monday, november 23rd
Habibi Funk, @trailerparkhero, Gratefulsgiving & more
Oy!
Happy Monday, y’all! It’s Thanksgiving week, which means most of you are free from the ever-grinding bonds of work and school earlier than usual. But the man demands, so nonetheless your joy and freedom will have to wait. Enter: the Monday Morning Mixtape, hot and fresh out of the ovens of listeninghood, awaiting your tempered consumption.
The outpouring of excitement, engagement, and graciousness following last week’s MMM from listeners far and near, new and old was truly a better remedy than all the chamomile and lozenges I inhaled to fight off whatever was hanging over me in the back half of the week. (Worry not, ya boi tested negative for COVID on Thursday morning 😉.) All of your kind words meant a lot, so needless to say, I’m excited to share what we have in store for this morning.
As mentioned last week, I’ll be putting out the year-end survey next week, so keep thinking and prepare your lists!
Last Week This Morning
In this weekly section I’ll walk through the previous week’s mixtape: a track-by-track and sound-by-sound guide to what you heard, what you might have missed, and all the extracurriculars to go along with it. Today, we’ll look back on Monday, November 16th.
Sleepwalk
We opened last week’s mixtape to the sounds of Mulatu Astatke’s “Tezeta (Nostalgia)” from 1972. Astatke is considered the “father of Ethio-jazz” unique blend of jazz, pop, and traditional styles that would make him one of the best known Ethiopian musicians of all time. To that end, and I was unaware of this until the moment of writing, but “Tezeta” is actually a traditional tune which Astatke arranged to his own liking. (Points to someone who can send an older version of the song my way!) Again, without any preconception of the more “traditional” arrangement, Astatke’s interweaving of guitar, upright piano, and tenor saxophone is pretty breathtaking. It hits me in the same place that Astral Weeks does (high praise alert): autumnal, evensong, meditative.
This is perhaps why it felt so apt to extend this sleepwalk (as you’re now likely aware, they usually only last approximately 75 seconds to kick things off) and layer on the voice of one Lindsey Pearson. Lindsey is the founder of the holistic wellness company Do You Mind{Fully} and provides a half an hour guided meditation at my company (over Zoom, of course) every Thursday morning. It’s one of the best parts of my week: the way I hope the MMM brings a little brightness to your Mondays, Lindsey’s Thursday morning meditations always leave me better than they found me. I finally got my hands on some of the recordings and felt I had to include here for all to enjoy. (Spoiler alert: don’t be surprised to hear Lindsey sneaking back on the mixtape this morning.)
All sleepwalk songs will be housed on the Spotify playlist below.
I’m just gonna say it: Adrianne Lenker’s solo albums are pound-for-pound better than the Big Thief records. The musical identity is more fully realized and the mythology is tighter, which provides a legitimate sense of intimacy; sometimes listening to Big Thief can feel like biting into an overripe piece of fruit, where the sweetness of the intimacy is taken past the point of enjoyment.
I have no idea what “two reverse” is about (perhaps: the doomed un-reciprocity of savior complexes), but I love her guitar sound. The hammer-and-pull riff (feeling vaguely reminiscent of that from “Harmony Hall”) sounds like running water, tripping over itself, straightening out, zigzagging, bubbling and never quite finding resolve.
Last week I came across the first person I’ve met who is familiar with Habibi Funk, which was terribly exciting. (If you are reading this and we’ve chatted music at least once and you listen to Habibi Funk’s stuff, then shame on both of us for playing it surface level. Also, reveal yourself.) For those unaware, Habibi Funk is a reissue record label based in Berlin which is dedicated to the funky music of the Arab world in the 1970s. I had been listening to this song in the week leading up to my interaction, which only made it feel all the more fortuitous.
“Al Asafir” is by the Sudanese artist Kamal Keila. That’s pretty much all I know, but the funk is certainly there. Listen to the full album here: Muslims and Christians.
As I slowly become acquainted with Brooklyn’s seemingly endless stream of record shops, I was able to check one off the list that I’ve had circled for a long time. Fifth Avenue Record Shop, located just a couple blocks from the apartment of the aforementioned Peter, has been somewhere I’ve struggled to gain entry to (screwy hours). When I was finally able to get in there about a month ago there was a treasure trove of great CDs waiting to be rifled through. (The beautiful thing about CDs being your preferred musical medium is you have very little competition.) I spread my wings wide and my dollars thin to make McCoy Tyner’s The Real McCoy (with its A++ album title) part of the haul, and haven’t regretted it for a second.
