Alabama Shakes “Hold On”

May 8, 2012 • Rachel Heussenstamm

Grease it up. Alabama Shakes kills it on “Hold On.”  They are taking me back to my clean-cut tweens of rocking out to the oldies radio in the car with mum and dad.  And they are making me want to walk down the street and hang out with all those twenty-something hipster kids that look like they just rolled out of a dumpster.   Yes, both these feelings.  AT THE SAME TIME.    Alabama Shakes is new to me, but they are probably on single 17 or something?   Two seconds of googling shows them selling out the Ryman and King Tuts.  Who knows?  I do know that this track is badass and I get the giggles every time she sings twenty-two.   Badass giggles.

 

Steve Reich “Violin Phase”

May 3, 2012 • Rachel Heussenstamm

My favorite part of listening to Steve Reich’s Phases is how they seem to come in and out of phase in many dimensions.  There are the intentions of the compositions themselves: where the piece is inherently in or out of phase.   Then there is my own personal interpretation of those phases.  Sometimes it seems that the piece falls out phase, and then as I pay more attention, or less attention, the piece seems to fix itself.   It’s like one minute I just don’t get it because I am listening too hard, so I relax a bit and something about my inner rhythms and sensebilities finds a new method of interpretation and there is another level of understanding that brings it perfectly in phase again.   It’s a big resolution: the personal, in-the-moment phases of the listener interacting with the meticulously planned and preformed phases of the piece.

The music truly has shapes and patterns, and Riech has a serious experiment in the properties and effects of alignment going on.  Choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker takes Steve Reich’s musical patterns into the visual realm in her work Fase: Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich.  She explains that way back in the 80′s “Steve’s music invited [her] to dance.”  And I’m sure it did, because the interaction between Anne and the music, and the shapes, and the movement, is both scientific and romantic.   I don’t really consciously feel these two worlds, science and romance, at the same time very often.   But the combination is successful and powerful, and I can not help but be reminded that all the great songs we get off on must have both these forces present.  Science and romance are probably colliding in the unconsciousness every time art rocks our world.  Sexy.

Shea Seger “Always” with Ron Sexsmith

February 18, 2012 • Rachel Heussenstamm

shea segerSometimes I hear a recording and it really makes me want to see and hear the song preformed live.   “Always” is a duet on Shea Seger’s album The May Street Project.  Ron Sexsmith takes the first verse.  It’s special.   Seger comes in.  And it’s a great shift in tone.  The recoding is way cool.  But  I want it to be late, in a dark club.  Bricks.  Heavy Curtains.  Underground.  It’s a small room.  It’s perfectly crowded.  It sounds good in there.   A four piece band and the two of them.   Their voices perfect and naked out in front of the band.   I want it to be one of those magic, selfish moments.   Live.

Paul Simon “Dazzling Blue”

February 7, 2012 • Rachel Heussenstamm

Well, I have been hankering down and missing in action for a couple of months.  On one level, I have been ridiculously spinning wheels with too much to do.  On another level, Lillie has been killing it and it’s as fun to watch as it is to play.  I think I might make a playlist out of Lillie’s breakup song list and party with it once a month, just to remind myself I am alive.   I am going to re-read Lillie’s 30th birthday post every birthday I have this decade, just to remind myself how insanely weird it was to turn thirty.  Maybe think about how it should really never have been as big a deal as the universe sets it up to be.  And maybe think about the simple sweet things in life, just like Lillie does.   Ah, music.  The best drug.  I was gifted “Dazzling Blue” by Paul Simon back in October and I rode it’s leisurely downstream pitter patter right through every intense moment of the holidays.  It gives life this mellow twilight feeling, and it reminds me of the evening Lillie describes.  Haha.  It’s February and I am still using “Dazzling Blue” to relax.

Ima Robot “Greenback Boogie”

October 9, 2011 • Rachel Heussenstamm

You know, it’s kind of like overdosing.  I surface feeling like shit.  Shit about the state of the world.  Shit about creativity.  Shit about myself.  Shit about the people in that box.  Shit about all the people watching the people in that box.  Shit about missing an opportunity to sleep.   Shit about the mush in my brain.  And all of a sudden I’m spiraling into a deep depression.  Too dramatic?  Well, yes.  I am kidding.  But only kind of.    Let’s just say, I don’t stand a chance once the TV has a hold on me, but there is a simple solution to this vulnerability: I don’t own a TV.

