Streaming Thoughts Back From Vacation
I told Tidal that I wanted to hear the greatest song in Fiona Apple’s catalog which is “I Know”, the closing track from the album When the Pawn.
Once we sent Tidal shuffling from that it was unbelievably sad shit. Right now I am hearing the longest story I’ve ever heard Phoebe Bridgers, it’s something about a prison graveyard. But I hit Elliott Smith, Ben Folds Five (Brick), Sarah Mclachlan, Feist and more. But now I have all sorts of questions I’d like to ask you, frankly not that rhetorically:
Do you hear a similarity between DJ Premier and Elliott Smith? They exert this control over their songs where every single detail sounds so. . .THEM! DJ Premier breathes so much of him into songs that start from samples, it is absolutely stunning. And Elliott Smith, it’s never a normal chord, it’s never a normal melody shape. Yet it never sounds forced. To me he’s one of those ones that just hears music different. Another artist who I think delivers that, Thao, from Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. I had the joy of seeing Thao play at the KEXP 50 Year anniversary celebration in Seattle this weekend.
Here are my questions about Brick. The “she” in Brick is his girlfriend, not the fetus correct. Rachel says it definitely is about the girlfriend. And does Ben intimate in pre chorus two that it’s not him who wants the abortion? Does their relationship break down and thus the abortion is the right move? Or does the abortion cause the end of their relationship? And if she has her own apartment, why are they afraid of being “found out” by her parents and glad they’re going to Charlotte? Rachel agrees it’s because it’s the day after Christmas, the parents are all up in their business. I think that makes sense.
Do you know that Sarah Mclachlan made a song with DMC? I discovered this when I reviewed DMC’s biography for the Current. So when Sarah McLachlan comes on I start to think about RUN-DMC. That honestly seems to be a group where there is NO consensus about who the most important member is. Or more accurately, I think there is critical consensus that the most important member is Jam Master Jay. But I thought it was a settled fact that Run was the bigger deal as an emcee. But I’ve had so many people point out that on so many points DMC is the HIGHLIGHT of the song. Run might do more lifting, but DMC does more heavy lifting. And DMC’s voice is the band, it’s the iconic. But I also believe that Run is one of the most electric front people in any genre, ever. He is also a front person for the MTV generation, the moments I know from him are the videos, not the actual live shows. He’s got something.
Have you listened to the song “Too Many Birds” with great friends in Minneapolis after playing cards and sharing songs all night? You simply must. Press play on this and find the song that the journey should start from, if it ends at this.
The song is just pure majesty. There’s no changes. It’s one part. It’s pure build. It’s pure blunt force of an idea you never had “too many birds” just delivered a bunch of times, teasing different things, a breaking ball, a fastball, a patience. There is something beyond songcraft here, which makes it the best songcraft there is. Sometimes artists don’t leave any coffee stains in their lyrics, they sanitize it, they maximize it. Everything is workshopped, everything is polished. And this is where I have to diverge from the idea that it all needs to be brought into the clarity that helps it shine the best. Sometimes I want a matte finish lyric, sometimes I want a baby sloppy thing. I’m deep into reading this amazing Dilla book by Dan Charnas. By the way, Dan Charnas simply doesn’t miss. He wrote a book about money in hip-hop. He wrote a book about Working Clean (Mise-En-Place for office workers). And now he wrote this Dilla book. And it ACTUALLY talks about the music. It paints a portrait of Dilla as an artist but it also talks about the 16th notes, and it does that lovingly. I hate when people act like music isn’t magic. Like music can simply explained. Like this isn’t something that can be fully quantified or quantized. There is something magical about music and if you don’t know that, I don’t know how it can be worth it to be a part of the industry, cause there’s no real perk besides being closer to the magic. Maybe every once in awhile, maybe you’re the magic. Maybe that day, you delivered the important part, but most days you are just doing your part. Dilla might be shoving snares backwards on the grid, he might be shaping the chord progression himself, he’s making the magic. But someday the part you’re playing is putting a Pharcyde song on at the liquor store you work. Maybe that’s what you did for the magic. But if you didn’t do anything for the magic, you aren’t doing it right. Thanks for the magic ones.
5. Do you know who can write his ass off? Howard Bryant! I’ve never read his stuff, just listened to him on Bomani Jones’ podcast. He’s always electrifying as a guest, encyclopediactic with the information and stats, but on top of that, these explanations, these connections and this ability to use exactly the right turn of phrase. Well Howard Bryant does that in his new work “Rickey”. Listen, the way he captures these 1980s baseball terms and turns of phrase that literally sit at the absolute back of my head, six years old, dad folding laundry for 3 hours, a game on and me asking questions incessantly about the game. Him explaining most of it, admitting when he didn’t quite get it, and generally just watching my brother also start to dance around baseball. I’m born in ‘81, I’m one of the last baseball kids in the sense of baseball being the biggest sport in America. If you’re 25 it’s been football your whole life. Interesting. Well these stories of Rickey Henderson in the 1980s are amazing. And thankfully, it’s not one of those things where it is just a collection of one off anecdote books. The most breathtaking writing is only distantly about basketball. Howard Bryant takes maybe 35 pages to just deliver a history of Oakland, which is the history of segregation, it is a tale of a crucible of middle school talent pulled from all over the American South now located inside a very small geographic range. And the way he contracts and expands from government states to single impressions from side players who have a slight connection to Oakland. It stretches the story so the canvas is clearly covering something more than Rickey Henderson. It’s always those books that do a bigger job than they say they will. Need to understand the 60s not exclusively from the over published flower power thinkers. . .my go to is Taylor Branch’s three volume Martin Luther King Jr. series. BOOK 1 BOOK 2 BOOK 3.
6. What musical group or artist has the most misleading hit singles, that are the most criminally unrepresentative of what their body of work really is?
7. Release and tour wise, what’s been the best year in music since you’ve been 16 years old?
8. I got a dear friend named Stone Blake who turned me onto “Smokey in LA” era Smokey Robinson. Okay wow, I had this man down wrong. I thought of Smokey as having a dimmer second half of his career. That might be true in raw influence, but as far as output he remained relevant, bankable and multi-talented. The tune I’m liking right now “Let Me Be The Clock”.
That’s all I got for now. Shoot those responses to s@heiruspecs.com