Sound Nation

Music and Literature

[jesavoth]

2017 Playlist

My 2017 playlist, as in past years, is comprised of songs I like that were released this year.  Of course, I can’t proclaim them the best songs of the year, but I can say with certainty that they’re my favorites.  The rules I adhere to are easy:  only one song per artist and any genre is game.  They are as follows:

1.     Right On You-Benjamin Booker.  

2.     Don’t Lay Your Head Down-Stereo League

3.     Stranger’s Kiss-Alex Cameron (w/ Angel Olsen)

4.     Prom-Monk Parker

5.     When You Were Mine-Lambchop

6.     The World Is Falling Down-Jim James

7.     Totally in Love With You-The Delfonics

8.     Japanese Denim-Daniel Caesar

9.     Boomerang-Bootsy Collins

10.   Vitral-The Gift

11.   Sum-Loney Dear

12.   New York-Peter Silberman

13.   Doomed-Moses Sumney

14.   Duper-Hanne Hukkelberg

Some thoughts on the songs:  Booker’s song flat out screams to be played loud.  I realize by definition that doesn’t make it a basis for a favorite, but it does for me.  For me, at 59 years old, songs meant to be played loud immediately resonate.  Stereo League is my boy Alex’s project and I’m not professing objectivity by any measure, I just love the song.  Alex Cameron’s Stranger’s Kiss may be the alternative/pop song of the year.  However, I’m not qualified to make the determination.  I love it and the video is wicked good.  Monk Parker’s Prom is my favorite song of the year.  If it matters.  You’ll need to Google the lyrics, because the production effects of his Texas drawl and super-charged reverb make most of the words indecipherable.  It’s as if Sigur Ros made an alt/country record with a Theremin.

 Lambchop’s When You Were Mine is the first of two covers on this list.  Prince wrote and played it as a funk bopper. These guys dig in like they’re mining for the soul of it. You may listen and respond like I did after recently seeing Bob Dylan, “That was Blowin’ In The Wind??” Whatever. Jim James covers one of my favorite all time songs and it’s ethereal. I just Googled ethereal because I’m not sure what it means, it just sounded right and I found this: extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world. I’ll stay with that description. The Delfonics going back in the studio is cause enough to lend credence to whatever they come up with, but this track is beautiful. So beautiful. I knew nothing of Daniel Caesar until my boy Nate directed me there.  The album is superb and this track my favorite. Bootsy’s Boomerang is so infectious, it should be illegal.  It’s a funk, second line, marching band stomp.  

 The Gift is a Portuguese band and I have no idea how I found them, but I’m happy I did.  It’s a delicate song with a nursery rhyme melody. Loney Dear is the project of Swedish singer-songwriter Emil Svanangen. I can’t pronounce his name and I’m not bothered by that.  His music is wonderful and the song Sum exquisite.  Peter Silberman channels Jeff Buckley in this song and it doesn’t sound derivative at all.  Pure in its delivery and authentic.  Moses Sumney’s creative paradigm veers far from the norm but his ridiculous vocal talent creates a listening experience unlike any other.  I thank my boy Alex for taking me to this.  Finally, Duper by the Norwegian Hanne Hukkelberg is proof positive that international relations and cultural exchanges make this a better world.  You have to get by the auto-tune and get enveloped by the purity of the song. I’m also a sucker for silence and this song amplifies it.

[jesavoth]

Natalie Lafourcade Tiny Desk Concert

[jesavoth]

Natalia Lafourcade

The obsessive search for new music has its benefits.  I set my own hours and I have no boss.  The negatives are you soon learn there is a tremendous amount of mediocre music in the streaming world.  You practically have every song ever recorded at your fingertips and soon learn that the so-so exponentially outweighs the exceptional.  But you listen on, with the hope that this rough of mediocrity will eventually expose a diamond.  

Natalia Lafourcade is a diamond.  She’s been on the scene of Latin pop music since 2002, so I’m late to the game.  However, at 33 years old, she appears to be hitting her stride.  I found her, by chance, from a Tiny Desk Concert link I subscribe to.  Her vocal range and ability challenge the best. Her band must all live in the same house given how tight and accomplished they are.  Her spirit is infectious.  The beauty of the melodies is wonderful.  When she finished her 3 Tiny Desk songs, I simply wanted to bring her home and cook her dinner.  Here’s the link to the NPR site:

https://www.npr.org/event/music/560175189/natalia-lafourcade-tiny-desk-concert 

When Nancy and I were in San Juan, Puerto Rico, we stumbled upon a salsa jamboree In the San Juan Hilton. It was magical.  Men in their 70’s in 1950’s fedoras.  Luxurious women swinging to an outstretched hand.  The scene was authentic.  The same feeling visits me when I listen to or watch Lafourcade.  

