Playlist – January 2022

Once again, this was a boon to me personally, it did my heart and brain good to be reminded of and repeatedly engaged by the sheer amount of music there to love even in the coldest, grayest time of the year. And while I’ve said repeatedly that Spotify is awful – and I’ve never used it for the podcasts I indulge in – the number of artists pulling their work from it, particularly Joni Mitchell who I listen to nigh-weekly, is finally nudging me to shift.  

This was already half-done and written but it’ll be the last playlist using Spotify unless something changes down the road. Long term plan is probably SoundCloud or Mixcloud, a transitional period of the next couple of months will be another streaming service (I know they’re all terrible).  Continue reading for my rambling descriptions.

Bandcamp links courtesy of Hype Machine’s Merch Table Feature: https://hypem.com/merch-table/6R5JWydA9I6Xiu2ARzlhZC

• Aoife O’Donovan, “Age of Apathy” – I’ve greatly enjoyed the series of collaborations since her last solo record in 2016 but I’ve always been on the edge of my seat waiting for another full-length in her name, and O’Donovan’s Age of Apathy is my first favorite record of the year. This title track fits one of the themes shared by many of my favorite O’Donovan songs, the tension (productive and otherwise), between stillness and motion, between comfort and excitement. This is a remarkable declaration of love for the world and a reminder to keep going. The typically sympathetic production from Joe Henry – every texture of her voice gets the perfect light – enhances that subtle drama, especially the rumble and scene shift from his go-to rhythm section of David Pilch and Jay Bellerose, and the swirling, icy river of strings courtesy of Patrick Warren. “Under the shade of a quaking aspen tree: we came for New England’s party, but the colors haven’t started so it’s just you and me.”  
• Sonic Youth, “In & Out” – Sonic Youth probably became my favorite band within the first half a song I ever heard. When they were active, one of the things I loved most was their constant connection to smaller labels, bands toiling in the trenches, not just sucking up the excitement of the new but giving back. This track is a prime example of that impetus, given to North Carolina avant label Three-Lobed Recordings for a comp in 2011 (where I missed it though I was a big fan of everything Three Lobed did) and now collected with similar outtakes for that same tiny label. A growling basement dance party, started at a 2010 sound check and finished up at their Hoboken home base, this track is rich with so many of the elements that kept me coming back to this band year after year. 
• Mark Lomax II, “Intangible Elements” – One of my favorite drummers and composers in Columbus, we were overdue for a solo drum record from the great Mark Lomax, so this release on his birthday felt like a gift to all of us. I’d been thinking a lot about solo drums as a form the last few months, especially after Milford Graves – who introduced me to the concept of storytelling through drums in a visceral, instead of abstract, way – died, and I also thought about my interview with Lomax for his magnum opus 400: An Afrikan Epic, where he talked about being “enamored with getting the drums to talk.” This is a prime example, the storm of crashing cymbals into a calming roll a couple minutes in, the space and hiss opening up, this track and the whole album Prismatic Reflections No. 1 is a masterclass in how we tell stories. 
• Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra featuring Catherine Russell, “Yes We Can” – My photos of shows are often terrible – at my best I manage to capture the hint of a vibe but I’m more concerned with snapping a couple for documentation/memory and going back to soaking in what’s happening and, especially, trying not to be obtrusive. But one where I think I got it was my write up of Winter Jazzfest 2020, a photo of Steven Bernstein grinning, trumpet at his side, and Catherine Russell giving him an affectionate “God, you are corny,” look, with the MTO behind them. That show, one of the most exciting hours of jazz I’ve ever been privileged to be in the room for, was a tribute to and showcase of friendships and community, everyone on that stage had history together and still came out liking each other and making great music. They reprise that vibration on the marvelous collaborative record Good Time Music (Community Music Vol. 2). This take on the Allen Toussaint classic might be the definitive version – and I say this as someone who saw the composer himself do it in a packed House of Blues the week of Jazzfest, who saw Maceo Parker tear a hole in the night sky with it, who watched Cleveland’s Revolution Brass Band send shockwaves through a little Lakewood bar with it, not even getting into the countless records I have with it including the classic Lee Dorsey original. It’s one of those bolt-from-the-blue pairings of singer, song, and band. From Caleb Burhan’s dancing violin bringing in the rest of the band, Perkowsky and Bernstein first, through the firestorm of joy in Russell’s perfect vocal, this is the world I want to live in. 
