SOUNDTRACK: GRACIE AND RACHEL-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #98 (October 19, 2020).
I only know Gracie and Rachel from a previous Tiny Desk Concert. I was entranced by that performance and am similarly entranced by this one.
Gracie and Rachel are perfect musical mates. Their styles conjure contrast, with Gracie Coates’ more pop-leaning keyboard melodies alongside Rachel Ruggles’ classical background. They’ve been honing their orchestral pop sound since high school. These days they share space in a NYC apartment and are grateful to be able to “commute from their bedrooms” at a time when so many collaborators can’t be together.
They open with “Strangers.” Gracie plays the keyboards and sings lead with a wonderfully breathy voice. Rachel plays the violin and then starts adding in percussion and singing higher (sometime haunting) backing vocals.
They’ve just released their second album, Hello Weakness, You Make Me Strong. The title of the album reflects their positive attitude despite angst. The duo made much of this music in the past year and a half, in the very room they’re performing this Tiny Desk (home) concert
On “Ideas,” they sing together a classical melody with a tinge of autotune. Then the song shifts to the delicacy of Gracie’s keys and Rachel’s pizzicato violin.
The lyrics to “Ideas” highlights that attitude by encouraging us to dig inside ourselves and discover our creative spirit” “So take your little ideas / Make them a little bit stronger / Throw out the ones you can’t / You don’t need them any longer.”
When the drums come in they are deep and heavy and there’s a very cool bass slide (triggered by Rachel on the SPD-SX sampling pad). I love the highs and lows of this song.
“Sidelines” features Rachel playing the drums live (on the sampling pad with mallets) while Gracie sings and plays the keyboard melody. For the bridge, their voices intertwine in a lovely way, weaving in and out of each others melodies. Then Rachel picks up the violin and adds some more lovely pizzicato to the song. When she adds her soaring backing vocals its really quite angelic.
“Underneath” is a song about getting underneath ourselves. Rachel plays squeaky, haunting violin melodies to accompany the keys. There are several parts to this song and I love the way they sound so different–from the strummed violin in the bridge to the rising vocal line of the chorus.
These songs are definitely poppy but they have an unusual sensibility that must come from Rachel’s classical ideas. The songs are really wonderful and I’m curious what they sound like when fully fleshed out on record.
[READ: December 1, 2020] “Over the Plum-Pudding”
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my fifth time reading the Calendar. I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable. Here’s what they say this year
You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.
This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.
As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.
It’s December 1. To officially kick off the 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar, here’s a story about truth, fiction, and characters who can’t tell the difference from the late author and humourist John Kendrick Bangs. [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].
This story contains some parodies of other writers and uses them as an excuse for why the editor’s own Christmas collection did not get published on time.
It opens with a note from Horace Wilkinson, the editor at Hawkins, Wilkes & Speedway Publishing. He sets out to explain why the advertised Christmas book “Over the Plum-Pudding or, Tales Told Under the Mistletoe, by Sundry Tattlers” was never published. He has been getting questions from the authors who were supposed to be paid for their work when the collection was published. He wants to publicly set the record straight.
Right off the bat, he places the blame entirely on the shoulders of Rudyard Kipling. This made me chuckle. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 