherwood’s home and watch masters of reggae playfully chill. We hear Horace Andy‘s gruff tenor tell stories with 55 years of experience, rasp and wear.
“You’ve got to live, live, live for today, for tomorrow might never come your way,” he pleads as he sings “Today Is Right Here,” a track on his 2022 album Midnight Rocker. And then the lines I love best, “My mama told me when I was a child, said all the best things take a little while. But mama was wrong, wrong, wrong, the best things in life come and they go in the blink of an eye.” All the while, a single snare drum and hi-hat keep the beat, and the band of bass, guitar, keyboard, sax, trumpet and cello warmly support the emotions pouring from Horace Andy.
Premiered Jun 26, 2022 The Czech poem ‘Chtěla jsem tě proklít, hořká zemi’ (I wanted to curse you, bitter land), here with English subtitles, was written by Anna Hana Friesová while she was imprisoned in the concentration camp Theresienstadt (1942-1945). The song is a part of the project ‘Thieves of Dreams‘. Truly beautifyl music – this video is not the track we are featuring, any song from this project would work.
ABOUT THE PROJECT ‘THIEVES of DREAMS,’ a “haunting set of musical gems” (The Bangkok Post, June 9, 2022)
This project is about women. Creative, strong, breaking social taboos, and in some ways… invisible. My maternal grandmother Anna Hana Friesova was a stunning, well-educated woman from an entirely assimilated Czech Jewish family: assimilation was fairly common; in her case, it was based on fears of pogroms witnessed by her husband. She was an accomplished artist both with a pen and a brush, and nobody took her seriously – I suspect not even herself: she never mentioned her art to me. Only when my mother recently passed, I discovered two worn notebooks among her possessions: poems Anna Hana wrote between the years 1940 and 1945, just before and during her two-and-a-half-year incarceration (1942-1945) in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp during WW2. I was stunned by the intensity of her words, the erudite vocabulary, the raw and often disturbing honesty. I find her words just as poignant today as they were eighty years ago.
Even more shocking were the details of the poems. “These were her dreams and nightmares from inside the concentration camp, the stories she never told me when I was growing up,” Lenka added. “Most of us, if we’re lucky enough, have a brief window with our grandparents. That time isn’t typically spent listening to their traumatic stories.”
Lenka Lichtenberg decided to embark on an ambitious project, to bring her grandmother’s voice back to life in the best way she knew how: as a music project, spanning eight decades and three generations. Anna Hana’s poems rarely mentioned the horrors of the camp explicitly. Perhaps this was self-censorship in case her writing was discovered.
Lenka co-founded, with Isabel Fryszberg, the Yiddish swing all-female group Sisters of Sheynville, with whom she performed across Canada, in the U.S. and Europe. The band won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year in 2008 for its Sheynville Express disc.
Kiwi Junior
Kiwi Jr – Unspeakable Things
Originally from Charlottetown, now based in Toronto these guys have not taken a misstep as demonstrated by this track lifted from their third album Chppoer. Pitchfork Magazine loved it.
Great song. I can’t remember where I first heard this, but the track is full of great Dominican energy. This song introduces me to dembow and trap music – a new genre that is new to me. More below:
As Dominican dembow and trap continues to spread internationally, the rest of the industry would do well to pay attention to the label’s artful and off-the-wall concoctions. To better understand its place in the movement, check out some of the best Paulus Music releases below.(Guardian)
Dembow is a Dominican musical genre[1][2] that can be traced to a riddim that originated in Jamaican dancehall.[3] When Shabba Ranks released “Dem Bow” in 1990, it did not take long for the dembow genre to form. Riddims were built from the song and the sound became a popular part of reggaeton. From there it took off in Dominican Republic creating the sound UNDERWORLD (“Bajo Mundo” in Spanish). It hit the streets of New York and from there it made its way to all of Latin America. The Dominican Dembow sound keeps evolving and has been fusioned with Trap music since 2016 and it’s also fusioned with Bachata and Merengue from the Dominican Republic. Dembow artists are called “Dembowseros
Tanya Tagaq – Teeth Agape
I decided to play a Tanya Tagaq song after hearing here on the Strombo Show. I couldn’t play particular track – 2014, but this is great. Raw, dark energy. Polaris Prize winner in 2014.
More on Tanya Tagaq:
“I will never stop being surprised that people like my music,” Tanya Tagaq tells me seriously before roaring with laughter. “I can feed my children because people are freaks!”
Even down a bad phone line from her home in Canada, the singer is brilliant company; passionate, political and hilariously foul-mouthed – a world away from the earnest associations that spring to mind when she is described as an “Inuit throat-singer”. “When people hear that, they think my concerts are going to be ‘just darling’,” she agrees with another shout of laughter. (Guardian)
Instead, the 40-year-old wrests the indigenous female tradition – with origins in a vocal breathing game played when men were out hunting – into a medium for pure, unleashed emotion. Her ghostly chants, guttural growls, gasps and moans are enough to make Björk, her sometime collaborator, sound as demure as a choirgirl.
Has Won The 2022 Polaris Music Prize For The Album ‘José Louis And The Paradox Of Love’’
This is Pierre Kwenders’ first Polaris Music Prize win. He is on a good deal now thanks to his Polaris win. Great music, hope to keep on hearing him.
