SOUNDTRACK: NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS-Tiny Desk Concert #488 (November 17, 2015).
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats get a ton of airplay on WXPN–perhaps a bit too much airplay. And yet I can’t deny the supreme catchiness of his music which owes a lot to Van Morrison’s brand of soul music.
Rateliff was (and perhaps still is) a folk singer. But in 2015, he released this album with the band The Night Sweats and has had huge success with this more rocking soulfulness.
“I Need Never Get Old” sounds so much like a Van Morrison song that it’s hard to deny how catchy it is (especially the chorus). “Look It Here” has a similar vibe with the kind of loudly mumbled vocals that sit nicely with backing vocals and horns. The middle of the song picks up in intensity and changes the overall tone in a good way that segues nicely back into the main melody.
“I’ve Been Failing You” features more piano up front. It’s a little more bluesy than soulful so I like it a bit less. Although the backing vocals in the quiet section (Don’t you weep and don’t you worry) are very cool.
Typically a band does three songs, but Bob walks up and shakes his hand and asks if he wants to do another. Nathaniel asks, do another or do that one over? But Bob says, no another song if they want to.
The band agrees they can’t really do “Shake,” so instead they play “Mellow Out.” Rateliff says, “Same key different song.” And everyone laughs until he realized, “wait it’s actually a different key. What do I know?”
“Mellow Out” which opens with some very Van Morrison “do do do dos.” It sounds very much like the other songs–catchy and swinging with horns in all the right places. When the song ends Bob says it sounded great and someone comments that they had an extra late night last night before the audio turns off.
I am genuinely surprised that they didn’t play “S.O.B.,” their first single (a song used in a Lipton commercial–although not any part that sings “son of a bitch, I might add). But since I don’t really like that song, I’m glad they played the other ones.
[READ: June 15, 2016] Giant Days Vol. 1
Giant Days was excerpted in the back of a Lumberjanes book and I loved the excerpt–very funny with a great drawing style. Then as I am wont to do, I forgot all about it. But in the library the other day, the librarian recommended the book and I was delighted to be reminded about it.
This series is set in a British college. Susan, Esther, and Daisy are roommates. Susan is the sensible one–a little angry at men and unwilling to take crap from anyone. Esther is a goth hottie. She dresses outlandishly and has a (literal?) forcefield of bad luck around her. And Daisy was home schooled–she is very sweet and rather naive.
I loved right from the start when the three girls head out to campus. Susan bets Esther that she can’t go three days without some kind of drama happening around her. But as soon as they get outside, Susan see McGraw. And she is furious. McGraw has floppy hair and a big ol’ mustache. And they launch into each other with cold pleasantries.
When the girls force Susan to tell the story, there’s a very funny moment when the other two start chanting Flash-Back Flash-Back but we get a brief, intentionally unsatisfying one. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 