From the Top of the Mountain
Hello all,
October seems to have gotten off to an uneventful start, so I figured now would be a good time to send out a newsletter.
“Stick To Sports”
I wrote new theme music for The Distraction, the flagship podcast of the new media venture Defector. The tune was fun to write and features more guitar solos than I’ve ever recorded - I even made a little music video for it, which you can watch on Twitter or Instagram. You can also listen to it on Soundcloud.
I don’t actually have as much time for freelance projects as I thought I would when I went independent in 2018, but I jumped at the chance to write music for Defector because I’m so fully behind what they’re doing.
If you’ve never heard of it, Defector is staffed by a bunch of writers who used to work at Deadspin, the sports-focused sister-site to my old writing home at Kotaku. The series of unfortunate events that led up to Defector’s creation has been well-chronicled, including by the EIC of Defector himself, but the short version is that after months of mismanagement and meddling by an openly hostile C-suite, the entire staff of Deadspin quit in protest. Defector is the new website that those folks have launched. It’s been live for a few weeks, and so far, it rules.
In addition to being a fun website with lots of good articles, it’s employee owned (cool!), subscriber supported (sustainable!), and completely free to be whatever its writers want it to be. I’m happy to have gotten to contribute a small thing to their launch.
Strong Notes: Fleetwood, Zevon, Björk
Strong Songs continues to be a bright spot for me in the midst of a tumultuous year, and I’m particularly proud of the last three episodes, for different reasons. Early September’s double-feature on Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” and “Dreams” was a pleasure to make, the rare two-song episode that didn’t feel rushed or overstuffed, it just kinda worked. I learned a lot while making it, though with this album in particular, there are so many things I’ve yet to check out.
There exists an entire galaxy of Rumors B-sides, unreleased demos, and other ephemera, and I haven’t listened to nearly enough of it, though I do plan to. One of the upsides of making Strong Songs is that I get to dive deep into so many great songs and albums, but after I finish an episode, I have to fairly quickly move my focus on to the next thing.
That next thing was going to be either an episode on Antônio Carlos Jobim, or an episode on Björk… and then the Oregon wildfires happened. Here in southeast Portland, we were thankfully never in danger from the fires themselves, but the week we spent choked by wildfire smoke was so much harder, both physically and psychologically, than I can properly articulate. I’ve lived with wildfire smoke before; this was different. It was very bad.
I wound up scrapping my plans for a single-song episode and making a Q&A episode instead. That gave me something to periodically focus on during that bleak week and also helped me feel connected to listeners during an isolating time. The air is clear now, and the Q&A episode turned out pretty good, I think. I got to talk some about “I Am Moana,” and after listening to a bunch of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” I’ve changed how I hear the home key of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” Maybe I think it’s in G, after all.
Wednesday’s episode on Björk’s “Hyperballad” was unexpectedly challenging to make, though it wound up being a fulfilling and even healing process. My initial plan was to do another double-header combining “Hyperballad” with an analysis of “Joga,” another song of hers that I love. But it just wasn’t quite working, and over the weekend I realized that as great as “Joga” is, “Hyperballad” was the song that demanded the episode’s focus. I scrapped an unusual amount of completed work (including a woodwind arrangement of the “Joga” chorus!) and redid the whole episode. In the end, I was happy with the choice and happy with how the episode came out. “Hyperballad” is such an important song to me in so many ways, an on-demand transcendent experience that never fails to move me. I’m glad to have given it its due.
After I published the episode, a listener reminded me of this excellent TV interview in which a young Björk explains how her television works. I haven’t been able to find reliable sourcing online, though a few places put it on Icelandic TV in the late 80s. What’s remarkable about the video is how unpredictable it is, and how much watching it feels like listening to a Björk song. You never quite know what she’s going to say next, or where she’s going. Even having seen it, I keep expecting that she’ll lean into some abstract, magical explanation the TV, which makes her unexpectedly grounded conclusion (“You shouldn’t let poets lie to you”) all the more delightful.
A Few Links
I’ve recently discovered the podcast “You’re Wrong About,” in which hosts Mike Hobbes and Sarah Marshall dig into historical events and set the record straight. It is a delight, even when the two of them are dealing with not-at-all-delightful topics.
My buddy Dan Golding recently did an episode of his “Screen Sounds” series about jazz in the movies, and it’s great.
Another friend, Matthew Seiji Burns, wrote a really interesting article about the 1960s ELIZA project, an early attempt to create an algorhythmically driven computer therapist. Matthew recently wrote and directed a fantastic video game, also called Eliza, which explores the idea of AI-based therapy in a fictional setting. The article is good on its own, and great as a companion to the game.
I’ve been playing a trio of other great games lately, both of which I’ve talked about on recent episodes of Triple Click. The first is Super Mario Galaxy, a 2007 Nintendo game that I never got around to and thatm, to me at least, feels more experimental and exciting than 2017’s Odyssey, despite having been made by a lot of the same developers. The other is Supergiant’s Hades, a fabulous “rogue-lite” action game that finally came out of early access this month. I love everything about it and never want to stop playing it. The third is another Nintendo game, the 1991 SNES classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. We recently did an entire episode about this game; turns out it’s a classic for a reason.
Music Recommendations
The Wynton Kelly Trio - Kelly at Midnight - A jazz mainstay that I’d never actually listened to closely, this one’s notable because Philly Joe Jones is in the drum chair instead of Kelly’s usual drummer, Jimmy Cobb. PJJ sounds incredible on this album - his drums are miked so well, and his playing is so creative. What a record.
Björk - Homogenic and Post - I listened to these while working on the Strong Songs episode about Björk, but I’ve kept listening to them afterward. Both of these albums could have come out yesterday, and I sense that will never not be true.
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus - Sonny Rollins recently turned 90, and in honor of that, I re-learned my transcription of his solo from “St. Thomas.” MAN that guy could play.
Andrew Synowiec - Second Story - A barn-burner of an album from a guitarist I went to music school with. Andrew stood out even when we were in school together; he worked harder than just about anyone else, and always seemed to know where he was going. He’s now one of the most in-demand guitarists in LA, and, well, listen to the album.
Jonah Sithole and Deep Horizon - Zimbabwe Beat - My friend Andrew (different Andrew) hipped me to this album and while I’d listened to Sithole before, it’d been a while. This guy’s playing is so beautiful and effortless, I could listen to him forever.
Joni Mitchell - For the Roses - I somehow had never really listened to this album; like a lot of people, my Joni Mitchell album knowledge is dominated by Blue. But For the Roses is a hell of an album, just a bunch of great songs with some creative woodwind arrangements.
Anat Cohen & Trio Brasileiro - Alegria Da Casa - Holy hell, I am so into what Anat is doing on this record. I love her style of clarinet playing, and think her tone is just the bee’s knees. Go listen.
Paquito D’Rivera, Sérgio and Odair Assad - Dances from the New World - Thanks to that Anat Cohen album I went on a little Paquito kick. I got my clarinet fixed up recently and have been dusting off my chops; one day soon I’ll try to re-learn some of the Paquito parts I had gotten down back in the day.
Onward
That’ll do it for now. I’m guessing that a lot of you are feeling as scattered and overwhelmed as I am. If that’s the case, just remember - it could be worse! You could be trapped in your house, surrounded by wildfire smoke.
Seriously though, go outside if you can. It helps.
~KH
10/02/2020