More:
“This is crazy, I don’t even know what to think. This is for all the kids from the diaspora, the African diaspora, moving in Canada. Sometimes you feel like you don’t know what you’re running into, or what you’re coming into. But there is hope, there is a place to live and dream and be yourself. This album, especially, is about being yourself and telling your own story. José Louis And The Paradox Of Love is there for you, you know, if you feel you can connect, connect! Let’s talk! Let’s have fun! Let’s be ourselves! Let’s love each other, while we are alive. Bisou!” – Pierre Kwenders
Truth – Jungle
Jungle is a British duo founded in 2013 by producers Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland. They have released three albums. In 2014, Jungle was shortlisted for the prestigious 2014 Mercury Prize in the U.K. Their second album was 2018’s For Ever through XL Recordings. The track Truth, is found on their third album, Loving in Stereo, released in 2021.
This is the second time we have featured Alvvays. It makes sense, they continue to come up with catchy energetic songs. This track is from their third album.
Dry Cleaning are an English band that formed in 2018. They are unusual as they employ spoken word rather than sung vocals. Their debut album New Long Leg was released in 2021
This week, we are getting out our blog early so you can read up on the bands we will be playing. Again, we will try to live stream through Mixcloud using OBS software this time – last week, the live stream dropped all the time so I am hoping this will work better. Here is the link to use if you want to hear and see the broadcast – https://www.mixcloud.com/live/paul-mcguire3/
here are our selections for this week – some of this year’s best songs
Kiwi Jr – Only Here For a haircut
Jenna Esposito – The Other Side of Forever – Guardian
Kiwi Jr. is a Toronto-based band. This is the third song from the album “Cooler Returns” that has been featured on this podcast twice already. Released in Jan. 2021, this hasn’t left Bob’s turntable since he bought the album.
I thought this was a great song, but when you read the incredible story below from the Guardian, I think you will agree we needed to include this one.
The best songs of 2021 … that you haven’t heard
It’s the heartbreak and hopefulness of a turbulent 2021 from the mind of a songwriter who knows them all too well. Ernie Rossi, owner of century-old gift and music shop E Rossi and Company in New York City’s Little Italy, was sidelined by health problems after reopening following the long city-mandated shutdown. Margaret, his wife of 51 years, knew the neighborhood icon might not stay afloat if doors closed once again and solely took over duties with the couple’s best friend, Freddy. Then this past spring, both Margaret and Freddy caught and died of Covid-19. In the wake of their consecutive deaths, Rossi wrote The Other Side of Forever, a heartfelt tribute to the bond the trio shared and the immense loss he feels. Recorded by the New York indie artist Jenna Esposito, the earworm ballad with a momentous opening and climatic finale was produced in the Italian folk style the store was known for being a chief importer of nearly 100 years ago. And today, Rossi is continuing his fight to stay in business.
This Australian band via Tasmania are an absolute delight. We had to be satisfied in listening to this album on Spotify as it is darned near impossible to snag a physical copy unless one is willing to pay a ridiculous price. The NME calls “Gutters of Love” an instant classic.
As the 2010s drew to a close, Quivers found themselves on the ascent. They’d established a new lineup, and permanently relocated to Melbourne from their native Tasmania. They’d released two acclaimed singles, ‘You’re Not Always On My Mind’ and ‘When It Breaks’, which balanced a summery jangle-pop exterior and melancholic inner turmoil. American broadcasters NPR and KEXP co-signed their music, while at home they crossed a rare divide by getting played on both Double and triple j.
This is another one from the Guardian. I hadn’t heard of Olivia Rodrigo, and this really isn’t my type of music, but this is a really great song. So, why not. More from The Guardian below. They rated her album Sour the 8th best album of the year.
Having essayed one end of heartbreak with the piano lament Drivers License, Rodrigo’s mood swung like a wrecking ball towards this equally massive hit (between them, they spent 14 weeks at UK No 1). From its sarcastic title downwards, Good 4 U’s recrimination has the kind of bitterness that softens with age and only a teenage palate can truly appreciate, as Rodrigo rages against her blithely happy ex. The ways the chords shift through different shades of hurt is riveting, as is Rodrigo’s delivery, as if writing in a journal with the nib piercing the paper. BBT
Released in January, Drivers License sprang (almost) out of nowhere like a heaved sob. Four days later, it broke Spotify records for the most single-day streams (Christmas songs exempted). The next day, it broke that record again. After 10 weeks at No 1 in the US and nine in the UK, it has been streamed 1.9bn times. Next Tuesday, the California-born songwriter makes her live debut at the Brits; the following weekend, she does Saturday Night Live; a week later she releases her debut album, Sour, a grippingly well written – all by her – collection of balladry, pop-punk, bitter diatribes and euphoric taunts that dwells on this romantic treachery. Even in an era when virality powers pop, Rodrigo’s is a fast rise.
The Drivers License singer reflects on turning her first big breakup into the year’s biggest hit – and how songwriting saved her from the anxieties of being a Disney star
My second source for the best music comes from Pitchfork Magazine. I chose their #3 and #7 choices – both great songs by artists that are new to me.
In another trying year, many of the best songs—from “Like I Used To” to “Pick Up Your Feelings” to “Hard Drive” to “Good Days”—were about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and trying again. These tracks gave us a shoulder to cry on, but also, crucially, a kick in the pants when we needed it most. They were the soundtrack to our 2021, and we have a feeling we’ll keep turning to them in better times yet to come. These are the 100 best songs of the year.
Wet Leg
Wet Leg – Too Late Now .
