Gifted by my mom, picked this week by Baby YHT. Fitting, given that this is the time of year when I get to reunite with my paralyzing fear of bees…
Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin — “Flight of the Bumblebee” [Spotify/iTunes]
Author: You Hear That?!?
Seen/Eaten/Heard
Seen while running today. Turntable set up to serenade Patterson and Belmont while the mural was being worked on. Didn’t recognize what was playing when I took the picture, but I passed by again on the way back and “Southern Man” was blasting. Great song, great mural. This is why I love public art so much.
[Update: I’ve since learned that the artist’s name is Nils Westergard, and he posted a request in association with this mural — that people fill out a survey that asks about public art in Richmond. Click here to complete the survey.]
Neil Young — “Southern Man” [YouTube/iTunes]
Friday News and Notes
Happy Friday! A few news and notes items before you hit the club:
- Congrats to Clair Morgan on the USA Today/FTW song premiere! Very exciting to see this record off to a great start, because it’s damn good and lots and lots of people need to hear it. Can’t wait to spin my vinyl copy. Be sure to check them out tonight at Hardywood!
- THIS IS NOT A DRILL… BATTLES IS REISSUING MIRRORED. This has been on my holy grail list for a while — one of the albums I’m most jealous that my sister and brother-in-law have and I don’t. I seriously check the “B” section of every record store I go into, just in case. Very excited about this development.
- I found a used copy of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Yanqui U.X.O. this week. Such an interesting album. I actually hadn’t heard it, but recognized the cover and gave it a listen in the store. Really tense and beautiful, but one of the most compelling things about it is when it was released. Post 9/11 but pre-Iraq invasion. What an eerie time to look back on.
- Gorgeous new song from Moses Sumney. Feels like he’s pushing into more realized territory with each song he releases. (Here’s a thing I wrote after seeing him open for Sufjan.)
- I have a gig Saturday night at Capital Ale House opening for the SteppinStone reunion, but another great Saturday shindig will be happening over at the Broadberry with Southern Belles. Either way, you can’t lose.
Three of the last four teams in the tournament will lose between now and Monday… hope yours wins!
CD Monday
All Styles is right — did you see about the new Grateful Dead tribute album that The National organized? Guess who has a couple tracks on there! These guys! I haven’t heard them yet, but Courtney Barnett’s version of “New Speedway Boogie” is excellent.
Rolling around with this in the meantime.
Orchestra Baobab — “Bul Ma Miin” [Spotify/iTunes]
Seen/Eaten/Heard
4 adults, 3 fish tacos, 2 brisket sandwiches, 1 baby with a granola bar. Add in the Scud Mountain Boys version of “Please Mr. Please” on the way home and you’ve got yourself a successful trip to Alamo BBQ.
Scud Mountain Boys — “Please Mr. Please” [Spotify/iTunes]
Friday News and Notes
Happy Easter weekend! A few news and notes items to crack open before you go hunting for eggs:
- Going to start giving a quick CD Monday update at the end of the week. I enjoyed rolling around to Daniel Bachman, though I’m not sure if Baby YHT did. Not much of a reaction. Then again this was some pretty out there stuff — some drone-y songs, diverse instrumentation… really neat. While that disc isn’t available, I don’t think, it reminds me of Miscellaneous Ephemera and Other Bullshit, which you can still buy.
- Have you heard the Sturgill “In Bloom” cover yet? Really interesting I think — takes cojones to give the major-key treatment to such a dark song. The video is wild as well — definitely worth a watch. Apparently the rights were almost denied because of a changed lyric…
- I know I’m late to the party, but I listened to last year’s Nathaniel Rateliff album for the first time this week and hot damn. Floyd Fest is suddenly looking pretty snazzy.
- So Hrishikesh Hirway from the excellent Song Exploder podcast started a West Wing podcast with his friend… Joshua Malina. They’re going to do an episode for every single episode of the show. 100% on board — the first one was super cool. Perfect for West Wing fans and newcomers alike (if you up for watching and listening to 150 of something).
- Lots going on Saturday — Horsehead at the Camel, No BS! at the Broadberry. I’ll be at home watching the tournament with basketball-loving in-laws, but I might spin my copy of Brass Knuckles in No BS!’s honor.
Happy Friday!
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Y’all seen the Kazoo Kid meme? I started seeing gifs and snippets from “You on Kazoo” a couple months ago and decided unequivocally that the Kazoo Kid was awesome. My favorite was (and still is) the “Who are you?” line, which people have used as a reaction to shitty Internet comments. I love it.
A few days after I started seeing all this, I learned via Twitter that the Kazoo Kid is [insert drum roll] my buddy Brett — one of my favorite people in the entire world and a former bandmate (the same group that included Bandmate 4eva Doug). “You on Kazoo” was one of his first acting jobs, and he’s had many since — he’s an extremely talented dude. Incredible voice.
