New Thoughts
For a long time there was a clear pull (particularly in Minnesota) towards media coverage and attention going towards white artists performing music that was started by and more associated with black artists in general. I believe there may be a bit of a switch happening where now black artists who are performing music more associated with white artists are getting the media attention. I HAVE TWO VERY IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT THIS:
When it comes to American music, black people made it. You might hear country music now and think about white people, and some of the vanguard contributors of almost every genre are white, but the building blocks artists and the most elite and most successful performers and writers of American music in all genres are predominately black people.
Secondly, I don’t aspire to be in the business of telling anyone what their music sounds like racially. I don’t listen to a black rapper and say “you sound white on that verse”, I don’t listen to a white singer and say “you sound black on that chorus”. It’s a stupid way to listen to music and a really strange way to compliment or insult someone’s artistry. So what I am bringing up is that I am hearing black artists use sounds, compositional styles et cetera that are frequently more associated with white artists. Is the foundation of these sounds still rooted firmly in black music? Yes. Is the reason these sounds are more often associated with white artists related to an unwillingness to give black artists full access to the highway and instead encourage them to stay in “their” lane? Yes.
I have been struggling with staying focused and one of the reasons I’m here and not on twitter is because today I am winning. I have been getting more sleep, I have been trying to do something to mark the end of the working day so as to feel disinterested in checking the computer again. I have a bunch of work waiting for me, but this demarcation is helping me come into the mornings with better spirit.
This weekend was magical. My dad and his wife came into town to watch my kid’s starting Thursday afternoon. It took about 100 emails to sort out all the details, share all the routines, the insurance cards, the whole nine. But it was worth it to take a couple days away from my girls. Sadie is 4 and a half, Naomi is 1 and a half. They’re great but shit if they don’t take everything out of my soul on a daily basis. So, to spend Thursday evening eating an expensive shrimp cocktail in a shirt that didn’t have stains on it felt pretty marvelous. Got to see Honeybutter and King Pari at the Entry for King Pari’s EP release show. That was so fun. Ran into a lot of great friends, was completely blown away by King Pari and the band they had assembled. It was amazing.
Got to hit my favorite YMCA on Friday morning (if you haven’t been to the downtown MPLS YMCA find a way to do it, it’s such a treat). I also got to play pool in the lobby of Rachel’s fancy ass work building and it was fun. I would like to play more pool. Dear universe, make that happen and start adding back pool tables to my favorite bars. Friday night I saw Martin Devaney’s new band at the White Squirrel, was a treat, would recommend.
I spent Saturday morning alone. PARENTS OF AMERICA: when is the last time you spent some time legit alone. I mean alone. I sat and read in a courtyard. I took a super long shower. I walked around downtown. ALONE! It is so necessary. I spent the rest of the weekend with two of my best friends, Martin and Kevin up at a cabin in Princeton. Two nights at a cabin is not enough to get all the way cabinned up, but I got to sit around and listen to great records, take a nature walk through a county park and eat some great food. I was thankful to get to relax and take it all in.
I have to work on finishing the Heiruspecs record. I’m hitting some block where I don’t want to do the last five things I need to do to finish the record and it’s stupid. But even writing this is reminding me it is stupid and I know I can grind and get through it. The record is really good, I’m excited to share it with the world.