#styrofoam winos

[dustedmagazine]

Styrofoam Winos — Real Time (Sophomore Lounge)

Optimism and levity are in short supply these days. This isn’t surprising; it feels like the world might unravel at any moment. Styrofoam Winos want to remind us that its okay to have fun and be a little silly. To be hopeful. On Real Time, the trio let their camaraderie rise to the surface, pushing cynicism and hopelessness aside in favor of enjoyment and jubilance. Like clouds basking in the warmth of the sun, the Winos’ country-flecked rock tunes take on pleasant, silver-lined shapes that drift along unhurriedly and unfold with protozoan fluidity. They draw us into a collective huddle, a group hug to spread conviviality far and wide.

Styrofoam Winos released a trio of videos to accompany Real Time, three exclamation points that highlight the album’s premise: here are three good friends enjoying each others’ company and having fun creating together. The short films are funny and smart, showing off a unit woven together tightly in song. On their self-titled debut, the Winos were a loose tangle of three independent threads, each imbued with a unique creative spirit. Their individual styles stood apart. On Real Time, the Winos have become a true band. The indie rock inclinations of Joe Kenkel, the cosmic boogie of Trevor Nikrant and Lou Turner’s folk-leaning balladeering bind together and form a mycorrhizal network. It sprouts a tripartite flora that blooms in the space between all three energies. They call themselves a “song Voltron,” which is a perfect description of their sonic comingling.

The Nashville-based trio serve up delicious vocal harmonies throughout Real Time, which heightens the sense of group synergy. On “Angel Flies Over,” Nikrant and Turner join Kenkel in a pseudo-round style as he sings about the magic that happens when friends get together. Elsewhere, the harmonies are more subtle, such as the soft vocal padding that Kenkel and Nikrant add to the lush ballad “Dial Tone” or the hushed call-and-response on “Tree is Brown.”

Styrofoam Winos switch off between guitar, bass, and drums, depending on which one is taking the lead on a song. They also bless each tune with subtle adornments that showcase how they’ve mastered their craft. A very understated synth slides beneath “Magic Mind,” which also features the subtle steel guitar work of Will Ellis Johnson, as Turner sings about playing “small ball with the moon and stars.” These small but effective touches accentuate the Winos’ overall aim of unveiling the mysterious energy conjured by human interactions. Friendships, relationships, and personal introspection are all deeply magical to them. Real Time is their prayer, their call for us to lighten our loads and bask in the warmth of our family and friend circles. Even if it’s just for a moment, let’s temper our worries with hope.

Bryon Hayes

[tuuneoftheday]

Styrofoam Winos - Don't Mind Me

[sinceileftyoublog]

Cassie Berman, Styrofoam Winos, & DAR Live Preview: 8/18, Sleeping Village, Chicago

Styrofoam Winos

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Sunday night at Sleeping Village will feature its fair share of Chicago, Nashville, and "Kentuckiana" pride.

First and foremost is none other than Cassie Berman, of Silver Jews fame and the ex-wife of the late, great David Berman. During her time with Silver Jews, Cassie contributed vocals and bass to the band's three Aughts LPs, Bright Flight (2001), Tanglewood Numbers (2005), and Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008). Her relationship with Chicago and Drag City, though, goes back into the 90s via her collaborations with David Pajo, playing bass as part of his Aerial M and Papa M monikers. On Sunday, Berman will be playing some new solo material (!) along with a few Silver Jews songs, and she'll be accompanied by New Radiant Storm King vocalist Peyton Pinkerton, who himself played guitar on Silver Jews' 1996 sophomore record The Natural Bridge. Though Berman doesn't have much solo recorded material to her name, she did cover American Water opus "The Wild Kindness" with David's longtime labelmates Bill Callahan and Bonnie "Prince" Billy on their collaborative Blind Date Party album. Perhaps that'll be one of the Silver Jews cuts she performs on Sunday? Or maybe some that the former Silver Jews bandmates and Will Oldham played last Saturday?

