SOUNDTRACK: SAN FERMIN-Tiny Desk Concert #315 (October 28, 2013).
When I first heard San Fermin I was immediately grabbed by the female lead voice (the song was “Sonsick”). It was so powerful and gripping. I didn’t realize then that the female leads were the lead singers of Lucius (who I also didn’t know at the time). San Fermin is the creation of Ellis Ludwig-Leone.
Since then I have enjoyed other songs by them as well, although I find that the songs sung by Allen Tate to be somewhat less exciting to me– I feel like his voice could one day hit me as amazing but it’s almost a little to understated for me. And yet musically I love the orchestration and chamber poppiness. As Bob writes:
San Fermin’s music bursts with ambition, talent and extreme joy. Its self-titled debut is charged with great storytelling and amazing vocals by both Allen Tate and Lucius singers Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe. Then there are the arrangements: little gems that turn these songs into cinematic vignettes using trumpet, sax, keyboard, violin, guitar and drums.
San Fermin is the musical vision of Ellis Ludwig-Leone, who wrote these songs with Tate’s dark, rich voice in mind. Here at the Tiny Desk, Rae Cassidy makes the album’s female vocal parts her own.
So it’s interesting that the songs were meant for Tate. I want just some more oomph from him. especially here in this set. And that’s because Rae Cassidy absolutely rules this set.
“Oh Darling” begins with a gentle piano and Cassidy’s pretty, delicate voice. After a verse from her, Tate’s voice comes in and it’s almost comically low and formal (and actually perhaps a bit too quiet). But when they all come in and sing it is just beautiful–the women in particular.
For “Sonsick” Cassidy sings lead with just drums. As the song builds there’s a great chorus where the backing vocals (including Tate) sing in falsetto. This version is quite stripped down compared to the recorded version and it really allows Cassidy’s voice to shine. When she hits those incredibly high notes with such power, it gives me chills.
In the final song, “Renaissance!” Tate sings lead over a slow piano and violin. The women sing backing vocals. I like the way that the song builds in intensity with more instruments, but his voice is a little too flat for me–although he does kick in extra at the end.
There’s a really stunning version of the first two songs with the band singing live in a street and cafe and France.
Incidentally, Cassidy has since left the band and gone solo, and I wish her much success.
[READ: December 28, 2016] Humans of New York Stories
Sarah got me this book for Christmas. I knew of Humans of New York, of course, but I wasn’t a follower of it. So while I knew of it I didn’t really know that much about it.
There’s a brief introduction to this book (which is his second HONY book) in which he explains that HONY grew from five years of experimenting. It evolved from a photography blog to a storytelling blog. His original inspiration was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers. But then he decided to start including quotes from some of them.
He started interviewing people and found their stories became the real heart of the blog. Of course, he thanks the community of readers and participants, because without them, he has nothing.
The rest of the book–425 pages–collects the photos and the stories.
Some stories are brief–one or two words And indeed, some don’t actually have words–he has a few pictures called “today in microfashion” in which he takes a picture of little kids all spiffed up.
There’s a lot of stories that are just a few lines (I assume edited for the book, but who knows).
And then there’s the really long ones–never really more than a page–but a couple come close. People whose stories were so compelling that one blurb wasn’t enough.
Some of the stories are funny, but most of them are quite poignant–sad or just thoughtful. And while you can’t be expected to be moved by everyone in the book, it’s a nice reminder that everyone–no matter who they are or what they look like–has a life, a story, a history. And maybe it’s worth asking them about it.
He talked to kids–in and out of school–to the young, the old, policemen in uniform, sanitation workers, homeless people. There are people who are happy and have worked hard to become so. There are people who are miserable and wish they were dead.
There are relationships that have started, that have not yet started and that have ended.
It’s amazing how much people are willing to share when asked.
This is not to say that people in New York are any different or better than people anywhere else. There’s just so many more of them that it allows for a greater cross-section of people–straight-laced folks to way out there people. Artists to long-married couples. But there’s a freedom in New York that some other places may not allow and maybe that’s way people are willing to express themselves more and open up about themselves too.
There were too many great ones to enumerate here, but a couple that I really liked were a guy selling frozen lemonade. On the left side of his truck was the story about the lemonade and the history of it from Naples Italy. It’s pretty interesting and you imagine hat the guy working there is part of the family tradition. Until you see his story: “this job fucking sucks.”
There’s also a really nice one about a policeman who managed to get a job as an actor–and decided t o quit the force! At the time he was just getting attention and looking him up now, he has had regular work.
But my favorite was a picture of man with a leashed cat sitting on his head. His comment: “You can make about 75 percent more money with a cat on your head than you can with a cat on your shoulder.”
Word to live by.
Leave a comment