SOUNDTRACK: JULIEN BAKER-Tiny Desk Concert #513 (March 7, 2016).
I had never heard of Julien Baker before this Tiny Desk Concert. Indeed, she looks young enough that perhaps this is her first concert (it isn’t).
Baker plays a lovely, slightly echoey, but otherwise very clear electric guitar. Her tone is so clear and quiet. And her voice is also incredibly delicate. Watching her play and sing it’s amazing you can hear anything at all, and yet she does not wilt in any way–her music is delicate but not whispered.
As with many players these days, she uses a looping pedal to great effect. For the first song, “Sprained Ankle” she loops the lovely harmonics at the beginning of the song and then allows for the multiple layers to play. Her vocals are as gentle as the harmonics, and yet, again, not whispery. At barely 2 minutes, the song leaves you wanting more.
She talks about doing a new song for them called “Sad Song #11” since “I already have ten sad songs.” She thanks everyone for their “courteous laughter.” And then plays another beautiful song now officially titled, “Funeral Pyre.” She has a very nice way with words: “Ash for a decorative urn you keep on your mantelpiece like a trophy for everything.” There’s a beautiful layered guitar solo at the end too.
The introductory guitar lines from “Something” are really lovely–her sound is just so clear–and once again, the song is beautiful and haunting with her repeated lyrics sounding more powerful with each go around.
The blurb about the show references Torres, and I totally see the deference. They don’t sound anything alike in that Torres is brash and loud, but they have that same up-close and intimate vibe. For Baker, it makes you want to lean is as she sings.
[READ: February 17, 2016] “sine cosine tangent”
I have always meant to read more from DeLillo, I just never do.
And while I have enjoyed all of the things I have read by him, I didn’t love this story so much. Okay, I’ve since found out that this is an excerpt, which changes things. I’ll keep my review the same but with bracketed realizations pertaining to the novel.
This is the story of a young man (his age in the story is unclear to me, and I’m not sure how much distance separates the present from the past [presumably this is covered in the novel]) and his relationship with his father. His father is a successful businessman but the son says that he “shaved a strip of hair along the middle of my head, front to back, I was his personal Antichrist.”
His father left when he was 13, although he never found out why. Years later, he sees his father, Mr Ross Lockhart on the TV, discussing the ecology of unemployment in Geneva. (more…)
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I first heard Julien Baker from All Songs Considered. Her song “Sprained Ankle” is simply beautiful. She plays a very delicate guitar and on that song you can barely hear her voice–everything is very gentle.
I Just Read About That... 