SOUNDTRACK: mxmtoon-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #137 (January 15, 2021).
mxmtoon is another young musician who has gained success through the internet. Two years ago when All Songs Considered played her, they noted that the then 18-year old has “amassed a sizable following on Twitter and YouTube on the strength of her endearingly intimate presence.”
mxmtoon sings songs filled with dreams and anxieties. Much of the music comes from her recent 2020 EPs, Dawn and Dusk. Those EPs included collaborations with Carly Rae Jepsen and Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus. For this Tiny Desk (home) concert, her sweet voice and ukulele are accompanied by Nicole Wakabayashi on piano and Cale Hawkins on guitar. Her melodies are simple, with the words up front mighty and personal.
They play five songs and the blurb is absolutely right. These are simple, pretty songs. Maia’s voice is wonderful and she happily allows th eband to play behind her.
On “Fever Dream” Nicole and Cale play the delicate melody (which gets slightly large after the first verse) as she sings her intelligent and thoughtful lyrics. Nicole throws in the occasional backing vocal harmony which adds a nice touch. A
After the sing she jokes,
“Hi, I’m mxmtoon, and I’m doing my Tiny Desk at the world’s biggest desk!” And so it begins, from an eerily empty New York City office building,
It’s been almost two years now since we first played the Oakland-based mxmtoon on All Songs Considered. She was just 18 then, singing about crying in her “prom dress” (which I’m thrilled she is performing here).
On “Prom Dress” she adds her ukulele to this amusing and sad song about going to prom.
I can’t help the fact I like to be alone
It might sound kinda sad, but that’s just what I seem to know
I tend to handle things usually by myself
And I can’t ever seem to try and ask for helpI’m sitting here, crying in my prom dress
I’d be the prom queen if crying was a contest
One of the first songs she released is called “Feelings Are Fatal,” which she also performs. It’s a candid song about emotions and why we’re often afraid to share them. It’s a model for what mxmtoon does so well: humble, honest songs, sung here behind a massive desk.
She says she credits her writing style to “Feelings Are Fatal” because this was the first song that she was completely honest in wanting to share her feelings with the world. (According to bandcamp she had about a half dozen songs before this one). It’s just her on the ukulele (it’s a large ukulele) singing these clear words.
i’m always sad
and i’m always lonely
but i can’t tell you
that i’m breaking slowlyclosed doors
locked in, no keys
keeping my feelings hidden
there is no ease
“Wallflower” opens with the piano and her singing very clearly. Her voice sounds like someone else’s here, although I can’t quite place it.
“Bon Iver” is a cute song started on the ukulele before the band joins in with lovely backing oohs. The title comes in in this verse:
Playing Bon Iver on late night drives
My window, moon, and fireflies
Holding onto moments that we found
Even when the sun goes down.
It’s a lovely little concert and I look forward to hearing more from her.
[READ: February 21, 2021] “The Death of Jack Hamilton”
This is a long story about John Dillinger.
It’s told by Homer, a Dillinger flunkie. He’s a colorful character who speaks colloquially. He wants to set the record straight about Dillinger’s death. He does this by talking about the death of John’s closest partner Jack Hamilton.
The three of them were escaping from a job and the police were after them. After some bullets were fired, they realized that Jack was hit. He said he was fine, but over the course of a few hours he started to look pretty bad–with a lot of blood leaking out.
The realized they needed a new car so they pulled over and waited for a car to come help them. A family of three pulled over to help. Dillinger and his men showed off their guns, but the family recognized him and seemed pretty thrilled to be meeting Dillinger himself. He promised no one would get hurt–Dillinger robbed banks, he didn’t kill people Dillinger was charming and could always make people smile.
They took the car and the family–until the family got too annoying and then they dropped them off. Jack was in bad shape–Homer watched cigarette smoke come out of his chest when he inhaled.
Homer was convinced that Jack was a goner–Jack had started to smell bad, but John wouldn’t give up on him. He took Jack to a friend of a friend who performed surgery on him in a back room. The woman, named Rabbits, was not squeamish and did a decent job–but she still gave him a low chance of survival.
Jack had only asked for one thing–to see Homer’s flies. So Homer borrowed some thread and went outside. Homer tells us that in solitary he learned a trick–he could lasso flies and drag them around. Jack loved this and Homer went out and captured some flies as a gift for a dying man.
John finally conceded, to Homer at least, that Jack was a goner. So he two did a trick to make Jack Happy. He walked on his hands across the floor. But while he was doing that, his gun fell out of his waistband and went off.
I have no idea if this is based on reality, but it was a pretty engaging (if a little long) story.
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