• Rosita Kèss featuring Valerie June, “The Life I Used to Live” – Singer-songwriter Kèss works with similar ‘30s Kansas City jazz textures on this track, stretching them like silly putty and wrapping them around a voice like poppies and wine, aided immensely by Valerie June who put out one of my favorite records last year. This sultry duet has the comforting feeling of being around a crackling fire but without being complacent or corny. 
• Keb’ Mo’, “Good to Be (Home Again)” – I think I first heard Keb’ Mo’ on our NPR affiliate, WCBE, in high school, and I’m pretty sure I bought Just Like You when it came out. I was enamored of the way he blended folkier singer-songwriter tones with a deep knowledge of blues history and idioms, he wouldn’t let himself be stuck in some sort of purist trap, and even more than that, the charm and the equanimity he brough to his songs gave them a burnished warmth that matched his silky voice perfectly. I remember seeing him at the Southern Theater before I was old enough to drink and it was mesmerizing. I never stopped being a fan, but I stopped paying as much attention for a little while. His new one, Good to Be…, and this title track co-written with fellow LA native Money Mark, gave me a pure shot of exactly what I love about his work. An exultation of the small things, with glowing pedal steel and organ parts underneath a rolling guitar lick. “It’s good to be here. It’s good to be anywhere. It’s good to be back, good to be home again.” 
• Fred Hersch, “Pastorale” – One of my favorite jazz pianists in the more romantic tradition, Fred Hersch’s Breath by Breath is a marvelous summing up, a kaleidoscopic look at everything he does so well. On this final track, a tribute to Robert Schumann, he teams up with the tight, empathic rhythm section of Drew Gress on bass and Jochen Rueckert on drums, along with the Crosby Street String Quartet. To my ears, this shared some tonal qualities with the Keb Mo and one of my favorite not-really-oxymorons, the urban pastoral. There’s enough grit and change to keep it from being merely pretty, to make it beautiful, with some flecks of shimmering darkness in the latter third that I also felt rubbed up against the next track. 
• Punch Brothers, “Last Thing on My Mind” – There are few bigger fans of Chris Thile’s compositions than I am, but the Punch Brothers’ pandemic regrouping to cover Tony Rice’s classic Church Street Blues as Hell on Church Street (following an earlier festival set where they tackled the same repertoire) hit the perfect nerve endings for me. In high school when I was trying to submerge myself in all the artists of the ‘60s Greenwich Village folk revival I didn’t already know, I got a Tom Paxton best of, and this song stuck out to me as the highlight. I’ve heard a million people cover it since, usually closer to the Dolly Parton/Porter Wagoner arrangement, but the Punch Brothers turn the knob up on the self-recrimination here, highlighting the drone and the almost claustrophobic closeness that made this song I’ve loved for 25 years suddenly feel new to me, and deeply sad. That perfect opening line, “It’s a lesson too late for the learning, made of sand. Made of sand,” hits like a branding iron in my skin. One of the shows I’m most looking forward to in coming months.  
• Sofia Kourtesis featuring Manu Chao, “Estación Esperanza” – I still remember hearing Manu Chao’s breakout hit “Me Gustas Tu” in the little apartment I shared with Jon and Justin Rood – What is this and how did it end up on MTV? I bought the record Próxima Estación: Esperanza (Next Stop: Hope, but an actual train station, in the sense of Tennessee Williams, “The bus said ‘Elysian Fields’) within a week and loved it. So, when Berlin-based Peruvian producer Kourtesis put out a single clearly riffing on that album’s title I had to hear it. I’m not entirely sure if this orbits around a sample or if Manu Chao is resigning the snippet but this made my heart light up like a ‘50s neon sign on a desert night. The subtle, ingratiating rhythm, the sly, creeping vocal, the samples of nature and crowds, every part of this is perfect. 
• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, “Dreams (Peaking Lights Trancedelic Mix)” – It was Eddie Spaghetti, in either an interview or a blog post, who crystalized a big chunk of my taste when he said (I’m paraphrasing) “The disco period is my favorite part of most rock bands.” Eternally prolific King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard put out a remix record, Butterfly 3000, and this reworking by LA psych-dance duo Peaking Lights, is a prime example of the marvelousness there, mirage textures, and acid trails, and a stuttering, brittle snare that I can’t sit still during. 
• DJ Python, “TMMD (IMMMD)” – DJ Python (Brian Piñeyro) is the newest example to hit my radar of exactly what drew me to electronic dance music in my late teens-early twenties. His new record Club Sentimientos Vol. 2, of which this is my favorite track, uses syncopation and finesse to highlight that side to side motion I’m always seeking in club music. Tiny cells adding up to something grander but also leaving enough room for breath, enough room for people, enough room for the bodies to fill the floor and really make this live. 
• Jlin, “Connect the Dots” – One of the torchbearers of the Chicago footwork scene, I’ve never heard a Jlin record I didn’t love. This EP Embryo adds some shinier techno textures but also feels like it turns up the glitchiness. There’s a cinematic sweep to this track, the first ten minutes of a movie full of dread and promise, but with a gritty groove that I can’t wait to hear live. 
• Pooh Shiesty, “Federal Contraband (Freestyle)” – Growing up, with Southern rap ascendant, Memphis seemed like it got the short end of the stick in terms of wider popularity (except for 8Ball and MJG). I still don’t know that scene as well as I should, but the more I wander through Memphis and the more I love it, I try to dig deeper, and that led me to Pooh Shiesty. This phone freestyle, with a beat from TP808, sets a tumbling torrent of lyrics pulling against a laid-back delivery, at once serious as death and clear eyed that the world will do what it will do. “Just keep guiding me, my angels, that shit scary but I don’t fear it. Step alone, my fallen soldiers all I need for my security. Don’t hold grudges, I still love you; just don’t want you nowhere near me.” 
• The Chicago Experiment, “The Chant” – My love of Ropeadope’s Experiment series is on record in a lot of places – most recently talking about The Philadelphia Experiment memorializing Pat Martino – as is my awe at the current Chicago improvised music scene. This new installment unites those towering forces and does justice to both, with pianist Greg Spero, drummer Makaya McCraven, trumpeter Marquis Hill, vibraphonist Joel Ross, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Darryl Jones, and tenor saxophonist Irvin Pierce coming together. They highlight intersecting scenes, from Miles Davis and Rolling Stones vet Jones to Tortoise guitar wizard Parker, to McCraven who’s setting the world on fire, but I first checked out because he had my pal Tony Barba on a couple tracks. This record is full of organic grooves and fiery improvisation, music that doesn’t need a decoder ring, just an open heart. This feels as much like being in the Velvet Lounge (RIP) as anything I’ve heard since that South Side temple closed. 
• Alexa Dark, “Ungrateful” – This singer-songwriter feels like she’s rising in the lineage of the proud NYC alt.country scene. A soaring vocal with just enough gravel, sharp outlines of confession and demand in the bright lights of drama, aided by cinematic strings and a molten slide or pedal steel part. “She says I’m hurting and that’s why I hurt them. I should be thankful.” 
• Laurel Premo, “The Minstrel Boy Has Gone to War” – This was my first exposure to Michigan-based guitarist Premo, and it made me kick myself hard for not catching her marvelous 2021 record The Golden Loam. This molasses-slow take on the age-old Irish tune, rich with decay like every note is sinking into a fog-drenched moor with droning strings, transported me. 
• Claire Rousay and More Eaze, “same” – This advance single for Never Stop Texting Me continues the productive collaboration between San Antonio-based sound artist Claire Rousay and more eaze (mari maurice). I heard some tonal similarities with the earlier track and it’s another miniature that takes me to another place, opening a different world just as much as Robert Ashley always has, or Marisa Anderson. 
