Random Notes - May 2023
Looks at new records by 100 Gecs, Stephen Stills, Fred Hersh and Esperanza Spalding, and more
Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (Sony, 2023)
With a voice that’s as gorgeous and as big-hearted as ever, Polachek carries the day on her latest full-length. That’s both the good and the bad here, though. As good as her voice is - and there’s more than a few moments where it’s really good - it never quite manages to avoid being dragged down by so-so production. Tinkling keyboards welcome you in on “Welcome to My Island”, a sparse groove and whistles push her along on “Bunny is a Rider” and driving, almost EDM drum groove collides with plucked guitar on “Fly to You.” But nothing quite matches the highs of 2019’s Pang, where her voice carried an emotional impact and rose above the electro-pop backings. Not even the layered vocals on “Hopedrunk Everlasting” quite manage to make this music stick. A bit of a missed opportunity.
Fred Hersh and Esperanza Spalding - Alive at the Village Vanguard (Palmetto, 2023)
Over the weekend of Oct. 19-21 at New York City’s Village Vanguard, pianist Fred Hersh and bassist/singer Esperenza Spalding played a few sets in front of a live audience, recorded live for a newish record on Palmetto. It’s a casual, laid back affair: basically all standards, some playing to the crowd, and an absence of Spalding’s trademark genre-bending. Instead it’s more like a hipper version of one of those Lady Gaga/Tony Bennett records; Diana Krall wishes she was half this engaging. Hersh’s playing is fun and meshes well with Spalding’s voice; having Spalding in a setting where she isn’t playing bass is a little weird, but when she’s vocalizing along to a old Monk tune and slipping little jokes to the audience, it’s hard not to think she’s having fun. And even if Alive at the Village Vanguard won’t be a key part of either’s discography, it’s a joy to listen to.
Glume - Main Character (Italians Do It Better, 2023)
This record opens with “Child Actor,” where Glume’s ice-cold voice meets darkwave-styled synths. Over a slow groove she assumes the role of a stage mother directing her kid around: “when you fall to the ground, make sure you hit the mark right,” she sings. Later in the song she suggests they lose some weight, maybe get some work done, too, in a hushed voice lacking any compassion. Meanwhile the groove rides up behind her, keyboards building to a swell. In just a few minutes she builds up not just a groove, but a character - it’s a compelling piece of stagecraft. The rest of the record never hits the same highs, but there’s some nice moments: “Brittany” is about looking to others but never measuring up, while ‘Queen of LA” tries hard to meld Lana Del Rey’s existential angst with slick vaporwave grooves. By the time the record wraps up, it flips “Child Actor” inside out, retelling the song from the kid’s point of view (if not quite as effectively). Main Character never quite gels into a complete whole, but the highs of a few key tracks suggest Glume’s one to keep an eye on.
Brandon Seabrook - brutalovechamp (Pyroclastic Records, 2023)
Seabook’s new record, his first for Pyroclasitic, is a bumpy ride through sounds and spiky rhythms. Brutalovechamp was recorded with his octet Epic Proportions: percussionist and vocalist Nava Dunkelman, cellist Marika Hughes, bassists Eivind Opsvik and Henry Fraser, electronic musician and vocalist Chuck Bettis, John McCowen on clarinets and recorders, and Sam Ospovat on drums, vibraphone and percussion, plus Seabrook on guitar and banjo. He leads the group through eight compositions that run a wide gamut of sounds: at one moment they sound like pastoral Asian music, at another it’s ambient percussion.
On the title track they make quick jump cuts, sounding more than a little like John Zorn’s ensembles at times. At others their mix of tricky, almost circular rhythms recall Philip Glass or Frank Zappa. And on the two-part “I Wanna BeChlorophllyed” the band slowly fades out into complete dissonance, Fraser’s bass playing long, droning phrases that sound like an industrial landscape. Brutalovechamp is an interesting record, one showing Seabrook pushing out, mixing sounds and styles. Maybe a little too eccentric for some, but I bet a certain kind of jazz fans will lap this one up. Get it later this month via Pyroclastic Records.