[jesavoth]

July Talk, Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA--February 16, 2017

First of all, let me state right out front that I’m not writing this review under any type of duress.  Big Tom and I have a strained history when it comes to this Toronto based band.  Or, to put it another way, I never cared for them.  I arrived at this opinion having never seen them live, which was a defect constantly thrown back at me.  How many bands have you listened to with a shrug, only to have the bands’ fans tell you that “you gotta see them live!”?  Too many to count, with the end result usually being disappointment.  Given the reality that most bands now a days simply play live what they played in the studio, without considering the power of an audience, simply standing and playing with us going home convincing ourselves that what we just saw was special in some strained way, I’m often a bit hesitant to dive in.  So I went into this show with that type of mindset.  I was in Pittsburgh for a trial competition with my law school team and Tom showed up at the Omni William Penn Hotel imploring me to go with him to the show.  My team implored me to go.  So I went, with Tom, and the entire team.  I figured if the band disappointed, I could turn it into some kind of “teaching moment.”  The band who came on before July Talk was not good.  They had good energy, mind you, but their songs were weak and just didn’t cut it live.  During the break between sets, Tom introduced me to the drummer of July Talk who was genuinely happy that I was there.  We thereafter moved down through the crowd with law students in tow to take the “Carluccio” position against the stage.  Then I met the bass player and he, too, was so happy we were there.  Given these last two encounters, I was in a positive frame of mind.  That is, I was open to cast aside my previous thoughts on the band and let them go to work.  What I witnessed over the next 90 minutes was not a band at work, but rather a band at serious play.  The lead singer’s voice was much better live, without the studio Cookie Monster sonic enhancements.  More Joe Cocker than Tom Waits.  And the female singer.  Let me just say that I’ve received dozens of texts over the last year of this woman singing, sweating and stripping, not knowing whether to enjoy them or be concerned that my friend was a serial music stalker.  Anyway, she entered the stage like a panther roaming its cage, which I found way mesmerizing. When my student, who had been silent throughout most of the evening up till then, started yelling “I love you” to her, I felt that I was entering a scene that only Hunter S. Thompson could write.  The band and music was very good, but this woman—she was so much to take in that I, too, started to conjure up romantic thoughts of her.  As George Clinton would say, she "stuck to me like hot grits to Al Green.”  She’s the kind of girl you wanna have breakfast with, which would probably be coffee and cigarettes.  I’m also quite happy, from a personal standpoint, that my friend Tom has not lost the plot or gone around the bend.  I, too, would follow this woman and her band across the world.  It was that good.  

[jesavoth]

2016 Songs

Here’s my (revised) list of songs for 2016.  There is no devised theme to it.  It’s meant to be listened to in the order listed, but who am I to dictate how one listens to music, particularly in this age of streaming singles?  I originally didn’t pick a song of the year, but I’ve changed my mind.   The Erykah Badu/Nas song This Bitter Land is it, for what it’s worth.  If you like any of the songs listed here, delve deeper into the albums because many of them contain numerous solid tracks.  Enjoy and here’s wishing all of you a New Year of quiet solitude with headphones.  

Horizontal-Alejandro Escovedo

Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales (single version)-Car Seat Headrest.  

I Wish I Was Sober-Frightened Rabbit

Burn the Witch-Radiohead

Gradually-Ben Watt

Hot Little Hand-The Wave Pictures

Hag-Band of Horses

Doll House-Holy Esque

Aisles-Eagulls

The Dream Synopsis-The Last Shadow Puppets

Death is Not Enough-Pretenders

Or So I Thought-She Drew The Gun

Triumph ’73-The Felice Brothers

The Heart-Macy Gray

This Bitter Land-Nas, Erykah Badu

Come Down-Anderson .Paak

00000 Million-Bon Iver

Lazarus-David Bowie

https://open.spotify.com/user/121202430/playlist/0FwRj0shPfnLhFSVZRZ40m

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[jesavoth]

Jim James-Eternally Even

It’s an understatement to say that this album caught me off-guard.  Known principally to me as lead singer of My Morning Jacket and a few solo projects whose music I gravitated to but never quite locked in on.  As outrageous as it might sound, the opening song, Hide In Plain Sight, has a P-Funk vibe.  The keyboards in this bass driven piece envelop you.  As what is unfortunately the way I go lately, I was ready to give up after the second track.  However, soul and beauty prevailed over reason and things are so much better because of it.Track two, Same Old Lie, eventually drops in like a visitor with just the edge to make their presence so nice or that person who shows up at the party and walks over to the stereo and puts on Roxy Music. From there on out, the album glides effortlessly from beat driven power pledges to soulful confessions.  This album is quite good and on my short list for 2016.  