Old Fellas featured Wet Leg’s catchy “Chaise Lounge” a while back which is one of four single releases in their small but impressive output. An album released is anticipated for spring 2022 so listening to the last single release “ Too Late Now” will have to do until then. Great bathrobes!
Low – Days Like These
Alan Sparhawk spirals through a series of escalating horrors as he offers a summary of his mindset over the past five years: “Holy crap, this guy’s going to be our president. Oh crap, he’s our president. Wow, things have been horrible for a long time, and it’s getting worse. What, we’re sick? We’re all going to die now?” Eventually, the Low singer and guitarist shifts from a cartoonish hysteria into a gruff acceptance as he makes a broader point about American life in 2021 as well as his band’s combustible new album, HEY WHAT. “Look at where we are,” he says, zooming to the present tense. “We’re still looking in each other’s eyes and going, What the hell?”
Along with his bandmate and wife, Mimi Parker, Sparhawk has long found inspiration in this type of unlikely perseverance. Nearly three decades into their career, and on their 13th album, Low are making their strangest, strongest, and most fearless music to date. On HEY WHAT, the duo is once again joined by producer BJ Burton, known for his work with Bon Iver and Charli XCX, who helped them explore abrasive digital effects and alien vocal manipulation on 2018’s Double Negative. The new album presents these abstract textures with even more intensity, as Sparhawk and Parker’s gorgeous harmonies pierce through a vertiginous landscape of glitches and static that may make you wonder if your speakers are imploding while you listen.
“Days Like These” is a song in the form of an eclipse: the first half made of blinding light, the second an uncanny, disembodied stillness. Singing into a static blur that sounds like wind noise on video, or like someone’s sawing through the tape, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker describe a vast and subtle longing, a desire for a kind of transcendence not found on Earth. “Know that I would do anything,” they cry, their fried-out vocals taking on the call-and-response pattern of a hymn. But in this strange, desaturated grief, there’s no action to take. Even the song doesn’t end, really; it just stretches out, twinkling in the distance, a lone satellite pressing on toward the edge of space. –Anna Gaca
James Clark Institute
James Clark institute – Little Powder Keg
To quote The Pursuit of Happiness’ Moe Berg, ““James takes the power pop traditions of The Beatles, Jellyfish and Split Enz and combines them with the high IQ lyrics of Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. The result makes him one of Canada’s greatest unsung songwriters”
Also, here’s great version of the Badfinger classic “Baby Blue”
Mitski: “Working for the Knife” #7
The saying goes that if you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Mitski would like to have a word on that. After a long and grueling world tour supporting her breakthrough album Be the Cowboy, the singer took time off in 2019, saying she needed a break from the “constant churn” of performance. “Working for the Knife” is her brooding, melancholic first major single back from this respite, and acts as an incisive warning about how much of our identity we give to our life’s greatest undertakings, and who we’re giving it up for. The song unfolds as a balancing act of vulnerability and expectation, of altruistic self-expression and the vanity of wanting to be seen, or even adored. There’s some humor to it all; forlorn, she recognizes that the world never stops turning, and that it’s fine to lie to ourselves if it helps pass the time. It’s a one-act play of existential malaise and a sardonic anthem for those who can’t help but seek out the spotlight. –Puja Patel
Silk Sonic is an R&B superduo composed of singer Bruno Mars and rapper and singer Anderson .Paak. The duo released its debut single, “Leave the Door Open”, in March 2021, and its debut album, An Evening with Silk Sonic, in November 2021. This song veers close to a parody of 70’s soul but it’s just too good to be considered so.
I Used to be a Better Man – Small Sins – Album Volume II
This is the first album by Thomas D’Arcy in ten years. He is now mainly a producer (D’Arcy and Drew eventually founded the original Taurus near Cabbagetown. “We had this big huge control room, but I was still just using it for a writer space,” recalls D’Arcy. He quickly began working with friends like July Talk and Sheepdogs side project BROS.)in Toronto, but I think this is a great album, all tracks are pretty strong. One of a few musicians going strong again after a long career.
A few notes on Thomas D’Arcy
Yet, Volume II feels like the most personal work D’Arcy’s produced since, well, Small Sins’ debut. It inevitably fails to live up to it’s counterpart, but that hardly seems to have been the point. D’arcy clearly had some things he wanted to get off his chest that that record’s sound were uniquely suited to conveying.
Here is an interesting video that he self-produced in 2020 in Hyde Park on Christmas Day, featuring all the lyrics from his most recent album Volume II
Thomas D’Arcy Filmed on Christmas day, 2020 at High Park in Toronto. This is one continuous shot. From the Album Small Sins: Volume II, out Feb 12th 2021 via Thomas D’Arcy Music, distributed by Arts and Crafts. Self-shot. Directed, edited and titled by Ryan Gullen.
Lee Perry – Run Evil Spirit
Lee Perry is an international Reggae legend as a performer and producer for such artists as Bob Marley, The Clash, The Beastie Boys and dozens and dozens of Jamaican artists. In 2019 in his 83rd year , he produced the lp Rainford from which “Run Evil Spirit” hails. Vinyl Factory offers an excellent primer in Perry’s work.
If jazz has Sun Ra and funk has George Clinton, then reggae has Lee “Scratch” Perry.
Also worth watching is this excellent documentary
The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry
How Not to Drown – Chvrches
CHVRCHES, Robert Smith – How Not To Drown (Official Video)
This is a great track by the Scottish Indy band Chvrches. I love the vocalist Lauren Mayberry and the video is made all that more interesting by the menacing presence of Robert Smith of the Cure. Here are a few notes about the song, I think from Pitchfork.
