SOUNDTRACK: DELICATE STEVE-Tiny Desk Concert #607 (March 24, 2017).
Delicate Steve is Steve Marion. He plays instrumental music with great “vocal lines” that come from his guitar.
On record he plays everything himself, but for this concert he brought a backing band. So the bass (Jessica Pavone) and acoustic guitar (Jon Wiley) play a fairly simple song structure while Steve plays gorgeous lead lines (often using a glass slide to create cool sounds and voices). The drums area also particularly cool in these songs as drummer Max Jaffe really goes to down on the electronic drums he’s playing.
On the four songs, Steve has a Panasonic FM/AM Premium Stereo Cassette hi-fi, to plug his trusty custom guitar into.
“Afria Talks To You” is a great rocking song (the drums are particularly booming) and the backing music plays some big chords while Steve makes some great soloing throughout. I particularly love that his solos are just showing off, they are genuinely enjoyable melodies.
“Winners” has a delightfully upbeat almost cartoony sound for the first melody, before it switches into a really groovy sound (there’s also a middle section that sounds an awful lot like “Mrs Robinson” (think: “Look around you all you see are sympathetic eyes,” even the bass is the same), but the rest of the song is quite unique and really fun.
“Tomorrow” is a slow groovy song with some fun bass to start with. Then there’s a great guitar line on top. I really love the way these songs all seem to have so many things going on in them. The middles section turns into a different type of song entirely without sounding like it’s disconnected. There’s also some kind of synth coming through–although maybe its just his guitar making extra sounds?
Introducing the final song “Night Life” Steve says “We took all the words out because Bob said there were no microphones”. This is perhaps the simplest melody of all of the songs. But it doesn’t take away from the quality of the song overall. The end is very funny because you know it’s supposed to end on a chord but he halts it without playing it….it just hangs there feeling unfinished.
He jokes, “we’ll play that chord next time.” You hear Bob say “we gotta wait five years?”
Instrumental music can be a challenging prospect, but Delicate Steve makes incredibly catchy songs that don’t suffer in any way from a lack of words.
[READ: July 8, 2016] Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain
Book 9 opens with Lunch Lady saving the day with some deadly honey mustard.
But this book is all about elections. And video games!
Turns out that Hector is distracted from running for student council president because he can’t find his X Station Mobile anywhere. But he needs to focus on the campaign because bully Milmoe is running and has already spent a ton of money on banners and cookies and everything else that makes elections so much fun.
But beyond the elections, there’s a lot happening in the school. A lot of electronics are missing although we see Gavin Computo has a new e-reader (and he’s rather smug about it).
News is also out that the new superintendent Eliza von Grindheimer (not Betsy DeVos) will soon be revolutionizing the schools. She will be investigating their school soon. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 