The other two acts are both representatives of Jeffersonville, Indiana label Sophomore Lounge. You may have heard the Nashville-based Styrofoam Winos on MJ Lenderman's And the Wind (Live and Loose!) album released last year, joining him to cover Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin's country ballad "Long Black Veil" (originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell). The trio of Lou Turner, Trevor Nikrant, and Joe Kenkel so far has a few releases to their name, including an underrated self-titled record and a Michael Hurley covers album. In September, they'll drop their second album for Sophomore Lounge, entitled Real Time; so far, they've released the strutting, bluesy "Don't Mind Me". Live, as on record, the band switches off vocal and instrumental duties, maintaining their rollicking choogle punk the whole time.

Rounding it all out is Chicago-via-Louisville multi-instrumentalist Aaron Osbourne, who records as DAR. He's released two records on Sophomore Lounge, 2020's Where the Future Lives and March's A Slightly Larger Head. DAR's latest is a bedroom rock heartbreak record whose sound extends beyond the confines of its guitar, toy piano, drum machine, and digital brass soundscapes. More importantly, Osbourne does not wallow in a state of navel-gazing but rather finds unlikely hope stemming from the nadirs of life. Listeners should certainly be curious as to how he will adapt the album's varied sound to the live stage.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Grace Rogers - Mad Dogs

Mad Dogs is Grace Rogers' debut solo album, but damn if it doesn't feel fully formed and classic right off the bat. The Kentucky-based singer-songwriter weaves traditional folk vibes into a mostly electrified/fully electrifying web, her voice a wistful sigh, her lyrics both cosmic and clear-eyed. The album comes to us via Ryan Davis' Sophomore Lounge label and you could draw comparisons to Ryan or other Sophomore Loungers Lou Turner/Styrofoam Winos. But above all, Rogers voice feels all her own; this is an album that wanders through the distant past and the very-real present, finding deep wells of sadness and joy. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but this year on earth has been stressful for endless reasons big and small ... but when Rogers sings "Bitterness, frustration, mad dogs in these hills" on the title track's breathtaking chorus, her ace band pushing forward beautifully, I can feel it all slip away, if only for a minute.

[noloveforned]

it's a holiday friday so new releases have slowed down a bit this week... the perfect opportunity for one of my regular "best of xx years ago" shows! so tune into wlur at 8pm for four hours of songs from the year 1990!

last week's show has been archived to mixcloud, you can peep the setlist below!

no love for ned on wlur – june 27th, 2025 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label tullycraft // falling out of love (with you) // the singles // darla frankie cosmos // your take on // different talking // sub pop bunnygrunt // eggy greggy // action pants! (expanded) // happy happy birthday to me evil wiener // high school rock star story // a chance ride- amish singles, 1994-1995 compilation // amish chug // dennis potter // little things ep // flying nun discreet charms // the man with a cabriole leg // delivery model stateholder meeting // dot dash sounds tough age // unclean // shame // mint styrofoam winos // the world's a mess, it's in my kiss // lagniappe sessions ep // aquarium drunkard common holly // terrible hands // anything glass // keeled scales bill callahan and jim white // cowboy // what a night! // (self-released) morphine // all wrong // bootleg detroit (expanded) // rhino mako sica, hamid drake, tatsu aoki and thymme jones // ourania (excerpt) // ourania // feeding tube ella hanshaw // the devil gets me down and the lord picks me up // ella hanshaw's black book // spinster andy jenkins // pale green tower // since always // psychic hotline shamir // i don't know what you want from me // ten // kill rock stars sally anne morgan // night mint // second circle the horizon // thrill jockey zoh amba // forevermore // sun // smalltown supersound cosmic ear // father and son // traces // we jazz ie // divination bag // reverse earth // quindi eddie tailor // love dance // surinam funk force compilation // rush hour fashawn and marc spano featuring planet asia and otis reed // red zone // capital // old soul music cleo reed // da da da // cuntry // (self-released) blvck svm and pilotkid // the breakers // jetsvm // vinyl me please homeboy sandman and sonnyjim // sound and fury // soli deo gloria // dirty looks mavi featuring smino // potluck // potluck digital single // noble music pictoria vark // i pushed it down // nothing sticks // get better the mary onettes // hurricane heart // sworn // welfare sounds sea lemon // cynical // diving for a prize // luminelle sun cousto // dark thoughts // imaginary girls // chrüsimüsi bees make honey // to sleep with an angel // glazed and glistening cassette // ros ryli // medicine speed // come and get me // dandy boy jeanines // satisfied // how long can it last // slumberland

[bandcampsnoop]

1/3/21.

