SOUNDTRACK: DEEP SEA DIVER-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #214 (May 25, 2021).
I had not heard of Deep Sea Diver before this year. But her song “Impossible Weight” is definitely one of my favorite songs of the last year. Apparently, last year NPR voted “Stop Pretending” as one of their favorite song of 2020, so she clearly writes great songs.
She’s also got a keen sense for presentation, as soon as you see her set.
She also chose a very particular location for the shoot: “There were countless times this past year that I wanted to be transported out of my house and into a different world,” the singer and guitarist explains to NPR via email. “One of my favorite and most inspiring worlds is that of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. I wanted to pay homage to the show by recreating the red room for our Tiny Desk.”
I’m not saying that that would be terribly hard to do, but it certainly took a bit of effort. And it looks awesome.
Inside the red room, the set includes three tracks from Deep Sea Diver’s marvelous 2020 album, Impossible Weight… joining the band are some special guests: Natalie Schepman and Meegan Closner of the band Joseph sing background vocals, and Dobson’s Beagle, Henry, makes an appearance. (Dobson claims he’s the only one who didn’t care that Deep Sea Diver couldn’t tour last year.)
“Impossible Weight” sounds fantastic. I really love everything about it. From the mutes guitar intro to the super catchy chorus to the wordless hook. Every time I heard it on the radio, I was singing along to that chorus.
But that
was then
and this is now
I tried
so hard
not to let you all down
It’s an impossible weight
So I’ll just let you down now
On the record, Sharon Van Etten sings some part of it. I’m not sure what–I assumed Sharon sang the chorus, but it sounds the same when Dobson sings it here. But in this Tiny Desk two thirds of the band Joseph joins her on backing vocals (I wonder why Allison wasn’t part of it) and they sound perfect.
After the song her drummer (and husband) brings out Henry, who gets a credit.
- Henry Lee: beagle
“Lights Out” is up next and wow does it rock. It’s got a great fuzzy bass intro from Elijah Thomson. I feel like her voice sounds a bit like Torres here (no bad thing). The sprinkling of keys from Elliot Jackson are a subtle touch, as is his later guitar playing. But man, the guitar solo that Jessica plays absolutely rips–she gets a fantastic sound. After the solo the song gets quiet for a minute but it slowly builds in power. Mansen’s drumming by the end of the song is exhausting to watch. The song comes to a fantastic abrupt end and it really feels like it needs a crowd cheering after it (so it’s nice that Joseph is off stage to provide the cheers).
She moves to the piano for “Wishing” where she shows off
an impressive homemade bolo tie that she crafted from an NPR enamel pin and “a little bit of duct tape.”
Pianos tend to mean ballad, and this song is more ballady for sure. The synths give it a retro feel, although Mansen provides some good rumbling drums for the catchy chorus. I also got a huge kick out of the end when she plays a chord and sings “Awesome.”
“Stop Pretending,” was chosen as one of NPR Music’s favorite songs of 2020.
It has a cool opening guitar riff and later in the song the guitar sound she gets is an amazing roar. In fact the end of the song builds to a great wall of noise with intense drumming and some great bass lines while Jessica plays an amazing solo.
[READ: October 10, 2016] The Terrible Two Get Worse
I really enjoyed the first two books in this series (Mac Barnett is such a hilarious writer–or maybe Jory John is the funny one? Well, I know from past books that mac is hilarious). But I forgot about the series and didn’t realize that this one (or the next one) had come out.
So book three is different from the first two because it is set in the woods. In the summer!
Niles and Miles are spying on Papa Company. Papa Company is a patrol at a summer camp–the wonderfully named Yawnee Valley Yelling and Push up Camp. Papa Company is run by Josh Barkin. Josh is the son of the boys’ Principal and their archenemy. He has two cadets in his patrol. He has nicknamed them Dugout and Mudflap. It’s not entirely clear if Josh is supposed to be taking these boys on as his own patrol, but the only rules at camp seem to be yelling and push ups, so….
Josh was sent to the camp last summer as punishment. But he loved the yelling and meanness so much that he asked if he could stay there all summer…and return again this year. The camp is big on acronyms, and the authors have a lot of fun with them (right up until the end!)
Josh is a nasty bully and his young recruits are trying their best to impress him (it’s not easy because josh is so full of himself). Josh is also not very talented. At anything. He tries to show the boys the importance of accuracy when throwing sticks. He throws one at a rock on one of the boys’ heads. It hits the boy in the face and Josh says he was trying to avoid hitting the rock so he was successful.
Miles and Niles are sitting back and watching because they have a prank underway. When Papa patrol breaks for lunch, the find that their fruit cocktail has been tampered with–to hilarious results.
After their prank the boys have two step. 1. Laugh 2. Run away. But they notice that Josh had captured a squirrel, so they head up to the squirrel and let it free. They also steal Papa Company’s flag (a snake skeleton).
But things took a little too long and Papa Company returns in time to see Niles and Miles running off with the flag (Stop those nimbuses! (Nimbus is such a great insult). But the running away is part of the prank–wait until you see how they escape.
Josh is puzzled at their escape, and he vows revenge. He vows to do the best pranks ever: to throw sticks at their heads and to fill socks with oranges and thwomp them.
The entirety of Chapter 7 is
(Obviously Josh doesn’t really understand what a prank is.)
(But that doesn’t make him any less scary.)
(Actually it probably makes him more scary.)
The boys sneak back to their cave and enjoy cold Arnold Palmers (chilled by the river).
Then we see Josh’s father, Principal Barkin strolling through the woods. He is wandering aimlessly (he is lost). And after wandering too close to the secret cave, he falls in a hole (at least the landing is soft). he thinks it’s bear trap. But then he realizes he is a Principal so maybe it’s a Principal trap.
These are holes that Miles and Niles had dug as they anticipated revenge from Josh.
But the boys weren’t paying attention to the holes at that point because they have an even better prank against Josh. It involves harvesting gold from trees and it’s hilarious.
The boys discover the Principal and are sure he’s goin to be furious. But when they rescue him, he says that right now he is not their Principal, he is just a guy walking around the woods.
“I though a Principal was a Principal always, even on Sunday.
“We’re not talking about Sundays. We’re talking about the summertime. I mean who even knows what day of the week it is is?”
(It was Sunday).
The boys explains that their prank is not random or meant to hurt anyone and since he is not the butt of the prank he almost seems to admire it. He wants to stay and talk to the boys, which they find very weird and creepy, but he seems very lonely.
The Principal explains that he usually goes to to the cabin in the woods with Josh but Josh is at camp this year so he’s by himself. They actually wind up having a nice chat together but decide it would be weird if they were actually, you know, friends.
Niles and Miles talk it over and think that maybe the Principal wants to be pranked–to be in on a joke. So they devise something very clever and the Principal’s reaction to it is outstanding,.
The boys watch him and Miles says “I thought we were going to break his brain.”
Meanwhile, Niles has a secret that he is keeping from Miles. Miles is okay with that because everyone needs some alone time–even best friends. But in this case the secret is actually used against him and leads to Niles getting caught by Josh. And Josh plans the best pranks of all–which just means doing mean things to Niles.
Miles has to get back in time to save Niles, but if he can also show up Josh at the same time all the better. But it’s a long way to get supplies, and Josh is really motivated. The ending is quite surprising and very funny.
And once again the illustrations by Kevin Cornell are wonderful.
Leave a Reply