“We’ve been working with Scott on all the visual aspects of Screen Violence and this video is the second installment in a connected trilogy,” Chvrches lead singer Lauren Mayberry explains. The video builds off of the surreal, film noir-inspired imagery from “He Said She Said,” now with the addition of the Cure frontman appearing on a television screen.
Screen Violence, which derives its title from one of Chvrches’ original proposed band names, will be released August 27th via Glassnote Records, and was largely recorded remotely between Glasgow and Los Angeles during the pandemic. The album follows the band’s 2018 LP Love Is Dead.
And because Robert Smith is such an iconic figure, Bob suggested we add this video
Robert Smith (The Cure) in episode of South Park where he battles Barbara Streisand
Edwyn Collins – I Guess We Were Still Young
Edwyn Collins is a Scottish Musician. Born in in 1959 , he became known in the early 80’s as the leader of post punk band Orange Juice. Here is the “Sound of Young Scotland’ performing on TV in the early 80’s.
orange juice flesh…
In 2005, Collins was hospitalised after 2 cerebral haemorrhages as detailed here.
Edwyn Collins talks about his two strokes (Channel 4 News, 2.10.14)
I Guess We Were Young
Squirrel Flower – Flames and Flat Tires Album Planet (i) 2021
I just had to add this pithy quote from the Guardian music page
We’re going to blame the trials of 2020 for Ella Williams – AKA Squirrel Flower – not being ranked up alongside the celestial likes of Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten. The songwriter released her debut album, I Was Born Swimming, at the exact moment everything changed for ever. Talk about timing. Flames and Flat Tires is a grunge-folk intoxicant that comes in at under three minutes but will stick with you for hours.
Squirrel Flower – Flames and Flat Tires [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
Pitchfork likes Squirrel Flower (Ella Williams) too. They write about her tendency to write about roads and cars. All to say, it is a pretty fine track for a 24-year old.
On Planet (i), the road is a nexus of nostalgia and intimacy: “Iowa 146” uses a whisper-sing delivery and gorgeous, fingerpicked guitar melody to capture the sweetness of a night spent on top of a car with a love interest. But it’s also a site of disasters that haunt Williams’s imagination: the careening firestorms of “Flames and Flat Tires,” or the Missouri floods that inspired “Deluge in the South,” which has the openhearted, country-speckled quality of a Waxahatchee deep cut. Williams’ vivid songwriting and versatile voice bring both sides to life.
Born 1946, Arnold sang backing vocals for Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the fall of 1966 after their tour with the Rolling Stones in the UK. She remained in London to establish a solo career, with the encouragement of Mick Jagger. This interview with PP Arnold gives her amazing story
PP Arnold -Talks about T.Turner,M.Jagger,B.Gibb,Clapton,A.Franklin & more -Radio Broadcast 14/07/19
She released her first album in 1967 on Immediate records. This is a promo video with the Small Faces for the single “If You Are Feeling Groovy”
SMALL FACES & P.P. ARNOLD – (If You Think You’re) Groovy RARE BEACH PROMO 1967
It took 51 years to see the release of her second album. From “The New Adventures of…”, is the song “Baby Blue”
P.P. Arnold “Baby Blue” Official Song Stream – Album out August 9th, 2019
Yola – Stand for Myself
Yolanda Quartey (born 31 July 1983[1]), known professionally as Yola or Yola Carter, is an English musician, singer and songwriter from Bristol, England. Yola received four nominations at the 62nd Grammy Awards, including the all-genre Best New Artist category.
Again, am going with the Guardian quote, but I don’t get the Banksy reference:
The best thing to come out of Bristol since the rumour that Banksy is actually the scrawny one out of Massive Attack, Yola’s powerhouse vocals will pin you against the wall and make you rethink everything you thought you knew about the modern diva. Stand for Myself is builder’s tea for the soul: strong, warm and a bit of a wake-up call.
When you read about Yola, it is obvious that this is an artist who has hit here stride. In a recent recording done for a benefit MusiCares and the National Bail Out Collective, she played with Sheryl Crow (piano), Jason Isbell (guitar) and Brandi Carlile (back-up vocals). Pretty good.
The statement she wrote about this song – Hold On is worth repeating here:
“Hold On” is a conversation between me and the next generation of young Black girls. My mother’s advice would always stress caution, that all that glitters isn’t gold, and that my Black female role models on TV are probably having a hard time. She warned me that I should rethink my calling to be a writer and a singer… but to me that was all the more reason I should take up this space. “Hold On” is asking the next gen to take up space, to be visible and to show what it looks to be young, gifted and Black.
So, I had to add a clip from one of here performances of Hold On
Yola performs “Hold On” with Supporting Vocals by The Highwomen for Play On: A Benefit Concert
One final note about Yola, on February 21, 2020, Variety announced that she has been cast to play the role of singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe — dubbed the Godmother of rock and roll — in Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s still untitled drama on the life of Elvis Presley.
I didn’t know who Sister Rosetta Tharpe was, but Bob mentioned a session where she played a great guitar session live. I found one here from 1964. I think might be a great movie!