Sophomore Lounge (Louisville, Kentucky) has been steadily rising in prominence for the past couple of years.  Their releases have focused less on regional bands, instead opting for casting a wider net (Bill Direen, and Home Blitz come to mind).

While Styrofoam Winos are a Nashville, TN band, making them “local” they don’t really sound like anything else in the Sophomore Lounge stable.  “Stuck In A Museum” is the only song here and it really reminds me of 1980s pop/post-punk along the lines of Big Dipper or The Embarrassment.  If interested in hearing more of their sound, head over to their Soundcloud.

This LP is the debut album for the band despite the fact that they’ve been around for 4 years.  They’ve opened for the likes of Josephine Foster, Bill Direen, and Simon Joyner (who said of the band, “The Styrofoam Winos are the warmest, smartest, and most endearing indie rock democracy since Yo La Tengo.”).

[still-single]

new HEATHEN DISCO for 1/10/2021 -- LISTEN

https://www.mixcloud.com/mosurock/heathen-disco-show-241-10-january-2021/

Episode #241

HOUR 1 Total Control – Glass / Expensive Dog (Typical System / Iron Lung, 2014) Kuzu – Gnash (The Glass Delusion / Astral Spirits, 2021) Universal Healing Code – Gumosic Water (Joyous Sounds comp. / Chicago Research, 2020) Kelly Lee Owens – Night (Innersong / Smalltown Supersound, 2020) Delphine Dora – Tu me resistes a l’abandon (L’inattingible / Three:Four, 2020) T. Rex – Ride a White Swan (The BBC Recordings 1970-76 / Earmark, 1998) Gramme – I Can’t Resist (Too High EP / Physical Release Recordings, 2013) Noblesse Oblige – The Great Electrifier (Tolouse Low Trax remix) (Asimiad EP / SD, 2012) Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra – Parable of Inclusion (Dimensional Stardust / International Anthem/Nonesuch, 2020) Affinity – All Along the Watchtower (Affinity / Paramount, 1970)

HOUR 2 Hate – Time for Change (Hate Kills / Paramount, 1970) Earth and Fire – Ruby Is the One (Earth and Fire / Red Bullet, 1971) Sky – Tooly (Sailor’s Delight / RCA, 1971) Matthews’ Southern Comfort – Moses in the Sunshine (Second Spring / Decca, 1970) Hoover – Leave That for Memories (Hoover / Epic, 1969) Unicorn – Sleep Song (Blue Pine Trees / Capitol, 1974) Hookfoot – Don’t Let it Bring You Down (Hookfoot / A&M, 1972) Jordan Reyes – Rebirth at Dusk (Sand Like Stardust / American Dreams, 2020) Styrofoam Winos – In Your Room (Styrofoam Winos / Sophomore Lounge, 2021) Typical Girls – Las Palmas (Typical Girls 7” / Happiest Place, 2020) Robin Gibb – The Worst Girl in This Town (Robin’s Reign / ATCO, 1970) Coz the Shroom – I Hate My Heart (Bum Henry Adams and Craig Stewart’s Prince / Blue Circle, 2020 re) Alex Chilton – Bangkok (Alex Chilton’s Lost Decade / Fan Club, 1986) Michael Hurley – Code of the Mountains (Blue Navigator / Feeding Tube, 2021 re) Star Party – All I Really Wanna Do (2020 Demo / Feel It, 2020) Mac Blackout – Revolutionary Tide (Love Profess / Trouble in Mind, 2020) Meggie Brown – Fast Coffee (Journey of Goodbye 7” EP / Notown, 2020)