Stephen Stills - Live at Berkeley 1971 (Omnivore Recordings, 2023)
A snapshot of an artist in transition: with Buffalo Springfield and the 1970 CSNY tour in the background, Stills hit the road to tour his first two solo records. Lore has it this tour was unsteady, but this set shows him in fine form, mixing between acoustic folk-rock and driving, horn-drenched electric numbers. It starts a little slow, with numbers like “Jesus Gave Love Away For Free” and “The Lee Shore” harkening back to the more mellow side of the first Crosby Stills and Nash record, but it slowly builds up momentum over the course of the set, first with Stills on acoustic guitar, then sitting at a piano, and finally ripping out bluesy leads with a full band behind him. From here it was a hop, skip and a jump to Manassas, and then more confident solo shows later in the decade. But this one’s a fun listen for Stills fans - I count myself as one - and Live at Berkeley 1971 fills a nice hole in his discography.
Wobbly - Additional Kids (Hausu Mountain, 2023)
Fractured, angular pop music from Jon Liedecker - perhaps best known as one of the guys behind Negativland - Additional Kids boasts a wide variety of sounds and guests - everything from DemonSleeper’s hushed vocals on “Hospital” to Marisa Elene Nadieja’s sing-song spoken word on “Bank Account.” There, over bubbling, disjointed synths Nadieja recites lines over and over, sounding almost like a plundered sample of Kate Bush at times. Meanwhile the title track lifts a riff from an old Waylon Jennings tune, putting it against dance beats. At times Additional Kids reminds one of future funk or barber beat records you stumble across in dusty corners of Bandcamp, at others it’s a polished piece of experimental pop music - this one reminds me of stuff Black Dresses’ Ada Rook usually has her hands in. It’s an erratic listen, sure, but part of the joy is in listening to how the pieces come together and seeing how far Liedecker can push the boundaries. Pre-order it at Bandcamp.
Neil Young (as the Ducks) - High Flyin’ (Shakey Pictures Records, 2023)
Packaged to look like an old bootleg, High Flyin’ is either revisionist history or a peek into an overlooked part of Neil Young’s career. In the summer of 1977, while on a break from the road, Young hooked up with some friends - Bob Mosley, Jeff Blackburn, and Johnny Craviotto - and played in and around Santa Cruz. Lore has it Young was contractually obligated not to tour outside the city limits, but who knows for sure. What is certain is they only hung around for a little over a month and until a few years ago, all there was to show for this was a dusty audience tape. In 2013 some soundboard tapes surfaced online. These raw tapes were fragmentary - some songs cut in, others faded out early - but they showed a band that wasn’t just a Young project, but more collaborative. They’d jam on old covers and play some of Blackburn’s material.
High Flyin’ sort of presents itself as a bootleg, but it doesn’t really appear to be one. The sound is a lot cleaner than previously circulating tapes and the performances are different. There’s a rollicking version of “Are You Ready for the Country” and hard-driving “Mr Soul.” At other times they sound like Little Feat (“My My My (Poor Man)”) or boogie their hearts out (“I’m Ready”). But the gem here is the electric version of “Little Wing,” where Young’s guitar sizzles.
Is Young playing fast and loose with history here by including something that doesn’t even feel like a side project as part of his discography? Is a three-LP/two-CD set of material that’s largely written by and featuring other musicians worth it for anyone but the hardest of Young die-hards? It’s hard to say: I think this set is a fun listen, but people coming to hear a Young record might be a little disappointed by how little time he spends in the spotlight. Tread with caution.
100 Gecs - 10,000 Gecs (Dog Show Records/Atlantic, 2023)
With blink-and-you’ll-miss-it samples, harsh beats, and more effects than you can shake a stick at, it’s a little easy to dismiss 100 Gecs as a gimmick. But there’s more here than meets the eye: a wide range of sounds and styles, from the heavy guitars on “Hollywood Baby,” the angular jangles of “Frog on the Floor” to the way “One Million Dollars” circles around itself, running a vocal sample over and over as the music sways, stomps, and slides into a shout of “fuck you.” If 1,000 Gecs was a piss-take of electronica, this one shows them as still a little juvenile, but also one of the weirdest acts to sign to a major label in years.
By the time “I Got My Tooth Removed” became something between polka and ska, with lyrics about ripping your own teeth out with a set of pillars, I found myself drawing a mental connection between 100 Gecs and another duo who made weird, fractured pop music: Was (Not Was). If, like me, you’re the kind of person who’ll put on “Out Come the Freaks” or quote “Hello Dad, I’m In Jail” to your girlfriend, you’ll think this one is right up your alley. If you’re not - well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.