Sister Rosetta Tharpe- “Didn’t It Rain?” Live 1964 (Reelin’ In The Years Archive)
Tinariwen – Amalouna
Tinariwen Is a group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. which in the Tamashek language translates as The People of the Deserts or “The Desert Boys. This rotating roster of musicians have been performing and recording since the eighties. In 1980, Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi put out a decree inviting all young Tuareg men who were living illegally in Libya to receive full military training. Gaddafi dreamed of forming a Saharan regiment, made up of young Tuareg fighters, to further his territorial ambitions. Ag Alhabib and his bandmates answered the call and received nine months of training. Here, the band met additional Tuareg musicians and formed a loosely-organized collective, now known as Tinariwen, to create songs about the issues facing the Tuareg people. This NPR article explains Tinarwen in a nutshell.
Mali’s ‘Guitar Gods’ Tinariwen Receive Racist Threats Ahead Of U.S. Tour
A guitar band from Mali called Tinariwen is famous worldwide. The group’s fans and collaborators have included Robert Plant, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Bono of U2 and Nels Cline of Wilco. The band has fought extremism in their home country of Mali, and been victims themselves. But ahead of a September show in Winston-Salem, N.C., social media commenters are leveling violent, racist attacks against the musicians.
A refresher on Tinariwen: This a group of Tuareg musicians from the north of Mali. The members have been hailed as guitar gods, playing rolling melodic lines and loping rhythms that evoke the desert sands of the Sahara — the band’s native home. The band’s name literally means “deserts” in their language, Tamasheq.
An interesting part of this article talks about The Festival in the Desert. When we broadcast yesterday we talked about the famous concernt and we wondered what had happened to it,.
Again from the NPR article:
The hope for a larger Festival in the Desert was that it could serve as an economic engine and encourage cultural tourism to northern Mali, a region that has often struggled, and to show cultural unity among Mali’s richly diverse peoples, in the years after the country suffered terrible and bloody conflict in the 1990s. To that end, the organizers invited some incredible Malian musicians who weren’t Tuareg to perform — artists like Ali Farka Touré and Oumou Sangare — along with Robert Plant. The 2003 Festival in the Desert became legendary — and it spurred Tinariwen to worldwide success. But the Festival in the Desert didn’t last. The political situation in Mali grew more precarious, and by 2012, Islamist extremists — many of them foreigners — fanned out across northern Mali, in hopes of gaining control. Musicians became a prime target. The Festival in the Desert went into exile, and transformed by necessity into an international touring collective.
Yet another musician Bob and I didn’t know about, Alex Little comes from a pretty interesting famil;y line of musicians. This profile is from the local Vancouver Weekly:
Music has always been a big part of Alex Little’s life. Growing up she watched her father drum for bands around Vancouver, playing for bands like The Payola$ and the Bughouse Five. She was raised to be comfortable in a rock’n roll crowd. Looking up to her father, she would eventually become a drummer herself, playing in punk bands around Vancouver for many years. During that time she was writing her own material on the side, but was a bit shy about it.
It wasn’t until she met fellow Vancouver rocker Andy Bishop that she started down the path of becoming a front woman. Bishop has been a mainstay of the Vancouver music scene for some time, having played in bands like Twin Rivers, Red Cedar, and White Ash Falls. He and Little happened to work together at the Wallflower when they met.
“It was just a fun thing that we never necessarily saw a future in,” Little recalls. “He was very helpful in getting me going. We went to Long and McQuade and he helped me pick out a guitar because, as a drummer, I knew nothing about guitars. Then we just jammed for awhile and wrote together.”
Alex Little and the Suspicious Minds – Big Lies (Official Visualizer)
a little more about here from her website
“My best songs are written when I’m having the worst time,” says Alex Little with a wry laugh. “There’s no songs about feeling good. It’s about connecting to that deep dark part of myself, which is the reason why I make music.” This blunt emotional honesty is the driving force behind Vancouver’s Alex Little & the Suspicious Minds, whose scorching garage-pop songs unflinchingly tackle drug addiction, mental health and heartbreak. And yet, despite the heavy subject matter, the group’s soaring choruses and loud guitars mean that the mood is cathartic rather than heavy.
Quivers – You’re Not Always On My Mind (Live on KEXP)
Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To
I have to start with another fun quote from the Guardian
“I strongly believe that if Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen teamed up to sing anything up to and including Las Ketchup it would be a moment so emotional we’d all emerge three minutes later with dewy eyes and a strong urge to become better people. So you can imagine what they’ve done with this swirling eddy of a song. Exhaustingly amazing.”
Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen – Like I Used To (Official Video)
This is another artist(s) that seem to be really popular in the UK, but I have never heard them here. Not that this is any measure of note. But everything I read about this new single is really positive and the video is pretty good too. Last word goes to Pitchfork:
Their first collaborative single, “Like I Used To,” lives up to its potential, plays to their strengths, and still manages to pack a surprise.
Bleachers is an American indie pop act based in New York City. It is the official stage name of songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff, who is also part of the bands Steel Train, Fun, and Red Hearse. Bleachers’ pop music is heavily influenced by the late ’80s, early ’90s and the high school-based films of John Hughes while still using modern production techniques. Their first single, “I Wanna Get Better“, was released February 18, 2014.
The world’s premier Springsteen tribute act is back with producer extraordinaire Jack Antonoff channelling the Boss into a skittery break-up song. It feels as if it’s trying to say one thing and do another, with the gang vocals attempting to build to euphoria, but coming off a bit like a bunch of lads worse for wear on the train after a match.
Instead, we featured the song Chinatown and there are several Youtube videos of this song, all with Bruce Springsteen. This is the one I liked
Bleachers – Chinatown (BLEACHERS ON THE ROOF live at electric lady) ft. Bruce Springsteen
How did Jack Antonoff get Bruce Springsteen to play on this song? You will have to listen to the broadcast to get Bob’s reasoning which makes lots of sense.