• Maren Morris, “Circles Around This Town” – A lot of my favorite big country hits of the last five years came from Maren Morris and if the early singles are any sign, Humble Quest is poised to be her strongest album yet. This balances the soaring and the wistful, a little bit of “fuck you, look where I got,” but with a real affection for both the process of making art and for Nashville. With a thudding groove and a glint on the multi-tracked vocals, the song dives into the bragging sense of the idiom in its title but also reinforces the sense of circling, stasis, as opposed to forward motion. “Hung around long enough to catch a break – couple hundred songs and the ones that finally worked was the one about a car and the one about a church.” 
• The Weeknd, “Out of Time” – Another artist I love, though his more expansive hooks took longer to adapt to than the earlier 4 am claustrophobia, and another writer who understands that precarious high wire act of the holding pattern, the push and pull between statis and moving forward, and how both can feel like moving backward. This cowrite with Boston noise/electronic artist Oneohtrix Point Never fuses a Japanese pop song sample to a seductive melody draped in regret. Just a half-step away from those songs with one voice talking into a telephone Anne helped codify for me as a genre. “Say ‘I love you, girl,’ but I’m out of time. Say ‘I’m there for you,’ but I’m out of time.” 
• Angèle, “On s’habitue” – I came to the rise of Belgian superstar Angèle late, following a note that she’ll be opening for Dua Lipa, but this song is exactly the kind of sunshine pop shot through with melancholy I always have room for. The vocal winks to classic torchy crooning while still planting itself right in the now, with a stuttered beat that seems like it’ll work equally well for long walks through deserted streets, trying to make the world make sense, and on a crowded dance floor trying to make the world make sense. 
• Cardiac Poet featuring Nate Speaks, Bilal, and Masufuria, “Vitu kwa ground” – Kenyan rapper/spoken work artist Cardiac Poet built this exquisite, grinding track with a light touch skimming over the harder drums along with fellow members of the Nairobi poetry scene Nate Speaks and Masufuria. I couldn’t find much about this – I couldn’t even confirm the Bilal here is the American Bilal I’ve been a fan of for so long or another artist – but I love it and it felt like it fit after the Angèle like they were meant to be. 
• Eva de Marcé, “Rúmbala (Jiony Remix)” – Madrid-based de Marcé, remixed by Jiony from Mexico City, crafted this jubilant, slinky track that reminds me of the deep house that enraptured me in the early 2000s without feeling like too self-conscious a throwback. The clatter of percussion, the shakers fraying around the fringes, and the breathy vocal make this feel like the soundtrack to some platonic ideal of a cocktail party. 
• Eli Escobar and Lauren Flax, “Just a Feelin’” – I became a big fan of Lauren Flax when she played the Wexner Center’s annual Off the Grid fundraiser and that fandom has never let me down. This sultry collaboration with NYC house/disco maven Eli Escobar uses subtle emphasis and a low-key vocal sample, along with fascinating touches around the edges (the scattered cymbal pattern, a flurry of serrated strings) that keep the real listeners engaged without disrupting the hip-swinging flow. 
• Hedvig Mollestad, “Winds Approaching” – I’m late coming to Norwegian guitarist Mollestad and her beautiful 2021 record Tempest Rising. This track opens with a subtle, intricate clatter of percussion that felt in line with the Escobar/Flax and the de Marcé, before a surge of horns – Karl Hjalmar Nyberg on alto, Martin Myhre Olsen on bari, and Peter Erik Vergeni on tenor, start the riff her guitar carries and mutates over a swinging rhythm section of Trond Frønes on bass, Per Oddvar Johansen on drums, and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad on percussion. A smoldering tenor solo from Vergeni is a highlight of the track. 
• Morgan Wade, “Run” – We shift genres but with a similar gorgeously insidious riff and an unhurried rhythm on this single from a reissued version of singer-songwriter Wade’s album Reckless. Soaring strings buffet a low-to-the-ground vocal, highlighting the hard-won dream of escape. “Can we fly somewhere foreign? Get me high, mess me up until the morning, ‘cause all I see in every street is where he made me numb.” 
• Jake Xerxes Fussell, “Breast of Glass” – Durham singer-songwriter, guitarist, and interpreter Fussell made his most fully realized record in Good and Green Again. Centered on his crisp finger-picking and spiked molasses vocal, the arrangements bring in colors that never feel like too much, the sunrise of horns and the violin slipping from a drone to a pizzicato pattern. Mystery and charm. 
