SOUNDTRACK: ANGEL OLSEN-Tiny Desk Concert #333 (January 27, 2014).
Bob Boilen has liked Angel Olsen for some time, so when she did her Tiny Desk and most of us had never heard of her, he was already a fan.
Olsen plays a long set but with four songs.
She sits very still, strumming with her thumb and singing kind of low–not unlike Sharon van Etten. The first song, “Unfucktheworld” is only two ans a half minutes. The second song, “Iota,” is a little longer. She sings in an affected almost falsetto style, although the guitar remains very spare.
Between these songs, she is coy about the title of the new record although she is quick to say the first word of the title “burn.” Later she admits that the final song contains the title of the album, if we wanted to spend time figuring it out.
I marvelled at how high the chords were that she played on “Enemy,” She seems to eschew any bass for this song. This one is five and a half minutes long and is just as slow as the others.
Before the final song they talk about whether this is the most awkward show she has done. She says everyone is very alert–and indeed you can hear utter silence between songs. But then they talk about the storm outside (and potential tornado) and how this show may never air if the storm is really bad.
“White Fire” is an 8 minute story song. She does use the whole guitar for this one, which has many many verses. Since I don’t really know Olsen’s stuff that well, I don’t know if this was a good example of her show or a fun treat to hear her in such an intimate way.
[READ: May 10, 2016] Your Song Changed My Life
This site is all about music and books, but you may be surprised to know that I don’t really like books about music all that much. I have read a number of them—biographies, autobiography or whatever, and I don’t love them wholesale. Some are fine, but in general musicians aren’t really as interesting as they may seem.
What I do like however, is hearing a decent interview with musicians to find out some details about them–something that will flesh out my interest in them or perhaps make me interested in someone I previously wasn’t. Not a whole book, maybe just an article, I guess.
I also really like Bob Boilen. I think he’s a great advocate of music and new bands. I have been listening to his shows on NPR for years and obvious I have been talking about hundreds of the Tiny Desk Concerts that he originated. I also really like his taste in music. So I was pretty psyched when Sarah got me this book for my birthday.
I read it really quickly–just devoured the whole thing. And it was really enjoyable. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 