Another great song, but outside our timeline is Roller Coaster
Bleachers – Rollercoaster
Their upcoming album including Chinatown and Stop Making This Hurt will be Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night.
Goon Sax
The Goon Sax are indie pop trio from Brisbane, Australia. Formed in 2013, the band consists of Riley Jones, Louis Forster and James Harrison.
The Goon Sax – A few times too many
I think Robert Christgau, (the “ Dean of US Rock criticism “) hits the nail on the head,
The Goon Sax
Up for Anything [Chapter Music, 2016] A-
We’re Not Talking [Wichita Recordings, 2018] A-
Consumer Guide Reviews:
Up for Anything [Chapter Music, 2016] My brilliant wife heard Go-Betweens in this high school band well before I learned that Robert Forster’s son Louis was a cofounder or that they were “driven” by a female drummer or even that they were Australian. Nah, I told her, though I liked them fine–too crude. And indeed, they’re cruder than even the earliest Go-Betweens, who were a university band after all, and somewhat static at their worst. Usually, however, they’re charming at least. When Louis fantasizes about a “Boyfriend” or James Harrison hates the “Telephone,” it just accentuates the specifically adolescent angst they pin down so much more candidly and affectingly than any other high school band that comes to mind. “If you don’t want to hold my sweaty hands / I completely understand”? Pretty mature, in its way. A-
We’re Not Talking [Wichita Recordings, 2018] Although Louis Forster takes fewer leads on this young threesomes’s smoother and trickier follow-up, their unpretentious affect, plain guitar, and flat groove still recall the early years of his dad’s Go-Betweens. True, Louis reports that he’s barely heard them. But I doubt de facto frontman James Harrison was so cautious, and can imagine drummer Riley Jones learning that Lindy Morrison never stepped up to the mike and deciding she’d better: “I don’t want distance / When distance always seems to be the thing / That comes and hurts us.” In any case, a university art band they’re not. Instead they’re still reflecting on adolescence with a humility and concentration that hurts. No one’s calling but they’re not picking up the phone. Passing your bus stop hurts even though they know you need time to yourself. Come to think on it, they “never knew what love meant” anyway. Yet already mortality impends in the form of “piles of books I’ll never read / And a list of things I’ll never be.” Twelve songs in half an hour that say more than they pretend and plenty they may only intuit. A-
Comparisons to the Go- Betweens are unavoidable. Here’s a neat little 5 minute bio with Louis Forster’s dad Robert.
The Go-Betweens: The 80s band that never conquered the world – BBC Newsnight
Japanese Breakfast – Paprika
This is the second act that Bob and I were both planning to feature for this show. Here are some selected quotes from Exclaim Magazine.
“When the world divides into two people / Those who have felt pain and those who have yet to,” Michelle Zauner sings during the aching ballad “Posing in Bondage.” It’s clear that she falls into the former camp, but Jubilee, her third album as Japanese Breakfast, dances the pain away. Whether it’s the fashionable funk of “Be Sweet” and “Slide Tackle,” the stately Beirut horns of “Paprika,” or the honeyed pop classicism of “Kokomo, IN” and “Tactics,” Jubilee is always tinged with melancholy but never defeated by it.
I couldn’t find a good version of Paprika on Youtube so instead here is her performance on the Tonight Show with Be Sweet from the same album.
Japanese Breakfast is an indie rock band headed by Korean-American musician, director, and author Michelle Zauner (born March 29, 1989). The band released its first studio album Psychopomp (2016) on Yellow K Records, followed by Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021) on Dead Oceans.
Here is an interview with Lambchop’s head guy Kurt Wagner explaining the lp “Showtunes”
Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner: “I was looking for something less structured, something I hadn’t done before” – Interview by Steven Johnson
On the background to new album Showtunes, converting guitar into piano sounds, continuing to embrace technology and broadening his range of collaborators
Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner (Photo: Angelina Castillo)
As frontman of Lambchop for the best part of the last 30 years, Kurt Wagner has pursued a long, satisfying musical journey where developments within the band’s sound have been gradual and considered. Yet, there have also been discreet nods to different genres along the way, pleasing embellishments and expansions to their core alt-country aesthetic. New album Showtunes provides another stylistic detour of sorts, building on the fresh direction put in place on 2019’s This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) and 2016’s FLOTUS as Wagner takes indirect inspiration from showtunes, American standards from the first half of the 20th century.
These aren’t covers or close appropriations however, but rather typically impressionistic pieces that bring together Wagner’s songwriting strengths and his broader interest in musical experimentation. Given the sense of progression that has defined Lambchop’s recent releases it feels oddly apt that when we catch up with Wagner to talk about the album, the conversation begins on a travel-related note. “I’m out here in Las Vegas visiting my in-laws at the moment. We haven’t seen them in quite a while, so we just drove on out here. It feels weird to actually travel. I haven’t been on an interstate for over a year. It feels like things are transitioning with the pandemic. Having driven across the country, it feels like we’re on the cusp of a lot of people getting out and about.”
