SOUNDTRACK: LO MOON-Tiny Desk Concert #688 (January 5, 2018).
WXPN has been playing “This is It” quite a bit lately and I’ve realized that it sounds way too much like Mr. Mister (I think it’s Mr. Mister, or something else cloyingly 80s) for me to really enjoy. [Speaking of Mr. Mister, how is it possible that Pat Mastelotto, currently touring with King Crimson, was the drummer for Mr. Mister? Are they better than “Broken Wings.” There’s hardly any drums in that song at all and Mastelotto is awesome].
Anyhow back to the history of Lo Moon, lead singer and instrumentalist Matt Lowell says he created the song “Loveless” 5 1/2 years ago in a basement studio in New York.
He then moved to Los Angeles and linked up with Crisanta Baker (guitar, bass, keyboards and backing vocals) and multi-instrumentalist and principal guitarist Sam Stewart. They spent months in a backyard shed with gear and guitars everywhere. There they learned to feed off each other, sometimes jamming on two-chord drones for six hours straight without even saying a word. With the lights turned down, it was a comfortable space for the band to catch its artistic wind and create a celestial sound.
No word on when Sterling Laws was added as a drummer.
The show starts with “This is It.” Lowell is on piano, and the song sounds pretty faithful to the recording. It’s the combination of the four note melody and the synth sound of those four notes at the end of the chorus that really rings Mr. Mister to me. The addition of the backing vocals (ahhhing) is a nice addition to the song.
For “Real Love” Chrisanta switches to piano, Sam switches to acoustic guitar and Matt goes to electric guitar. He plays a pretty melody on the guitar, but I can’t help feel that his voice is too soft, too middle of the road.
The same is true for “Loveless.” They switch back to the original instruments. Like “Real Love” it’s a pretty song, but ironically, without those Mr. Mister notes, there’s really no hook. The songs just sound like pretty, generic songs on some kind of soft rock station.
[READ: September 9, 2017] Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Unicorn Training
I enjoyed the first Pip Bartlett book. It was funny and had a good time with magical creatures.
In the first book we find out that Pip Bartlett is a young girl who can speak to magical creatures–unicorns, silky griffins, fuzzles–but no one believes her (because no one else can). This is a drag because she loves magical creatures and her Aunt Emma is a veterinarian of magical creatures (people know magical creatures exits, they just don’t think people can talk to them).
Pip loves Unicorns and in the past has assisted Mr Henshaw with a very timid Unicorn–Regent Maximus–who was afraid of his own shadow.
I love the tone of the books. This one opens: I was shoveling Greater Rainbow Mink poop. This wasn’t as bad as you might think. Greater Rainbow Minks only eat brunt sugar, so their poop literally smells like candy. (It’s NOT candy, of course, It’s very important to remember that no matter how good its smells, it’s still poop).
And then we see (or actually we don’t see) a Rockshine who can only say the word Hey, but most often says “Heyyyyyyyyyyy!” Rockshines are dull sheeplike creatures who turn invisible when frightened–which is often. (more…)
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I have been trying to see Stick Men since just before the pandemic. They play around here relatively frequently but the timing or location (not to mention the pandemic) has prevented me from seeing them.
I Just Read About That... 