• Sarah Borges, “Wasting My Time” – I love those early Sarah Borges records – “The Way We Met” got me into the Boston singer-songwriter – and I marvel at the mid-career renaissance she’s found collaborating with NYC roots music institution Eric Ambel. This first taste of her upcoming record Together Alone is another winner, with dark and sticky electric guitar from Ambel (who also co-wrote and produced), a throbbing bass line (I think Bottle Rocket Keith Voegele, but I know Keith Christopher also plays on this), and wistful Hammond organ. “Been a while since I’ve seen my friends, don’t know when I’m gonna see them again. Without them around it’s harder to pretend that I know where I’m going.” 
• Sweet Knives, “Oh Danny” – In a crowded field of one of my favorite music scenes in the world, Alicja Trout might be my favorite living Memphis singer, songwriter, and bandleader. From the first two notes I saw from Lost Sounds over 15 years ago, through seeing them with Anne at several Gonerfests, I knew I was in the presence of something special. Her project Sweet Knives, reuniting her with Lost Sounds bandmates Rich Crook and John Garland, along with John Valiant, gets stronger and more intense with every go round and their new one Spritzeria is a barreling rock and roll freight train without a dull moment. Sharp and gleaming hooks, greasy, swinging rhythms, and just enough pop sensibility to make the darkness go down so smooth. “Oh Danny, don’t you know that I believe you? In what you say and what you do? Oh Danny, don’t you know I could never be through with you?”  
• Drop Collective, “Drop the Words” – I found this loose and glowing Barcelona-based band’s fusions of intricate jazz arrangements – there’s an especially cooking carnival ride of a keyboard solo in the middle of this tune – with reggae and ska rhythms really infectious. If I were a betting man, I’d guess most of my friends listening to this are going to come back with a “What the fuck, really?” but I think there will be a few people as delighted by this tune and the band as I am. 
• Jamestown Revival, “Way It Was” – A band I run hot and cold on, tonally they’re sometimes a little too Thursday night at Ruby’s jam band for me. But sometimes Jamestown Revival are exactly what my sweet tooth for mostly acoustic music needs, and they hit that spot more often on their new record Young Man than previously. The rock-solid hook here and delightful, intertwined bassline and violin part hold up a lovely, wistful look at the way the things any of us who really love a town watch get plowed into dust in the name of progress. “It might just be a corner dive but folks in here are living life, and one day we’ll be looking back, my friend, talking about the way it was back then.” 
• Poco Lee featuring Portable and Olamide, “ZaZoo Zehh” – Nigerian MC Poco Lee unleashed this torrent of party energy with other vocalists Portable and Olamide, produced by P. Prime. This was, I think, my first exposure to all three of these voices but I’m excited to hear more. 
• The Shamanic featuring Frankie Knuckles and Eric Kuepper, “FK Always” – I love classic Chicago house and this duo of Ralphi Rosario and Craig J. Snider’s (as The Shamanic) tribute to Frankie Knuckles, is as pure and gleaming an example of the genre as I can think of. The crisp, hard beat with lush, melancholy strings and flute and choppy piano arpeggios is an invitation to dance and remember at the same time, to escape and to ground yourself. 
• Golgothan, “Bottomless Pit” – Kind of a hard tonal downshift but this conjured a similar groove for me as the last track, especially because I think of both genres (death metal here, house there) as fundamentally social music. Even when I’m grooving to a record in my room, I picture sweaty bodies around me, absorbing and reflecting the sharp, bright tones. This Louisiana band checks all my boxes: gnarled, grinding riffs punctuated by acidic leads, a pulsing rhythm section with blast beats and cymbal slashes used as seasoning, and a vocalist who leaves no quarter. 
• Telefís featuring Jah Wobble, “Falun Gong Dancer (Dub)” – Another heavy groove pairing Irish duo Telefís (Jackknife Lee and Cathal Coughlan) with one of the icons of the form, bassist Jah Wobble, this track is all about texture for me. It makes me think of the Falun Gong members doing qigong in Washington Square Park on a cold morning. 