Mahamadou Souleymane,[1][2] known professionally as Mdou Moctar (also M.dou Mouktar; born c. 1986[3][1] or 1984[1]) is a Tuareg songwriter and musician based in Agadez, Niger, and is one of the first musicians to perform modern electronic adaptations of Tuareg guitar music.[4][5] He first became famous through a trading network of cellphones and memory cards in West Africa.[6]
If it were up to Mdou Moctar, the fiery, psychedelic rock music that has made him one of the most respected guitarists working today would be kept far away from professional recording studios. “With all due respect to all engineers,” the Tuareg virtuoso recently confessed to Reverb, “I find it much too square.” Late last year, the Nigerien musician gathered his bandmates outside a friend’s house in Niamey to test out material from Afrique Victime in a more comfortable environment. In the open air, the quartet quickly attracted an audience: adults dancing, children air-drumming, and others just watching in awe as Moctar’s songs ascended and burst in the desert sky like fireworks. As Sam Sodomsky writes in his Best New Music review: “You get the sense that when the lights go down and he looks out at his audience, he doesn’t just see his community: He sees the future.”
His first guitar was made from wood and bicycle parts and his first songs were shared via Bluetooth in the desert. But the Niger musician has become international – and is taking aim at France
How do you even dream of making music when your family and religious leaders disapprove, when you live at the edge of the Sahara desert, and you cannot afford an instrument?
It helps that the Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar, from Niger, is not easily discouraged. Unable to acquire a guitar, he made one out of a piece of wood with brake wires from an old bicycle for strings, and taught himself to play in secret. “I was from a religious family and music was not welcome, but I would go and listen to local musicians and dream of being like them,” the 32-year-old singer-songwriter says over the phone while on tour in the US.
“My parents didn’t have the means to buy me an instrument and wouldn’t have done so. To them, becoming a musician would mean I was a delinquent, a terrible person drinking beer and taking drugs. I never told them I wanted to play the guitar, I didn’t dare. So I made one.”
The next challenge was reaching an audience. Moctar, born in the village of Abalak in the Azawagh desert of northern Niger, began playing at weddings, singing in Tamasheq, the Tuareg language. His first album Anar – composed for a lost love – was recorded in Nigeria in 2008: it introduced Moctar’s simple, raw guitar sound and haunting lyrics, a style known locally as “assouf”, a word that does not easily translate, but evokes desert blues. Anar wasn’t officially released; instead, it spread across the continent via Bluetooth swaps between mobile phone data cards.
Mdou Moctar – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
Mdou Moctar – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
Mdou Moctar immediately stands out as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar and have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene. Mdou shreds with a relentless and frenetic energy that puts his contemporaries to shame.
(Bandcamp)
James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg – Reel Around the Fountain
James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg are an instrumental duo who play original compositions and a stunning diverse set of cover songs. Who would think of covering The Smith’s, “Reel Around the Fountain”?
Reel Around the Fountain – James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg
Here’s the original version juxtaposed to scenes from the film, “Atonement.” I guess both song and film have fountains?
The Smiths – Reel Around The Fountain
Nathan Salsburg is also the Curator of the Alan Lomax Archive at the Association for Cultural Equity. This is the website. It is definitely worth diving into.
I mentioned Brador in passing. In celebration of June 24th, here is a stubby of Brador!
As is Faist’s trademark, the new single comes with an accompanying video, shot on his trusty 16mm film camera. The “Hoodwink” clip features the dancing stylings of cowboy hat-clad Lee Kennedy, who busts some moves outside Toronto’s Dufferin Mall with her trusty scooter by her side.
Said Faist about the video’s star, “The video features Lee Kennedy, who I met in Kensington Market on her scooter one day. She was dressed in pink head-to-toe, and I took her photo while we drank coffee. I remembered her enthusiasm and tracked her down because I wanted to put her in a video. She showed up to Dufferin Mall on her scooter, danced for a minute and a half, and then we went home.”
Songs this week
Bob’s songs
Dinosaur Jr. – I Ain’t
Guided By Voices – Trust Them Now
Yo Le Tengo – Shades of Blue
Teenage Fanclub – The Sun Won’t Shine On Me
Paul McCartney – Winterbird /When Winter Comes
Paul’s songs
Alvvays – In Undertow
Groupie – Thick As Glue
Du Blonde – I’m Glad We Broke Up
Kobo Town – Scarborough Girl
Boy Wonder – Hoodwink
Our Spotify Playlist for this week
Here is this week’s episode!
Before we get started, we have to put in a note about John Peel, the legendary DJ we talk about at the beginning of the broadcast. If you want to listen to some, or many of his broadcasts your can download them off this great blog – The Perfumed Garden.
More about John Peel here:
Mairi McGuire has been asking for the Alvvays for a few weeks, so here they are! A great band with deep Maritime roots. I am including a full KEXP session here so you can listen to more of their great music.
Alvvays – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
The band consists of Molly Rankin (vocals and guitar), Kerri MacLellan (keyboards), Alec O’Hanley (guitars), Brian Murphy (bass) and Sheridan Riley (drums). Their second studio album, Antisocialites, was released on September 8, 2017 and would go on to win the Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. Both albums have been short listed for the Polaris Music Prize.
From Wikipedia
I have to give a nod this week to Pitchfork for some of my stories this week. What a great resource for new music!
Yo La Tengo
Bob tells an mazing story about how the band got it’s name – you really need to listen to this on the show.