[jesavoth]

Lucinda Williams, World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, 3/10/2016

Saw Lucinda Williams last night at the World Café.  Her backup band was Buick 6 and they were stellar.  Guitarist Stuart Mathis, former lead guitarist for the Wallflowers and who could have been a double for Donnie in the Big Lebowski, brought a weathered grind to their sound, employing various tones reminiscent of Santana, SRV, and Frisell.  He is a monster.  They played a set without Lucinda to start the evening and I’m so glad I made it to the opening of the show, where my usual routine is to time the headliner and arrive just before they go on.  Last night’s early arrival rewarded us with a blistering set of mostly instrumentals that never lapsed into jam band mediocrity.  

On the way to the show, I voiced my desire to hear Lucinda sing Metal Firecracker, my favorite of her earlier work.  Then, when she walked on stage and the band dropped into the first notes of the song, I felt that the night was destined to be a memorable event.  I wasn’t let down.  Her voice is transfixing, the notes lingering just long enough to practically drip into the next phrase.  The songs off her current album played well live, particularly the powerful Dust set to a poem authored by her recently deceased poet father.  Another highlight was when Amos Lee joined them for an otherworldly rendition of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come.  As Lucinda stated, why isn’t Amos Lee more popular?  His voice is a perfect foil to Lucinda’s, with subtle fluctuations that ride along with her southern speckled phrasings.  

After the Sam Cooke cover, which started the encore, the band led Lucinda into rousing versions of Springsteen’s The Rising and Young’s Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World, as the crowd sang along with equal fervor.  

On the ride home, I tried to place her in the lexicon of performers I’ve seen in my lifetime, and I kept coming back to Nina Simone for some reason.  That voice, and a touch of performance diva, kept us enthralled and wanting more.  She walks a performance tightrope with the crowd not sure if she’s going to make it to the next song.  Whether it was the red wine she sipped throughout the set or just her general disposition, the effect was mesmerizing.  

Were I one to keep a bucket list, I could now check off seeing Lucinda live.  It was that good.  

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[jesavoth]

DIY Music: Genre Buster

As the brick and mortar record stores slowly disappear, so too will the genres relied upon by such establishments to guide purchasers to the kind of music they enjoy. Magazines, newspapers and online publications are filled with articles on the changing landscape of the music industry with the evolving development of streaming, file sharing, and DIY content releases.  No longer constrained by the cost and influence of record company producers, artists are increasingly free to create and distribute music adhering to their strict, personal, and artistic vision.  This individualization of content will effectively render the traditional genres (R & B, rock, jazz, hip hop, etc.) virtually obsolete.  This article does not attempt to comment on whether this is a good or a bad thing, but rather, that it is the current reality of music production.  This erasure of categories will not happen overnight, given the propensity for critics and reviewers to still label new music by its purported influence. Springsteen was the new Dylan, even though time has rendered that designation far from the truth.  Likewise, listeners are still prone to ask of new music, “who do they sound like?”  

Today, artists can record an entire song on their phone.  The sonic quality suffers, of course, but that will change and only get better.  For the time being, demos can be created on a phone or computer using programs such as GarageBand or consumer versions of Pro Tools and then the file can be mastered and finally uploaded to one of the popular streaming sites such as Bandcamp or SoundCloud.  This process takes place with absolutely no input from any outside creative forces. Moreover, there is no one telling the artist that his music won’t sell or that it has to be structured a certain way to ensure commercial success.  The artist remains the sole arbiter on every aspect of his musical creation.  

How is this significant? For starters, musicians are not being pigeonholed into a particular genre.  Since they control all aspects of creation, they can do what they want.  If they want to add Gregorian chants to a reverb guitar outro, then so be it.  Their creative palette is as vast as they are artistically capable of envisioning.  The result is a wholly original work of art. This concept does not preclude the influences that an artist may derive inspiration from, whether it be other musical creations, visual art, literature or any of the myriad of life’s experiences. However, the choice of inspiration remains with the artist alone and eliminates any input from record company producers, engineers and marketing executives.  