• Burial, “Strange Neighborhood” – Burial almost single-handedly got me interested in dubstep with his early singles, then I drifted away sometime after Untrue. His new Untrue EP is exactly what I’m looking for when ice is cracking under my feet, perfect for long walks or watching the snow fall. Chilly and shot through with a cold, brittle light like winter, but with enough depth and musicality that I’m already interested in seeing what these sounds take on and reflect when summer comes. 
• Jana Horn, “Driving” – I get a similar sense of cold and clear light from this magnetic Texas singer-songwriter’s voice and guitar, setting her lyrics that never give away too much of the mystery against sparse arrangements full of long, jagged shadows, and hidden passageways. “I found you in a city, nowhere that you should be. You buried me below my feet so I would never be.” 
• The Kernal, “The Limit” – Anne and I saw The Kernal cold, opening for Paul Cauthen at Louisville’s Zanzabar, and this four-piece band led by session musician Joe Garner blew us both away and Listen To The Blood is a perfect distillation and introduction to one of my favorite songwriting voices. He uses classic country tropes and effects, and a laconic vocal delivery to give the world a sardonic skewering and break your heart in the next breath. More than anything, this reminds me of my favorite Columbus band of all time, The Sovines, it its shade of irreverence and bone-deep songwriting. “If everybody takes an acre when they’re taking up a few square feet, man, they’ll cram you all together till the roads are called a city street. Reading the Bhagavad Gita, eating Abita by the 12 ounce can, I been living in the limit longer than I oughta been.” 
• Manou Gallo, “Emotion” – I saw notice of this record with regard to bass legend Christian McBride’s arrangements and it didn’t disappoint. This West African singer-songwriter-bassist crafts beguiling grooves and melodies with space for everything to breathe. 
• Enzo Minarelli, “Earth Motion” – The uneasy but meditative quality of this new piece by long-running Italian sound poet Minarelli, a highlight off his dazzling de revolutionibus transported me into a realm few records ever go. 
• PinkPantheress, “Break It Off” – Another song I found reading other 2021 best ofs (I treat myself with them when my own is out in the world) and this is a perfect confection, a frenetic club beat under a smooth vocal with a flood of witty words.  
• Ches Smith, “Interpret It Well” – Following last year’s volcanic We All Break, drummer and percussionist Ches Smith delves into more of his chamber music/improv side with this delicate quartet featuring pianist Craig Taborn, violist Mat Maneri, and guitarist Bill Frisell. The spiderweb of ice daggers these four weave has me excited for the rest of the record and even more excited to see the group live (maybe at Big Ears?). 
• Garcia Peoples. “Fill Your Cup” – On the freak folk/New Weird America boom, my favorite voice was PG Six (Pat Gubler), so seeing he was part of Garcia Peoples finally pushed me over the edge to check them out and I’m glad I did. This track, and the rest of Dodging Dues, are an acid fried joy ride in a seat that broke right off the tilt a whirl and headed to the stars. Dissonance and sweetness woven through a swinging stomp. 
• Eliza Gilkyson, “Wind River and You” – One of my favorite Texas singer-songwriters moved to New Mexico where she was raised and released this stellar tribute to that countryside, Songs From The River Wind. This gorgeous centerpiece of the record, backed as on most of the record by the trio The Rifters, pairs a tribute to finding peace with what’s there, finding a way to live in the now, with a gentle sway and a lovely mandolin line. “Silence and sweetness, you can’t try to hold them. The days that were golden slipped into the past.” 
• Gui Duvignau, “For Bill and Baden” – We close this month with a beguiling instrumental from French-Brazilian (now based in Brooklyn) bassist Duvignau, the closing track of a lovely tribute to Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell, that adds Bill Frisell to the list of honorees on this track which is also one of four songs to feature his distinct, soulful and tart guitar. Billy Drewes on reeds, Lawrence Fields on piano, and Jeff Hirshfield on drums, round out the ensemble for this swinging pastoral with just enough rocks in your path to keep you interested. The kind of music that makes me love the world just a little more – I know I say that a lot, but I’m lucky enough for it to be true a lot.