This is an excellent interview with Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo
This video from 2013 shows the band’s more heavy guitar “skronk”approach
Groupie
I like this song and the story from Pitchfork is really interesting. The song is Thick as Glue and you can read more about this new band below:
Groupie began when Ashley Kossakowski put out a call for bandmates on Craigslist, which was answered by guitarist Johanna Healy. Now a quartet, the Brooklyn band recently released a full-length debut, Ephemeral, an invigorating collection of post-punk leaning tracks about identity, nostalgia, and female empowerment. On the dreamy centerpiece, “Thick As Glue,” they interrogate the myth of the male artistic genius: “Young woman idolizing heroic men singing about heroin/Tried to keep it cool, now it’s my turn too. Who you think you’re looking up to?” –Quinn Moreland – Pitchfork
Ever the contrarian, Robert Pollard left their most “radio-friendly” and well known song off this collection. From the TV show Scrubs:
Du Blonde
Song: I’m Glad That We Broke Up from the album Homecoming
I really had to add this video – this really defines who Beth Jeans Houghton is all about.
More about Du Blonde from the Guardian:
If you want something done right, do it yourself: so Newcastle’s Beth Jeans Houghton resolved for her third record as Du Blonde. Tired of feeling limited by the industry, she wrote, recorded, produced and released Homecoming herself, right down to tie-dying her own merch. Despite this bravura show of self-reliance, she still makes space, in a record bursting and bouncing with fuzzy, pop-grunge hooks, for guests from Garbage’s Shirley Manson (on the heat-hazed, delirious Medicated) to Ezra Furman (the glam-punk scrap of I’m Glad That We Broke Up) and Andy Bell of Ride (the alternately dreamy and hard-rock-anthemic All the Way). Houghton is always centre stage, though, right from opener Pull the Plug, whose sweet, surfy melody and low, scuzzy riffs recall early Frank Black, as does the divinely nonchalant I Can’t Help You There.
The whole album conjures the catchiest moments of 90s Boston indie rock – Pixies, Belly, the Breeders. It’s a style appropriated by many, but invoked by a genuine, dedicated kook like Houghton, those dynamics live and breathe. Smoking Me Out, in particular, is a riot – a campy, monstrously distorted vocal on the verse contrasted with a blissfully sweet, sharp powerpop chorus: DIY at its wilful, weird finest.
Here’s Teenage Fanclub playing at Reading 1992. This was gig Nirvana blew open their popularity. Kurt Cobain is sometimes credited as calling Teenage Fanclub “the best band in the world”
The “Fannies” were often compared to 70’s cult heroes Big Star. There is an excellent film on Netflix documenting Big Star’s unlucky foray into the music business .
Kobo Town
Scarborough Girl album – Where the Galleon Sank
Kobo Town was played on Frequencies on May 4th. A great song and an amazing episode!
Again from Exclaim Magazine:
Founded and fronted by émigré Trinidadian songwriter Drew Gonsalves, Kobo Town’s music has been variously described as “an intoxicating blend of lilting calypsonian wit, dancehall reggae and trombone-heavy brass” (Guardian) and a “unique, transnational composite of rhythm, poetry and activist journalism.”(Exclaim!) From their home in Toronto, the JUNO-nominated group has brought their distinct calypso-inspired sound to audiences across the world, from Port-of-Spain to Paris and from Montreal to Malaysia.
The wonderful Errol Nazareth from CBC Frequencies
Boy Wonder – Toronto
Song – Hoodwink – it was hard to get information on Boy Wonder, I went to Exclaim magazine to get this information. You can also go to Revibe Toronto to see a live version of his song – Smile Moma off his 2019 EP
Talented Torontonian Ryan Faist is a filmmaker by day, boy wonder by night. The garage rock project is set to drop a new album, Kinda Blue Too, on June 4 via his own Rainbow Land label, alongside a live concert film, Fear In Public. A month ahead of the album’s release, Faist has released new single “Hoodwink.”
The 95-second blast pairs sturdy rock chords with Faist’s reverbed-to-hell vocals, as he raspily howls about a mutually destructive relationship: “Would ya sell your soul for a buck or two? / ‘Cause if you’ve got me, then I’ve got you.”
In a statement, Faist told Exclaim!:”Hoodwink” is about the beginning of the end of compassion and kindness between us. It’s about the ugly parts of the world, the people who benefit off of people’s misery. I feel like that their wave is gonna rip-curl soon though. Kindness will shine.
The song is an ode to my dad’s old Brit garage rock records that I grew up listening to. Three chords. Less than two minutes. No bridge or breakdown. I love how those songs always trimmed the fat. In and out, like your favourite drive-thru.
This week we played an extra track to get us to 90 minutes
I read about Yasmin Williams first in the New York Times.
Yasmin Williams has described her approach to acoustic guitar as a kind of creative problem-solving. Drawn to the instrument after mastering Guitar Hero 2, she dreamed of tapping along the fretboard like rock virtuosos before her. Unable to replicate their style, she laid the guitar on her lap, tuned the strings in harmony with each other, and played it like a keyboard. Drawing from a love of hip-hop, she sought an underlying rhythm throughout her wordless, melodic compositions. Without an accompanist, she attached a kalimba—a type of thumb piano—at the bottom of her instrument, plucking it with her right hand while her left navigated the strings.
“I don’t want my music to be limited by being the ‘Black guitarist,’ but somebody had to start doing something,” Williams said. “With all the horrible stuff in 2020, it seemed like it was time.”
Superintendent of Education - Toronto District School Board, TEDx speaker, writer, thinker, creator, designer, mommy, teacher, leader, learner of all things, keeper of memories.
Celebrity portrait photographer Brian Smith Pictures iconic portraits of Hollywood's A-List and Fortune's 500. Portrait photographers in Miami Beach Florida
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