SOUNDTRACK: BUTCHER BROWN-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #195 (April 21, 2021).
I was getting Butcher Brown confused with benny the Butcher whom I’d just heard of. So I was quite surprised when Butcher Brown’s set proved to be really jazzy. And funky.
That’s the thing about Butcher Brown: are they playing jazz … or funk … or soul? They scoff at the limitations of adjacent genres with the expertise of master musicians who’ve played together so long that they flow from one vibe to the next without missing a beat. … Butcher Brown takes to a restaurant’s rooftop terrace in the band’s hometown of Richmond, Va., for a home concert and sizzles from the first note.
They play four songs in 16 minutes.
The band opens with “Sticky July,” a tune every bit as catchy as its name implies; think rollerskating with a popsicle under a cloudless sky of blue. When you think you’ve figured it out, keyboardist DJ Harrison switches it up, launching into a solo so funky you wonder if it’s a new song, that is until Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney brings us back home with some sweet trumpet.
There’s some grooving bass throughout the song from Andrew Jay Randazzo, but it’s after a minute and half when Harrison gets that funky dirty keyboard going that the song really shifts gears. The song settles back into the groove for a trumpet solo and ends with Morgan Burrs playing a pretty guitar solo.
They slide into “Camden Square,” but not before Tennishu introduces the band, thanks their parents, and shouts out Ann Paciulli, who provided the old-school desk seen in the video. Viewers of a certain vintage may recall interminable afternoons spent sitting in a tiny desk just like that one.
“Camden Square” has some cool almost wah wah bass sounds for the simple but intriguing riff. Then Tennishu picks up the sax and plays the main melody. Burrs plays a lengthy jazzy guitar solo in this one while Corey Fonville keeps the beat tight. i really like the way they slow things down dramatically at the end.
“#KingButch” is next, a stank-face hip-hop head-bobber that once again proves they can do it all.
I enjoyed the music of “#KingButch” but the rap felt a little flat to me.
They close with “Tidal Wave”: smooth, delightful, classic.
I enjoyed this song as a nice jazzy and yes, smooth ending. I really like the sound that Harrison gets from that keyboard.
[READ: May 30, 2021] Starship Down
This book was put out by Dark Horse which was a surprise to me because it’s a short book and not tied to any other franchise. It’s nice to see them doing something a little differently.
I had just read Rogue Planet and was expecting something equally violent. But this story went in a very different direction. First off, it is set on earth. Second, nobody dies (well, not “on screen” anyhow).
Dr. Jocelyn Young, a cultural anthropologist is flown to the frozen north to the mining village of Vanavara, Russia, to investigate a dig. But this is no fossil hunt. International tensions are high about this. Yes, some important new cave painting were found, but those are actually a coverup for something much bigger.
As she heads down into the cave they show her the paintings which are pretty interesting then she turns and sees the giant space ship frozen in the ice.
The group of spectators includes scientists, Russians, Israelis and Roman Catholic Cardinal. He keeps saying the find is a sign from God. He’s a pompous ass and he gets his comeuppance a little later.
Because when Dr. Young goes on the ship she finds Neanderthals in stasis. She triggers a recording which the Cardinal says is obviously proof of divine intervention. They can’t translate it right away, but their Ai starts working on it.
Ultimately, the message reveals that the aliens had a very specific purpose in mind for earth when they landed here and it sets the world reeling. The Israelis plan to use the story for their purposes, just like the Vatican. Everyone wants to claim a connection to this story–except the people on TV who call in to heckle the Dr when she talks about it live.
The story seemed to move along at a very fast clip–jumping ahead a lot. It felt likes some parts were fleshed out (her introduction) and others were barely glanced at (the Mossad is here? Who is in trouble for the explosion?). I especially chuckled at the end where Dr. Young basically tells the President in a meeting in front of everyone that she should be the one to head up this large, ground breaking commission. And yes, she is more than qualified, but it’s hilarious to think you could just state that and be appointed.
This feels like a good outline for a more complicated story.
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