SOUNDTRACK: KHALID-Tiny Desk Concert #756 (June 18, 2018).
I feel like I know who Khalid is, like maybe he has collaborated with someone I know, but I assumed he was a rapper.
But nothing could be further from the truth. For this Tiny Desk it’s Khalid and his acoustic guitarist Jef Villaluna. Khalid sings and his voice is accented (Jamaican?) even though his speaking voice is not. But all of that is somewhat dwarfed by some biographical details.
Before Khalid performed “Location,” his debut single that’s now four-times platinum, at the Tiny Desk, he told the audience the story of how he wrote the track during his senior year of high school not knowing where music would take him. (FYI: He graduated in the Class of 2016. Feel old yet?)
He looks much more than 20 years old as he sings “Young Dumb & Broke” which I actually like a lot more than “Location.” But he seems like such a nice kid that I was instantly won over by him.
About “Location” he says he wrote it geared toward his senior prom (!) and it was only the sixth song he’d ever written.
And before singing “Saved,” Khalid explained that this was one of the first songs he ever wrote and remembers that when he put it up on SoundCloud, a rude commenter tried to diminish his talent.
He talked about how much the guy hated the song and really trashed it. Khalid said he could confront the guy but that guy didn’t deserve his attention. So he wrote another song and another song… “‘I honestly couldn’t tell you what that guy is doing with his life but he’s not doing this,'” Khalid said with a contagious laugh.”
Khalid finished his set with a mini bow and a peace sign to the audience, but made sure to squeeze in time for some of the diehard fans in the crowd of NPR employees and their guests — many of whom were gleeful teens, some just as awkward, angsty and wide-eyed as he when penning his first songs in high school. He understood.
I’m not sure what his fully formed music sounds like–I can; imagine that these acoustic rendition would gather 4 million fans, but I imagine if you’re a fan of his originals, these stripped down versions are a real treat.
[READ: July 22, 2016] “Upside Down Cake”
This story seems like a fairly typical story of a family dinner which is doomed from the start. But Theroux masterfully inserts a conflict which isn’t fully revealed until the end of the story.
The story begins with the narrator, Jay, talking about how visiting an aged parent always feels like it has an air of farewell to it. He is thinking this because he is going to his mother’s 90th birthday. He and his six siblings and their spouses will gather together and have a party that’s meant to note feel like a funeral.
Much of the story is this sibling’s perspective on the party–watching his siblings and their spouses act poorly in their own ways. It’s not outrageously funny or anything, but there is a lot of smug smiling to be had at the way people behave around family.
There was even a dead sibling–a girl whom their mother never forgot about–and for whom a place was reserved at every meal. Then there was Franny and Marvin (ill at ease out of his security guard uniform), Fred’s wife Erma (sighing and snatching at her hair), Rose’s husband Walter (playing with his camera as a way of ignoring everyone) Jonty’s little girl Jilly was there–she was the center of attention. There was Floyd in his black fedora (if you’re strong enough to scream, it can’t hurt that much, was it you who said that mother?) They were till waiting for Hubby and his wife Moneen and Gilbert.
The last time they had all gathered like that was at their father’s funeral seven years ago. Now, they all looked “bigger and droopier.”
The talk is full of teasing–gentle and otherwise and a lot of abuse hurled at mother’s cooking –although done in such a way that she assumed it was a complement.
And it seems like the story is just going to be this–an awkward dinner that people can’t wait to leave, But then half way through the meal, Charlie and Julie come in with their son Patrick. It seems that jay is the only one who knows him and he introduces the family to everyone, “their presence delighted me.” He goes to grab Angela’s chair but everyone stops him. He asks if she is in the bathroom and Mother says she’s in heaven.
After the party they all called each other to talk and complain. Jay knew that if no one was saying anything to him directly then they were complaining behind his back. Even mother complained that Jay had invited Charlie and his family to this dinner.
So just who is this Charlie who has everyone so upset?
There were so many possibilities and yet I never would have guessed the answer. And the way it was presented was terrific.
If Tiny Desk was set anywhere other than Washington D.C. I would never have heard of go-go. It is a regional funk style that seems to have never left the area and of which the DC crowd is very proud.
I Just Read About That... 