SOUNDTRACK: MADAME GANDHI-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #38 (June 24, 2020).
I have never heard of Madame Gandhi. That’s a constant theme with these Home Tiny Desks–they seem even more geared toward introducing lesser known artists to the world.
Madame Gandhi’s is surrounded by her yellow bongos and congas, a yellow desk from her youth and a yellow nightstand, her Tiny Desk (home) concert lighting nods to the lavender-lemon artwork of her 2019 Visions EP.
Her music is mostly prerecorded. The live elements are her vocals (soft and gentle with a lot of nonsense syllables amid the good vibe lyrics) and her wonderful hand drums.
Her music is inspired by her South Indian heritage and she lights a stick of palo santo.
For the first two songs she plays the damaru (I think). “Waiting For Me” is about returning to the earth–returning to nature. I enjoyed the way it began:
Wake up in the morning / hit space bar and start recording
She plays cool-sounding drums–she has wonderfully diverse sounds from that tiny hand drum. And they seem to be modified in some way, too.
Before “Moon in the Sky,” she says “I don’t want our identities defined according to how oppressed we are.”
She’s intentional with everything she does, including activism that focuses primarily on gender liberation. She uses music to help elevate and celebrate female voices, from working with primarily queer women BIPOC on tour and video sets, to writing socially-conscious lyrics that challenge the white male-dominated music industry.
She continues, “if we are not brave enough to tell our stories end to end, somebody else will. And they will get it wrong.
on tour and video sets, to writing socially-conscious lyrics that challenge the white male-dominated music industry.. Madame Gandhi’s clear, soft voice and swells of percussion give you the necessary space to meditate on her message of inclusion and equality.
She says her music is Indian trap. The music has fun beats and a downplayed vocal delivery. I rather like it.
For the final song, “Bad Habits,” she stands up and plays the bongos: “put your phone down and stand with me.” The catchy chorus of the song is “all my bad habits have got to got to go.”
Her parting words are that each person’s contribution is unique and valuable and can be of service to my community and my family.
This has been a great introduction to a new form of music for me.
[READ: June 28, 2020] “The Rescue Will Begin In Its Own Time”
I really don’t understand what was going on with these previously unpublished stories by Kafka (translated by Michael Hofmann). There are four flash fiction pieces and they seem much more like story ideas than stories.
In the first section he talks about the four ways the Prometheus legend can be viewed. After the fourth, it ends, “The real riddle was the mountains.”
In the second part, there is a large load of bread which the Father of the family cannot cut. The Father is not surprised, “Isn’t it more surprising if something succeeds than if it fails?” When the children woke the next morning he had been up all night but had not managed to cut it. (more…)
I thought it was a very clever idea posting about bubblegum music for this book. If only I had known how much music was actually mentioned in the book and, ultimately, how inappropriate these songs are to the book–in tone and content.
SOUNDTRACK: SUDAN ARCHIVES-Tiny Desk Concert #979 (June 22, 2020).
Sudan Archives at Johnny Brenda’s was a show I had really wanted to see. When I realized she was playing there the show was already sold out. Then Coronavirus came in and shows were starting to get cancelled.
Hamilton Leithauser seems to always be on the periphery of my listening experience. I hear his name a lot and hear his songs a bunch, but I’ve never actually looked for him.
I’d never heard of Benny the Butcher and when I was listening to his boasts, I assumed that maybe he was really old school. He makes a crack about Nicki Minaj that made me think he was like 50, but in fact she is older than he is (which is pretty funny).
My family was playing an online game where you have to give clues to name a person or thing. We did a pop culture round and Alicia Keys came up I think twice. And I asked my daughter is she knew who that was. She said no and asked me if I did and I said no. I couldn’t think of a song she sang and wondered if she was even still singing.
I Just Read About That... 