Lillie has been diving into the intersections of music and TV and I am glad she has because these junctions are totally intoxicating. This power I understand very clearly, but, to be honest about it, these moments in my history are very few.  If my psychologist grandmother happened to be conversing with us right now she would comment, “You are culturally deprived.”  She’d deliver this message with a grin, so we would all know she was joking.  But she’d follow the grin with a nod and a raised eyebrow!  Which obviously meant we, especially yours truly, better think about this and that she might actually be serious or even right.   Well, am I deprived?  Probably. And just think, I could be culturally enriched and insanely depressed.

Lately, I have been trying to find a way to participate in moderation.  The best opportunity for this has been when I land at someone else’s house with a preplanned departure time.   Now, let’s get the story straight: I’ll never watch really serious TV.  Like none of those HBO or Showtime shows.  They are too real and too intense.  I’m a pansy.  I can’t handle it and gave up trying to handle it a long time ago.   This low tolerance makes it hard to agree on what to watch with company.  Lucky for me, last summer my brother Nathan had a brief man-crush on Neil Caffrey from USA’s White Collar.   Nate, naturally, was into Neil’s good-time attitude and supper smarts.  We happened to land on our parent’s couch one evening for a viewing session of this never-seen-by-me show.  The result of this man-crush was that I discovered the kinds of  TV shows that I can actually handle.  Thank you, Nathan.  Following White Collar came USA’s Suits.  And if I can’t have a crush on Harvey Spector, then what’s the bloody point of watching TV? 

Anyway, too much background, so back to the music and Lillie’s TV moments.  Suits‘ theme song, Ima Robot‘s “Greenback Boogie” is stunning.  Note, this opinion is in no way colored by my fantasized view of Harvey Spector’s badassness.  Which may or may not be projecting itself onto my experience of this song.  On the musical front, “Greenback Boogie” bridges the best of  modern rock and pop with the classic blues boogie.  It moves like a city moves, driving old and new, and showing the similarities between the two.  It’s a big city.  It’s a fast moving city, but it has little pockets for a laid back breather.   Lyrically?  Well, not very many people can talk about our generation’s conflicts with the American Dream in such a tough ‘n sexy manner.  And it gets better, all the toughness is polished by the slur of the vocal: which is stretched just enough to make it smooth and mysterious, but not too much that we miss the lyrics.   It is pretty interesting to think about all this happening within a musical track, before it is even juxtaposed to a moving picture.  And then everything that happens with that juxtaposition!  It’s no wonder these moments are intoxicating.  On the flip side, and to Lillie’s points, there is the simple collateral: I was introduced to a new band,  just because Nate was having a man-crush and I got sucked into the dreaded TV.

Kevin Michael “We All Want The Same Thing” Featuring Akil Dasan

October 4, 2011 • Rachel Heussenstamm

kevin michaelOn Sunday, I drove my parents and my not-so-kid-brother to the airport.   I’m not sure how it started, and I am not even sure exactly what side everyone was on, but we got into it.  The exchange could be summed up as a conversation—ebbing in and out of an argument—about the motives and causes behind war, especially civil war.   I was spewing on about Libya, which I have kind of been obsessed with lately.  Mum was mediating one minute and fueling the fire with political science the next.  Dad was crushing us with the poor leadership, power hungry argument.  And the bro was like, “Why does every vacation start out like this?!”  We were really rocking the Sunday off of the morning.  I have been walking in circles around the question: How does a society really get to civil war?  And what is really the difference between having social stability and not? It looks a lot like here, over there (and in December, I am sure I would not mind jumping in their ocean).  Is their social evolution simply 200 years behind? Boil it down to basics?  We steal fresh water from Colorado and Oregon and they don’t have that option?  Maybe our inner cities really aren’t that different? And maybe it spirals from that micro level?  Exactly how our Sunday conversation stepped into the argument realm?  One person did not take a moment to really listen to what the other person was saying.  Another person jumped to a conclusion about what was being said, and instead of asking a question to confirm, they fired a blunt rebuttal that was kind of irrelevant.  And the next thing you know: we waz steppin’.  Lucky for me, by the the time we got to the airport, Mum, Dad, and I reached a resolution: “We All Want The Same Thing,” even if we don’t get the same things.

