SOUNDTRACK: MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS-Tiny Desk Concert #254 (December 3, 3012).
I missed the whole Macklemore & Ryan Lewis thing when it happened in 2012. I was vaguely aware of “Thrift Shop,” but really didn’t know much about him until the hype blew up all over the place.
And now four years later, I’m catching up on him and finding it all pretty great.
This Tiny Desk Concert is interesting for a number of reasons. All of the backing females vocals are prerecorded, but the trumpet is live (I gather that’s Lewis on the mixing board). And he and the audience really get into it–I’m not sure when he was in his rise at the time of this show.
I gather that all three of these songs were well-known at the time. But I’d never heard “Same Love” at all before. It is a surprisingly powerful and moving song about gay rights and human rights. It seems to start out with a different tone altogether—he is scared that he is gay. But it quickly turns into something much sweeter and loving. It’s actually quite a tear-jerker. Then he changes the mood entirely.
“Thrift Shop” has an amazingly catchy melody for the chorus. The vocal line is a sample as well. And while I have heard the song before I never noticed the “this is fucking awesome” final line, which has been stuck in my head for weeks now. This song is really funny. The R Kelly line is hilarious [Probably should’ve washed this, smells like R. Kelly sheets (Pissssss…) But shit, it was 99 cents! ] and the whole bit about paying $50 for a T-shirt is spot on. He hops around and is full of infectious energy. There’s a live trumpet solo at the end. Lewis plays with a set of sleigh bells and then knocks them off to much laughter.
As the song ends he grabs the Emmy and says, “Thank you, we’re outta here. Peace.”
The final song is “Can’t Hold Us.” The chorus of that song sounds so familiar. I’m sure I’ve heard it before but I can’t imagine where (maybe roller skating?). But man, is it catchy. For this version, Ray Dalton sings with them. I guess maybe he’s the guy who sang the original? It sounds like there’s also a recording going with it, though, so who knows, and who cares. The live trumpet is a nice touch.
As Bob notes: “The live, sweet, soulful sounds of singer Ray Dalton belting, ‘Like the ceiling can’t hold us’ had Macklemore standing on my desk and shaking the dust off the ceiling tiles.” It is fun an exhilarating. And as the show fades, you can hear him ask, “You guys have a shower?”
[READ: February 8, 2016] The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
Saunders wrote this novella during the Bush administration. But it feels shockingly more relevant now. This is the story of an unqualified buffoon who takes charge and attempts to force his will on a country.
But in typical Saunders fashion it is over the top and somewhat absurd, except that it is all quite real.
The story is about a small country called Inner Horner. Inner Horner is so small that only one citizen can stand in it at a time. The other five citizens must stand in The Short-Term Residency Zone. Outer Horner is huge with lots of empty space. The Outer Hornerites don’t really mind the Inner Hornerites being in the Zone, but they didn’t want to offer any of their own land to Inner Horner because, well, what if other countries wanted land too.
Then one day, a seismic shift makes Inner Horner even smaller. Now only 1/4 of a citizen can fit in Inner Horner at a time. Leon, an Outer Horner Border Guard noticed that this citizen (whose name was Elmer) was mostly in Outer Horn and he sounded the alarm that meant Invasion in Progress.
The Outer Horner Militia (Freeda, Melvin and Larry) came over and glared at Elmer. They don’t believe in the shrinking–decent countries don’t shrink. But the militia doesn’t know what to do. And then Phil, a guy standing nearby, says why not tax them?
Phil was in love with Carol, a citizen of Inner Horner. But she had married Cal (another Inner Horner citizen) and they had a child, Little Andy. This made Phil very bitter. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 