SOUNDTRACK: LEY LINE-“Oxum” (SXSW Online 2021).
I never intend to go to SXSW–I find the whole thing a bit much. But I also appreciate it for the way it gives unknown bands a place to showcase themselves. NPR featured a half dozen artists online this year with this note:
This year, the South by Southwest music festival that takes over Austin, Texas every spring happened online. Couch By Couchwest, as I like to call it, was an on-screen festival, with 289 acts performing roughly 15-minute pre-recorded sets across five days in March.
This list was curated by Bob Boilen. He also notes:
I didn’t enjoy hearing loud, brash music while sitting on a couch the way I would in a club filled with people and volume, so I found myself engaging in more reflective music instead.
I’m going in reverse order, which means Ley Line is next.
Ley Line is four women, based in Austin TX, playing an upright bass, a guitar and soft percussion.
The first ninety seconds of this song slowly evolve from a pretty guitar melody and lead vocals, to harmony vocals supporting a lead vocal and a soft echoing drum
And then the bouncing drum is joined by cymbals and a satisfyingly deep bass melody.
Ley Line is four singers, including a pair of twin sisters, who find inspiration in music from Latin America, West Africa, and Europe as well as North America. The simplicity is what I loved most about this Austin-based group, both in its spare percussion and lovely harmony.
It’s fascinating to hear to song shift from Spanish to a wordless language (I think) to English, all while retaining a similar sound.
That is until three and a half minutes when the song suddenly shifts to a a dancey song. Bouncy bass, a fast rhythm and more of that cheerfully singing (in Spanish once again). It’s quite arresting.
[READ: July 10, 2021] “Understanding Owls”
David asks the universal question, “when does one reach a point in your life when you say ‘I’ve got to weed out some of these owls?'” We’ve all been there.
Of course, you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so you can’t get rid of the crocheted owl from your sister. You keep the owl napkins and candles–those are useful. But trivets and trinkets can go in the trash or to goodwill.
This overwhelming feeling happens when you tell people you like something. His sister Amy said she liked rabbits and soon enough, she had cushions, slippers, bowls, magnets etc.
Amy’s started with a live rabbit. But Hugh and David’s owls started with art. Hugh painted birds on a client’s ceiling. He painted song birds and then she asked for owls.
It made no sense nature-wise–owls and songbirds work different shifts, and even if they didn’t they would still never be friends.
But it was her ceiling so he did it.
He bought the book Understanding Owls to learn what they looked like. The book became an inside joke for them–i wish I could see what a barn owl looked like, if only there was some guide nearby to show me.
Then, pushing the joke further, David decided to buy Hugh a stuffed owl. But he learned that it is illegal to own one in the United States–even if it dies on your property you cant keep it.
he had gone to a taxidermist. One taxidermist even went so far as to stretch a chicken over an owl form. It was disturbing. (more…)