It must be noted that the act of self creation is not a new concept.  Bruce Springsteen recorded his entire Nebraska album on a four track deck in the living room of his house.  He thereafter took the cassette copy to his band mates and attempted to reproduce his musical ideas in a studio setting. After many failed attempts, he received the OK from his record label to put out the original recording as the final product.  However, this procedure was an anomaly in the early 1980’s and he still had to get the stamp of approval from the record company to release his DIY creation.  He also had to rely upon the company to manufacture and promote the album to the public.  As original as the final product was, Springsteen still had to adhere to the mandate of the record company to get it into the stores for sale to the public. This allegiance to the financial stakeholders is slowly disappearing.  Exposing one’s music to the world is now just a file upload away.  

So how will these current technological advances slowly erase the establishment’s need to characterize music?  It will happen on several fronts.  First, younger artists under the age of 30 have grown up listening through streaming services to anything they want to hear.  There have never been any boundaries for them.  It is true that they may gravitate to a certain style of music, but they are also free to expand their catalogue to anything that strikes their fancy.  My youngest son is a senior in high school and plays classical piano.  His room is across from my home office and on any day I can hear Kanye West, The Beatles, Chopin, Sigor Ros or the soundtrack to Les Miserables coming from his sanctum.  These are not artists that he has had to consciously go out and purchase, but rather simply click on a file through the streaming service he pays a small monthly fee to access.  He’s recently started to compose his own music and you can hear many of these influences in the songs he works on.  This, of course, is not a new concept in developing one’s own artistic sensibility. However, the ease of access enables the artist to sample diverse musical styles as they immediately pop into his head. Second, and most important to this concept of eliminating musical characterization, artists can imagine, create, produce and distribute their singular amalgamation of influences in the form of a song unique to them.  When several musicians do this they are simply called outliers and placed into their own genre.  But when millions of aspiring musicians follow this path, the influx of divergent styles will wreak havoc with the establishment’s desire for conformity.  

The change will not happen overnight.  Critics, streaming services and listeners uniformly rely on categorizing music in order to place it in the historical context of prior works.  Evidence of this refusal to let go is seen in the categories that have sprung up over the past several decades.  In addition to the traditional genres such as rock, blues, jazz, classical, hip hop, rap, and others, we now have post rock, atmospheric rock, shoe gaze, industrial, steam punk, post punk, chill wave, dub step, garage rock, trip hop, ambient, lo-fi and scores of others.  This continual process of creating sub-genres will eventually reach a saturation point and the artist (and listener) will be simply left with a unique, musical creation that defies categorization.  After the dust settles, whenever that occurs, artists will be left with a growing fan base purely drawn to their individual, artistic creations.

Finally, should the scenario as described above become a reality, how will listeners find new music to their liking?  The vast social network will play a significant part.  Artists will be recommended, posted and shared.  It will be more personal.  A few will ride the complex algorism of the internet to reach millions of listeners, while most will be exposed to a select few.  Only time will tell how the massive influx of individuality will affect the distribution of music.  As always, the unknown of the future fosters both excitement and trepidation.  

[jesavoth]

Monk Parker-How The Spark Loves The Tinder

Were the Icelandic band Sigur Ros to make a country and western album, they would do well to listen first to Monk Parker’s solo debut, The Spark Loves The Tinder.  Feeling somewhat disenchanted over the breakup of his band The Low Lows, Parker took to expressing the melancholy with muted vocals reminiscent of Jimmy Dale Gilmore without the nasal peaks, all surrounded by the beauty of brass arrangements and Theremin.   The result is a wonderfully thoughtful set of songs that bleed one into the other, leaving the listener in a state of miserable bliss.  It’s a bit spooky and funereal at times, but the overall construct is one of acceptance and heartfelt resolve.  Recommended songs:  Sadly Yes, Wanna Be Forgotten, and The Great Fires.  

#monk parker

[jesavoth]

Car Seat Headrest

Just discovered by me, this “band” has been active for some 5 years in the personae of 22 year old Will Toledo.  He’s had a considerable following on Bandcamp and similar music sites, and recently signed a deal with Matador Records.  The first album is actually a collection of re-engineered songs from his internet releases.  The record is called Teens of Style.  By the third listen of the album, I’m committed.  Although the production is spotty, the music is transformative. This guy is channeling Bruce from his Dr. Zoom days, along with the Strokes, Beck, and many others that escape me now.  It’s quite loud and brash at times, but the hooks are literally off the hook.  I don’t normally recommend jumping into the middle of an album, but if you’re hesitant at first listen, track forward to Strangers and buckle up.  You’ll get used to the vocals being down in the mix, because after listening enough you’ll know their supposed to be there.  This is organic rock and roll, if there is such a concept. It goes right down to the element. 

