SOUNDTRACK: DECLAN McCKENNA-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #79 (September 14, 2020).
I really only know Declan McKenna from his Tiny Desk Concert. (His song “Brazil” was a hit, although I’d never heard it anywhere else).
At that Tiny Desk he was solo, but here he’s got a band, and they sound great.
Declan McKenna and his band rock their Tiny Desk (home) concert. Their “home,” in this case, is The Foundry, a neighboring studio in North London. Declan is decked out with glitter, channeling a more flamboyant side of rock than I’ve seen from him before. He’s still immersed in complex storytelling with characters on the fringes, alienated for reasons of class and politics.
It’s hard to believe he was a teenager when he released his first album–although he does sound older now for sure. He’s got a new album out.
Three of the songs are from Zeros, his brand new album recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce. It’s been a wild three-year ride since the release of his teenage smash debut What Do You Think About the Car? He’s now 21.
Opening the set with “Daniel, You’re Still a Child” McKenna sits at the keybaord playing the piano-sounding chords. There’s a deep bass sound from William Bishop anchoring the song which has a surprisingly 70s sounding synth riff from Nathan Cox. There’s some excellent guitar riffing and soloing from Isabel Torres (including a scratching wah wah section). I enjoyed that there’s a pause after the line “outside the shop that sells your favorite drink” and drummer Gabrielle Marie King hits a drum pad that sounds like a beer can opening. King also plays some really great fills all the way throughout.
A nifty bass line (including an unexpected harmonic note) opens “The Key to Life on Earth.” Declan plays guitar on this one including a suitably fuzzed out guitar solo. Although I think Torres is a better guitar player, he does get a cool sound from his instrument. The song is catchy but especially so as it ends.
For “Beautiful Faces” Torres plays a raw a slide guitar riff that follows the vocal line. Once again, he uses some falsetto in the synthy chorus to throw in a little hook. Declan plays a ripping fuzzy guitar solo.
For the end, Declan performs his best-known song, “Brazil,” a tune steeped in politics and sports, and the enthusiasm has him atop a tiny desk in the end.
“Brazil” has a catchy guitar riff followed but a catch bass riff. And even though I’ve only heard the song here, I still can’t get it out of my head. (Even if I can’t exactly figure out what it’s about–grizzly bears, football, Brazil). McKenna gets another ripping solo–but I’d like to have heard more from Torres.
McKenna is an interesting character and I like his song more each time I hear them.
[READ: September 14, 2020] Our Times in Rhymes
This is a short book in which Sam Leith (who I don’t know anything about) summarizes 2019 in verse.
Leith summarizes the major news each month. Leith is British so most of the news he talks about is British (especially Brexit), but he does have plenty of stanzas devoted to the person occupying the White House.
It’s interesting reading this near the end of 2020, which has been such an incredible shitshow. It’s hard to believe we cared about dumb things that happened then. But it’s also hard to believe that tRUMP is still an asshole, that Boris Johnson is even more of a liar than it seemed, that Brexit hasn’t been finalized yet, and that anybody in either country actually supports either of these bozos. What the hell is wrong with people? (more…)
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I enjoyed My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade album quite a lot, although I haven’t listened to all that much beyond it.
