SOUNDTRACK: NAIA IZUMI-Tiny Desk Concert #742 (May 14, 2018).
Naia Izumi won the Tiny Desk Contest and here he is with his full Tiny Desk Concert (note to those who submit–you’ll need to have more than one song handy if you win).
He and his band play three songs.
Naia Izumi won us over with his mind-boggling and unique style of guitar playing — a combination of tapping on the fingerboards and soul-filled whammy bar-note bending. And his multi-octave singing range blended so eloquently with his guitar stylings.
Naia is often a one-man band playing on the streets with a drum machine. But for his Tiny Desk Concert he brought bassist Adam Matijasevic and drummer Kynwyn Sterling. He’d met Kynwyn after submitting one of his songs to a math rock Facebook group. And that’s the thing: Naia’s music draws from so many spheres of sound. There’s that punctual, rhythmic, mathematical pulse to what he does, but there’s also a fluid, almost African Kalimba sound in there as well. They’re two sounds I wouldn’t often think of as coexisting.
“Soft Spoken” (the song that won the contest) starts off with him beat boxing and then playing that astonishing finger-tapping riff. He seems very relaxed and comfortable playing the song in this setting. And the addition of the bass and guitar really flesh out the sound nicely. I particularly like the few extra bass fills. And of course a live drummer is always superior to the machine (even if she looks a little disinterested). The guitar solo is really pretty, too.
It’s a song, as I hear it, that speaks to the power inherent in the gentle and quieter voices that are often drowned out by the outspoken and boisterous ones. Its title was originally “Soft Spoken Woman” and, as we later learned, Naia had identified as a woman for nearly seven years. More recently, as he said in an interview with Washingtonian Magazine, “I’m not into that anymore because I just want to relax with biology and be comfortable with what I have.”
The other two songs are new to even Contest watchers. Can he do it two more times? Indeed he can.
“As It Comes” features some very cool guitar seconds (lots of chords with vibrato). It’s pretty neat to watch his hands fly up and down the neck of his guitar. He does some more finger-tapping in the middle of the song and what I love about it is that he’s not showing off or trying to impress (although it is impressive). It’s all in service of the song (especially if he was playing by himself).
But it’s Izumi’s vocals that really deliver on this song. He sings the bridge with a wonderfully delicate whisper that soars into his high falsetto.
There seems to be a synth on this track although I can’t place it.
The final song is “Soul Gaze” and it sounds huge. There’s something about the guitar effects that he uses on the chords that make this song explode with a Jimi Hendrix kind of texture. And his vocal delivery soars into Jeff Buckley territory. I love that those two things drew my attention more than the finger-tapping (which also sounds great).
It’s a tremendous song and Izumi seems a more than worthy winner.
[READ: May 8, 2018] “You Never Really Know”
This piece is fairly slightly Eisenberg is always able to pull the funny out of seemingly slight premises.
As the title suggests, Jesse knows a lot about the N.B.A. And that knowledge does come in handy in unexpected places.
Like with his prospective father-in-law. The man is unimpressed with Jesse–no stable employment, no car or house as well as being emotionally unavailable,
Jesse doesn’t disagree with the man, in fact he confirms it and notes that this must be how the Detroit Pistons’ manager felt after drafting the disappointing Darko Miličić instead of Carmelo Anthony in 2003.
This catches the father’s interest: “You know the tertiary details of the Darko Miličić saga?”
In a second example, Jesse was speeding –going ninety-one miles an hour in a sixty-five zone. The difference is 26 mile per hour.
Jesse acknowledges his mistake and points out that 26 is also Kyle Korver’s jersey.
The officer is stunned that this guy knows the jersey number of the rotation player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But he explains he’s no savant, he reads about basketball all the time.
He stopped reading novels because it makes him feel competitive with other writers, whereas when he reads about basketball he knows there is no competition.
The office is sorry that he is plagues by this self-doubt and borderline hubris.
Finally, he is talking to the N.B.A Commissioner who wants to offer him a job “as a superstar player.” Because what matters in a clutch situation? Not quick reflexes but “an ability to name the assistant coaching staff of the Oklahoma City Thunder.”
Fun fact:
Michael Jordan an Scottie Pippen quizzed each other using flash cards.
Eisenberg always brings a smile to my face.
For ease of searching, I include: Darko Milicic.
I Just Read About That... 