new music wish list (Why Bonnie, Charlie Parr, Naima Bock)
tasty links (an article about sentences, an info-graphic site about music industry money in each state, a website I used to make my color palette)
more music (Fred again.., Charlie Parr (again))
90 In November by Why Bonnie
It’s so gorgeous. The yellow and green screaming through the red. The patina strip holding it all up. The marbled blue-green vinyl. What is this color!? Teal? Sea-green? I want to bath in it. The band name and album name initially caught my attention. Not knowing which one was which—happy either way, but now that I know the band name is ‘Why Bonnie’ I agree with their decision. They are from Austin. They are on the same label as Buck Meek and Sun June. I haven’t even listened to the music yet, but I already know I’m going to force myself to love it. The album title ‘90 In November’—a birthday? the temperature? a congregation? a milestone? I’m already swimming in it.
source: Pitchfork ‘8 New Albums You Should Listen To Now’
Last of the Better Days Ahead by Charlie Parr
I’m a sucker for a good clean rhyme. This album will scarcely give you one. Charlie Parr is new to me and I am new to him. His songwriting is song-telling that commands you to come along for the ride. Parr sings with a powerful yet tender vibrato that you can feel in your own throat. An admirable amount of control and seemingly with ease! Parr plays guitar with 20 fingers and jangles each note as if it’s his last. This quality shines through brilliantly on Sounds No Songs (see below) a great companion album to this one.
Giant Palm by Naima Bock
Track 3, Every Morning, captures it all. Opening with extra-human robots chanting “Hello Darling.” It’s haunting and tense and escapes into everywhere at 0:45 seconds when a voice screeches a lovely impossible instrumental sound. The siren’s call breaching through calm mist and we are left with Naima softly singing “It is funny how life can be when everyone leaves, alone but not lonely.” Soon after we are swept away with fibrous whistling and waves pushing through a rich creamy electric piano.
Track 9, Instrumental, takes us to a faraway oasis basking in the dusty afternoon—conviviality on a trellised garden patio at an archeological dig. The sun is setting, the evening birds are singing, the crowd sipping expensive looking liquid from tall glasses. The band is wearing sandy-colored suits and looking into the future. Naima is whispering incantations of good fortune and a prosperous growing season. We are all under the spell. The saxophonist proposes a toast. The birds begin the sleep of night and we follow.
source: Sub Pop Records
Fred again.. live at the Boiler Room
To me, and maybe to you, he just feels like Fred. Yet to this crowd of sardines— wiggling and vaping in their tins—he truly seems like Fred again.. and again and again. I’d happily cut some shapes on this dance floor, sweat flinging in all directions, arms flailing freely and hips doing everything they can despite their lack of mass.
source: The Fox Is Black ‘Over The Hill’
Sound No Song by Charlie Parr
As mentioned above this is a great companion album to Charlie Parr’s Last of the Better Days Ahead (above). Also! an inspiring example of what an album can be. The simplicity of the artwork (reminiscent of Big Thief’s latest album) is a fabulous complement to the simplicity of the album. Each song like a single stroke of a No.2 pencil—elegant and absolute.
Please send me more music to consume. I’m a glutton.