I’m familiar with Tyner’s work to the extent that he’s featured on nearly every Coltrane record, but I was curious about his solo efforts. “Passion Dance” is the featured piece here, and it, along with the record as a whole, is capital J Jazz with its swinging rhythms and rich harmonies. You can hear Tyner bob and weave like a middlewight through the theme on his opening solo. He’s truly duking it out with some of the best: Elvin Jones, the excellent percussionist, delivers the good throughout.
[Post-script: Tyner passed away earlier this year at age 81. Reasons for his death were unspecified.]
BIG NEWS ALERT! “Egaberte” by the Books was seared into my cranium grooves for an hour one Tuesday evening earlier this month. A bizarre and whimsical tour through French cursing, “Egaberte” soundtracked the promo video that my friend Colby (AKA @trailerparkhero) made for an art drop which he has coming one week from today! (Some of you may be familiar with Colby’s artwork from postcards that were sent out earlier this year to support the Black Lives Matter movement and the USPS.) The video is great and the art to come is even better; you can find it on his website under “Store” on Monday, November 30th. I’ve been lucky enough to watch the process of the work coming to life, so I’m so excited to see it live and out in the world.
Phoebe Bridgers is pretty much the undeniable queen of 2020. More on that next month. “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America” is obviously a 1975 track, but let’s cut to her verse for a second to bask in the glory of shortform storytelling:
I’m in love with the girl next door
Her name’s Clare
Nights when she comes ’round to call
Then masturbate the second she’s not there
I think I’ve laughed out loud every time I’ve heard heard her sing it. Immediately after that I feel so fucking sad. The verse encapsulates what makes Bridgers such a great writer: she’s self-conscious, but simultaneously self-effacing. She makes you laugh, but the jokes are so heavy (killing skinheads, hating “Tears in Heaven” despite its context, masturbating to fill the void) it can feel like someone is bringing a wrench to your funny bone.
As for Notes on a Conditional Form on the whole, I’ve found it to be a more enjoyable listen than I would’ve anticipated. Whereas I found A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships to be scattered, I believe the 1975 pull off the eclecticism excellently here, moving between their hallmark 80s pop, chill (lol) club beats, punk, and country (^) with ease, while paying honest tribute to each genre they pass through.
INTERLUDE: Yes, I am watching Normal People. Yes, I dislike Connell. Yes, I find the music in the show to be fairly cold and unbearable. Yes, my brother called to tell me that the clip made him sad (same bro!). Yes, it will probably take me till the end of the year to watch it even though it’s a ridiculously easy show to binge.
Another 2020 passing: Jerry Jeff Walker passed away a month ago after a battle with throat cancer. He was 78. Walker was one of those folks who never really gets talked about and then they eat dirt and your Twitter feed blows up about them for a day or two.
Unbeknownst to me, I’d heard a song or two of his previously, but nothing that topped “About Her Eyes.” Hearing it for the first time and each time since has put me in that haunted fixation which Walker must have been channeling when he wrote the song. The playing from the band, whatever low-lying country sessionmen they might be, is evocative and recalls the spookiness of something like Lefty Frizzell’s “Long Black Veil.”
Moving from Phoebe’s verse through the anguish of Connell and Marianne and into the yearning of “About Her Eyes” felt like the perfect ending to the beginning of last week.
Do you have thoughts, comments, or questions on last week’s mixtape? Listen again and leave a comment below! I’ve provided the link to the mixtape on SoundCloud as well as the playlist on Spotify for ease of listening.
A Tweet I Loved
Non-human characters really hit home for me this week.
Thankful 4 u
As a small token of my gratitude to all of you, I’ve thrown together two small playlists to soundtrack your Thanksgiving celebrations if you so choose. The first, “thanksgiving,” is your traditional stuff (crooners, doo-wop, big bands, etc.) and should feel like having the big meal in 1962. You can shuffle this up and it’ll sound good just about any way you shake it. The second, “gratefulsgiving,” is more geared towards your post-meal comatose stupor when you just want to feel dumb and drunk. It is, of course, all about the Grateful Dead, the most appreciative band in history. This is more of a “play straight through” but as always, do with it what you please.
Actually tho
My best wishes to all of you and your families this Thanksgiving. The world is a hard place, especially this go around, and most of us are fortunate enough to have a ton to be thankful for. Be safe, be kind, be present, and enjoy the time you get with those you love.
With love,
TG