SOUNDTRACK: BEAUTY PILL-Tiny Desk Concert #481 (October 23, 2015).
Beauty Pill is an unusual band. They seem fairly conventional–guitars, baas and drums. But they also feature a strange light up computer device (which is called a Monome) that is a sort of looping sampler trigger. The samples are weird and unexpected and the music plays off of that–at times lurching and bouncing, at times playing smooth and conventional.
I love the crazy funky vibes as the first song “Afrikaner Barista” begins. There’s interesting samples and a cool riff. The song feels “assembled.” And I was really excited to see where it would go. But I really didn’t like the singer/speaker’s voice in his delivery of the verses. It’s a little too unemphatic–it’s neither loud nor weird not even excessively deadpan. It’s just kind of bland. The chorus is cool though, and his delivery works because there are harmony vocals to accompany him.
I also like his sort of distorted guitar solo. Mostly though, it’s fascinating watching Jean Cook play her Monome, watching her push buttons that light up and produce diverse sounds. The drums are also great–complex and dynamic.
In all of the songs, there’ a lot of repeating of lyrics–almost like a mantra. This song repeats, “I want to be the one you like.” I’m not even clear if the words mean anything. Even the title “Afrikaner Barista” is fun to say but I don’t know if its meaningful.
“Drapetomania!” is introduced as a dark song although the singer, Chad Clark, thinks it resembles the Fat Albert theme song. He says it’s about the suburbs. When the song begins, it has a kind a of creepy circus quality to it and it opens with the dramatic line, “I want more life, fucker!” There’s some fun lyrics in this song like “Morning Ralph, Morning Sam” (referencing the Bugs Bunny cartoons). Or “The neighbor’s wifi’s called “magic negro” now / I am gonna burn his house down, if I may.” And this great line: “deep in the heart of wildest Caucasia.”
The middle has a breakdown that’s lot of fun as the samples continue to play with all sorts of things, including, I believe, Clark’s voice.
The final song is called “Exit Without Saving” which he says is “either a Microsoft Word document or a situation where you feel trapped,” I like the riff of this one and the samples too. There’s more great lyrics like “a five ton mastodon frozen in mid-snarl in a ten ton cube of ice, says I don’t know how I got in here but if I get out it ain’t gonna happen twice.” There’s a repeated refrain of “you recognize that this is noise, right?”
It’s not always clear what he’s on about, but it’s fun to listen to them.
There’s so much about this band that I like but I feel like there’s just something missing–either in the voice or maybe that the samples and sounds need to be a little more prominent? I’m curious to see what these guys do next though.
[READ: February 14, 2016] Kick-Ass 2: Prelude
This book is a sequel to Kick-Ass and a prequel to Kick-Ass 2. It focuses on Hit Girl, but not her childhood (which we saw in Kick Ass). Rather, it follows her in the days following the events of the first book.
We see that Hit Girl, Mindy McCready, is at home with her mom and her stepfather. Her mom has calmed down (she has been quite hysterical lately) and her stepdad, Marcus, is a policeman trying to keep things orderly. He knows about Mindy’s secret identity (he knows all about what kind of upbringing she had as well) and he wants her to stop the superheroing. But overall, he is pretty cool.
We see Mindy at School (Kick Ass if there too, of course). No matter how tough Mindy is when she has her costume on, she is still a little girl and she is crushed by the mean girls in school. And so Mindy makes a deal–she’ll teach Kick Ass to actually fight and be a real superhero (as much as she is) if he’ll teach her to be normal. (more…)
Brandi Carlile has been making a lot of noise on WXPN this last year. She has a few song that I really like. But I didn’t realize that her background was in country music—it’s slightly apparent on her more recent music. But in this Tiny Desk, her whole country style really comes out. Well, I guess she’s more alternative country—it’s strange that she has a country twang in her voice since she is from Washington.
I know Kelly Hogan as an amazing back up singer. She sang with The Decemberists when I saw them live (and she was truly amazing). She also often sings with Neko Case.
Arborea is a totally captivating band.
Jolie Holland was the singer of The Be Good Tanyas, a band I know of but am not familiar with. Since that band disbanded, she has released six solo albums. She sings a kind of dusky folk music. Her voice isn’t gravelly, but it is somewhat gritty—with a kind of nonchalant slurring of words that is strangely enticing.
After all of these years there’s not much to say about Cowboy Junkies that hasn’t been said. They sound a certain way and only ever sound that way. Their songs are slow, “mournful and thoughtful,” relatively long (because they are so slow) and Margo Timmins has a beautiful voice which hasn’t changed in 25 yeas.
Kat Edmonson is a singer who is often associated with jazz (the word chanteuse is thrown around a lot), although for this Tiny Desk Concert it’s just her singing and Steve Elliot on acoustic guitar.
Laura Gibson performed the first Tiny Desk Concert in 2008. The whole enterprise was started because of her. Bob had seen her in a club and her quiet music was overpowered by the audience. So he invited her to play in his quiet office. And now, here it was 200 shows later and Gibson is back–the first person to headline twice.
I Just Read About That... 