[jesavoth]

The Suffers

On Sunday, October 11, 2015, The Suffers played the Union Transfer.  A rhythm and blues big band out of Houston, Texas, they incorporate a mix of regional sounds, from RB to Cajun to Rock and Roll dance music.  It’s quite infectious music and I suppose, had I a ticket to attend, a very good live band. They have a four track EP entitled Make Some Room released in 2015.  It has a very clean production, perhaps a bit too shiny, but the groove is in the pocket throughout.  The lead singer, Kam Franklin, has dynamic pipes and a natural relationship with the beat. There is a retro sound to the arrangements, harkening back to the soul bands of the 70’s.    

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[jesavoth]

Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra-Not In Our Name

I must admit that my original reaction to a redo by bassist Charlie Haden and pianist/arranger Carla Bley of their 1969 Vietnam War era project was one of skepticism. The mixture of politics and art, particularly music, has resulted in some wondrous creations, and an equal (or greater) amount of ghastly, overindulgent throwaways. This record, recorded from July 19-22, 2004, and released on August 30, 2005, fits squarely in the former category. It is a beautiful, soft record that, on repeated listenings, offers a powerful artistic statement on the current state of affairs. Besides Haden on bass and Bley on piano, the present incarnation of the orchestra includes trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, Curtis Fowlkes on trombone, guitarist Steve Cardenas, drummer Matt Wilson, Miguel Zenon on alto,Chris Cheek on the tenor horn, Joe Daley playing tuba, andAhnee Sharon Freeman playing French horn. Although the entire session is solid, particular standouts include a version ofPat Metheny and David Bowie’s anthem This Is Not America, a near seventeen minute blowout of America The Beautiful, and a brilliantly arranged production of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. This is jazz, folk, and Americana music at its finest.

[jesavoth]

Craig Finn-Faith in the Future

The latest from the front man of The Hold Steady has been on constant play the past few days.  Word is that he presented this group of intimate songs to the band and they backed off it, so he released it as his second solo effort.  A tremendous effort it is, with obvious influential nods to Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. The album is a lullaby to post millennial America.  Highly recommended.  

[jesavoth]

The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain, September 22, 2015, Union Transfer, Philadelphia

I was able to see The Jesus and Mary Chain perform it’s seminal album Psychocandy in its entirety in recognition of the album’s 30 year anniversary.  I had never seen them before, but read up beforehand and learned of their angst ridden start in the early 80’s with fights at most of their shows and sets that lasted 15 minutes before they either joined the fights or just walked off stage.  I quite like the album, but it hasn’t been a significant play of mine over the past 30 years.  The show was an experience.  Not only were there no fights (that I witnessed) but the band was adored by a sold out crowd that seemed to know every nuance of distortion coming from the stage.  Using the classic mix of the lead vocals down within the noise, the sound was superb.  I found it fascinating to be awash in the driving guitars with a Shangri-Las/Beach Boys inspired melodic dance coming from within.  The music isn’t complicated but it is heartfelt, in a Velvet Underground kind of way.  My son Nate, who was with me, and is prone to anything from Anthony Braxton to Frank Zappa, said afterwards that the J&MC made the Doors sound like a hotel bassa nova band.  My musical palate has been further enhanced.  

[jesavoth]

Bill Frisell-History, Mystery

I have tried for some time now to compose a brief piece on this album. The more I listen to it, the deeper I fall under it's spell, rendering me useless in any attempt to write about it. It's not perfect, but it's such a wonderful ride that you're disappointed every time it comes to an end. Every so often, you read a book that you want to immediately start again once the last paragraph has been read. It brings to mind a story Kurt Vonnegut told of visiting his uncle when he was a young boy. It was summer and they sat under a tree in his uncle's yard and sipped lemonade. After some time passed, his uncle looked at him and said, "if this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

[jesavoth]

Pat Metheny

Saw Pat Metheny's Orchestrion Tour with my son Nate at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pennsylvania back in 2010. Both of us had seen him several times, with different ensembles, and were somewhat skeptical of this show. It seemed either to have the potential to come off as contrived or flat with an absence of "swing". How can someone of his creative caliber stand before a "music machine" and improvise with the passion of a player within a human combo? To be honest, after having viewed two and a half hours of incredible music and passion, I'm still not sure how he did it. He began the show with several solo acoustic numbers, one of the them dating back to Bright Size Life. Then suddenly, without an interruption in focus, the stage came alive with sound, the Orchestrion swinging away with Pat smiling forth with purity of purpose. He performed the entire five part suite of the Orchestrion record and then dabbled in his catalog, with some straight improvisation pieces, actually channeling some "Ornette" at one point. At the conclusion of the performance, as Pat left the stage to the last of many standing ovations, we sat in wonder, having just received a pure tonic for the soul.

[jesavoth]

#swarthmorecollege