That double verification experience — saying “I like this kid” and then “No, wait — I actually know and like this kid” — it was wild. Like truth itself was confirmed. It was also a little like “Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” but the plot of that song makes my skin crawl, so let’s pretend I didn’t mention it.
Why am I bringing this up now? Because the same thing happened with Thao’s new album: I heard it and loved it when NPR did a first First Listen, and then weeks later learned via Instagram that one of my absolute favorite Richmond musicians — the amazingly talented Charlie Glenn of the Trillions and Avers — has guitar and keyboard credits all over A Man Alive. Made me so happy. Double verified: A Man Alive kicks ass. Need triple verification? Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs produced it, and that influence — the focus on rhythm and general sense of mischief — is strongly felt throughout. So damn good.
Check out early favorite “Nobody Dies” below.
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down — “Nobody Dies” [Spotify/iTunes]
CD Monday
A much longer thing needs to be written about the relationship between Daniel Bachman’s style of composition — how he introduces themes and variations on top of a drone — and springtime, in all its genetically varied, ground-splitting, frost-fighting glory. For now, I’ll just say this: Bachman’s music is excellent company on a cold, early spring morning.
I got this handmade CD-R album at an in-store performance a few years ago, and while I can’t provide a sample of any of the songs on it — don’t see any on the interweb — here’s “Won’t You Cross Over To That Other Shore,” from his recent River album.
Daniel Bachman — “Won’t You Cross Over To That Other Shore” [Bandcamp/iTunes]
Friday News and Notes
Happy tournament y’all! Crazy first day of games. Early exits for Baylor, Arizona, and Purdue… should be a fun weekend. Until then, a few news and notes:
- ICYMI here’s the post I did at the start of last year’s tournament, suggesting John Fullbright’s “Moving” is the perfect tournament song. I’m just gonna assume Duke read my post. [Pats self on back]
- New Sturgill. Need I say more?
- I saw that Iris DeMent is playing in Richmond in June, and while I was exploring the idea of buying tickets, I learned two things: 1. She’s also done a version of “Mom & Dad’s Waltz,” which I first heard recently on Patty Griffin’s American Kid album, and 2. It’s her singing with John Prine on “In Spite Of Ourselves,” which, now that I’m thinking about it, is definitely one of my favorite love songs of all time.
- My Natalie Prass EP supposedly shipped last Thursday! Hoping it’ll be waiting on the porch when I get home from tonight’s gig.
- Haven’t been keeping track of shows for this weekend, since I’ll be in the tournament bunker all weekend, but I see that Lake Street Dive will be at the National on Saturday. I’m sure that’ll be fun.
Whether you’re out and about or glued to the TV like I’ll be, I hope your weekend is a [dribbles up to the basket and unleashes a 360-degree windmill jam] slam drunk. [Winks]
Sean Lennon
Last bit of catch-up for the week is about Off Your Radar — the weekly newsletter I’ve been writing for.
I haven’t been posting my blurbs because I’m hoping folks will subscribe, but I have to mention what happened last week. We all wrote about Sean Lennon’s Into the Sun album, which I really enjoyed getting to know. I especially enjoyed a jazzy track called “Photosynthesis” and spent all of my 200-some words extolling its virtues:
Forgive me — I have to freak out a minute about “Photosynthesis.” There are lots of jazz elements on Into The Sun, but “Photosynthesis” effectively hijacks the album for six and a half minutes and sends it into orbit. The bass line is just unconscionably, intensely groovy — the kind of pattern that begs to be sampled and repurposed. (Couldn’t find it on WhoSampled, so it’s not too late!) I could totally see it adorning a slow-mo sequence in a Guy Ritchie movie: gangsters in suits dragging some poor, bloodied soul into a room he’ll never again see the outside of. The other place I see it fitting is in a Radiohead song. Like someone gave the sheet music for the B-section of “Paranoid Android” to a jazz ensemble and said “Go nuts.” (Into The Sun was released while OK Computer’s massive wake was still rippling outward, so it’s not that hard to imagine that scenario actually playing out.) Maybe this will be more interesting to me than to anyone else, but it’s odd how, even though Sean Lennon has lived an international life — kindergarten in Tokyo, boarding school in Switzerland, college in New York — this one bass line pushed my mind toward two icons of late 90s British creativity. Is that because his father’s shadow was looming over him then, or because it’s looming over me now? Both, maybe?
What a thrill it was to find out via a really kind Twitter post that Lennon saw the newsletter and enjoyed it:
Blew my mind. Cheers to Doug Nunnally for starting this thing — I’m really proud to be a part of it. Even prouder today, actually, because Doug just let us know that the incredibly insightful writer of AnEarful is joining up! Welcome, Jeremy — can’t wait to hear your thoughts each week!
Here’s that Sean Lennon track I loved so much:
Sean Lennon — “Photosynthesis” [YouTube]
You Hear That 