Roman Candle “I Was a Fool”

October 2, 2011 • Rachel Heussenstamm

Roman Candle - OH TALL TREE IN THE EAR“Dusk was the longest hour when I was a kid. Beautiful things sometimes can seem pretty hid.”  The verses of  “I Was a Fool” never fail to send me sailing into idyllic childhood memories.   The kind of memories that ping all kinds of emotions in the present.  One minute it is the need to be out in the wild dirt (I guess adults call it nature), where boundlessness rules and passion can be nothing but pure.  The next minute it is the need to relive this childhood moment.  And then the next minute after that, you’re thinking the only way to relive this is by having babies of your own?  Is that a pure intention?  It’s without a doubt not boundless. ”Funny the things that make you want to walk the land are the things sometimes you barely understand.”

Speaking of funny things, it is important to note, the guitar player for Roman Candle kills one of my favorite rock moves: the Guitar Player’s Lunge. He gets really deep with it, right knee all the way to the floor, and he bounces up as fast as he drops down.  You can’t imagine how inspiring it is until you actually see it.  He makes me crave rocking with all my heart.  Every time.

Brad Sucks “Making Me Nervous”

September 25, 2011 • Rachel Heussenstamm

I think Pandora has nearly run its course in the office.  Seriously, we don’t even have Pandora Wars over which station we should be listening to anymore.  How can this be?   Maybe we are not being creative enough with the stations we pick?  Maybe the Pandora database is not as deep as it should be?  Maybe we are simply uninspired?  Maybe it’s time for Pandora to buff out the algorithms?   As burnt out as this experience has become, a treasure surfaced this week:  Brad Sucks’ “Making Me Nervous” passed through the playlist several times and sucky Brad has my full attention.  I’ve never heard this song before.  It’s from way back in 2003.  Was it a big hit?  And where’s this Brad guy?   I’m not sure what I love about it, but I am sure that I love it.  Somehow the singing has qualities of nasal drone and bouncy melody, simultaneously?  I’m into it.  I’m also into Brad’s self-deprecating shenanigans.  Self-deprecating is usually a total turn off, but Brad’s taken it to a whole other level and it works.  It’s like he is too transparent to be manipulative and too honest to be depressing, so the message is too loud to be anything but humorous.   Humor’s a turn on.

Natalie Prass “Small & Sweet”

September 17, 2011 • Rachel Heussenstamm

Prass is young and beautiful.  She’s kind of small.  And there are wafts of sweetness in her demeanor.  But, on the other hand, behind her eyes there is that soulfulness:  the one that usually comes after clocking in decades upon decades of watching, witnessing, searching, listening, talking, executing, failing, experimenting, and succeeding.   Then, when she starts talking, the inherent wisdom of that soulfulness follows.  Today, I stumbled across Natalie’s collection of songs on her Bandcamp page and I’ve been getting Small & Sweet with it for over an hour.

Bonnie Raitt “Not The Only One”

September 13, 2011 • Rachel Heussenstamm

Best of Bonnie RaittI have some confessions to make.  Let’s start from the beginning:

Confession #1: When I was 11, I started stealing CDs from my parents.

Confession #2: When I was 12, I put grapefruit juice in my favorite teacher’s coffee.

Confession # 3: When I was 13, I started babysitting and I spent all my money at the record shop, and I still stole CDs from my parents.

Confession #4: When I was 14, my brothers took really long showers, so I routinely threw buckets of cold water over the top of the shower door.

Confession #5: When I was 15, I stole Electric Flag’s album Long Time Comin’ from my Dad.  I am not sure if it is the guilt or the gut wrenching impact of the album that still haunts me.

Confession #6: When I was 16, I forged a doctors signature on my physical, so I could play on the girl’s high school soccer team.

Confession #7: When I was 26, I fully embraced the digital age, and I bought my own hard drive.  The drive was soon complete, as I loaded it up with my purchased music library.  I even learnt how to Amazon, iTunes, and Google, and I still stole CDs from my parents.

Confession #8:  When I was 27, I wished with all my heart that Sarah Palin would just disappear.  [It’s evil, I know, that’s why I am confessing].

Confession #9:  When I was two weeks younger than I am today, I stole my Mum’s Best of Bonnie Raitt on Capitol CD; even though, software had advanced rapidly, and I learnt how to Pandora, Grooveshark, and Spotify, I still took the CD.

Confession #10: Now I have had Bonnie Raitt on loop in the car, non-stop for two weeks, and I’ve been in disbelief over how many beautifully badass songs she has in her catalog.  Today “Not The Only One” was resonating in my core.  The hipster meter in the car was pointing to “No-No-No” with the tree chimes just 0:01 seconds in, but I was captured by everything from the atmosphere to the broad soulfulness; and I confess, I was blown away.