SOUNDTRACK: LOWLAND HUM-Tiny Desk Concert #341 (March 6, 2014).
Lowland Hum are the husband and wife duo of Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank from North Carolina. He plays guitar and she plays (snare) drum and percussion. They tour with a few homemade wooden platforms that have small metal jingles, so when they stomp on them, they get great percussive sounds.
They play three songs. The first is “War Is Over,” a sweet folkie song with tambourine. Their voices meld very nicely (interestingly, her voice which I think is doing harmonies sounds stronger here–but that may just be a trick of the microphone). There’s something interesting and compelling about they way the song starts–the verses are slightly unconventional, but when the “war is over now” chrous kicks in it sounds like a very different song. It’s a good combination.
Before the second song, “Pocket Knife,” Daniel explains that this is the first song they wrote together. It’s a funny story about wanting to write together but being afraid that their voices or styles would be incompatible and how would a husband and wife deal with that? (Fortunately, they felt very compatible). The song is surprisingly short. The verse is very quiet, especially his voice. Then the song gets loud–but there’s no vocals during the loud part. She takes a verse and then it’s over.
Then they open it up for questions. They explain that they are on stage together and in the van together and so with audiences basically staring at them, they decided to open up a dialogue on stage. So they often ask people for questions and comments. Someone asks about the lyrics books. They have made lyric books and passed them out before the show (something they do at all of their shows). They like having something tactile or the audience. The previous song was number 19 (which reminded me of a hymnal).
“Four Sisters, Pt. One” has many parts and is really interesting. It has dynamic sound changes. And when they harmonize on the “use your voice” section, they sound great. I like the duo and would enjoy seeing them opening for someone, although I don’t think I like them enough to get a record.
[READ: June 29, 2014] Skim
In Skim we meet Kimberley Keiko Cameron who is called Skim (because she isn’t). She is a heavyset Japanese woman into the goth scene and a wannabe witch. Her best friend is Lisa, already a witch and, despite her blonde hair, also kinda gothy. The witchcraft is wiccan lite.
As the story opens, we see that Skim has broken her arm tripping over the makeshift wiccan altar in her room. But trumping that is the news that Katie Matthews, a super popular girl in school was dumped by her boyfriend, John. She has drawn a broken heart on her hand with a Sharpie. Lisa hates Katie and Skim does too, sort of (she doesn’t really hate anyone), but it is still super annoying.
The other principal character is Ms Archer. Ms Archer is a hippie with red hair and flowing dresses who teaches drama and English. Skim likes her because she feel a kindred freakishness. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 