HOUR 3 Circus Lupus – Mean, Hot & Blessed (Super Genius / Dischord, 1992) Superchunk – Tower (No Pocky for Kitty / Matador, 1991) Sebadoh – Vampire (Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock / Sub Pop, 1992) Spectres – When Possessed Pray (Nostalgia / Artoffact, 2020) Beat Rhythm Fashion – None in the Universe (**** comp / Swineken, 2020 re) Linea Aspera – Entanglement (II / self-released, 2020) Rob Frye – Jupiter Control (Exoplanet / Astral Spirits, 2021) Snoozers – Weekend at Bernies (7” single / Notown, 2020) Theo Parrish – Purple Angry Birds (Wuddaji / Sound Signature, 2020) Dislocation Dance – Show Me (Skid Mix) (12” single / Rough Trade/Virgin, 1983) Lyra Pramuk – Tendril (Fountain / Bedroom Community, 2020) Violent Change – Squandered (s/t 7” / Sloth Mate, 2020) Anti-Westerns – I’m Due (Glass Bottom Boat Ride / Western Revisions, 2020) Movietone – The Crystalisation of Salt at Night (Day and Night / Drag City, 1997)

[paulisded]

The Ledge #468: First Quarter Report

Since we are just a few days away from April, it makes sense that the last episode of the month is a look back at the first quarter of 2021. What albums, EP's and singles have caught my attention? Has it been a great year?

The answer is the same as always. Despite what the naysayers have to tell you, there's always great music being released and tonight's show is living proof. This two hour episode flows from genre to genre, and from the famous to the friendly little local bands that have submitted their tracks to me. If you like independent music, you're going to love this show!

After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs. And if you buy these records directly from the artist or label, please let them know you heard these tunes on The Ledge! Let them know who is giving them promotion! You can find this show at almost any podcast site, including iTunes and Stitcher...or

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SHOW!

1. Aaron Lee Tasjan, Sunday Women

2. Steve Earle & The Dukes, Harlem River Blues

3. The William Loveday Intention, Thatcher's Children

4. Michael Beach, Curtain Of Night

5. Jeremy Porter and The Tucos, Upward Trend

6. Popular Creeps, Split Decision

7. Kiwi jr., Omaha

8. Styrofoam Winos, Stuck In A Museum

9. Skegss, Valhalla

10. The Hold Steady, Spices

11. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Pleura

12. TV Priest, The Big Curve

13. Hello Cosmos, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight

14. shame, Born in Luton

15. Tommy Ray, Beer Wine & Whiskey

16. FRITZ, She's Gonna Hate Me!

17. King Khan Unlimited, Opiate Them Asses

18. Liquids, Dont Wanna Get to Know You

19. Death By Unga Bunga, Modern Man

20. Apollo 66, Fly Trap

21. The Bad News, Take It Out

22. New Rocket Union, Hypnotized

23. Local Drags, Give A Shit Anyway

24. Beebe Gallini, Mean Mama

25. Hayley and the Crushers, Angelyne

26. Electraluxx, Time Bomb

27. Indonesian Junk, Type Of A Girl

28. David Nance, Secret Agent Man

29. Viagra Boys, In Spite of Ourselves

30. K7's, Censorshit

31. Psychotic Youth, Let the kids dance

32. Tommy And The Rockets, Heart of the City

33. Melvins, I Fuck Around

[dustedmagazine]

Bryon’s 2024: “Do Ya Think the End of the World is Comin’?”

Rick White and the Sadies

2024 was a great year for adventurous music. Organized sound was the poultice over the festering wound that our socio-political continuum continues to inhabit. The world is literally becoming a Godspeed You! Black Emperor song, and those of us who aren’t members of the billionaire class are on the precipice of another four years of misery. We continue to cling to music as a source of hope.  Here are a few records that raised my spirits this year.

Rosali, Styrofoam Winos, Rick White & the Sadies

There was a wellspring of hopefulness that emerged from the intersection of roots, folk, and indie rock this year, beginning with the vernal rocking out that Rosali and her band emitted on Bite Down.  (https://rosali.bandcamp.com/album/bite-down). I was lucky to catch her in full band mode when she came through Toronto, and spirits were high as the group ripped through their set. Similarly, the sophomore effort from indie twangsters Styrofoam Winos brought a helping of fun and levity to 2024. The band released a trio of humorous videos

to accompany their Real Time album, and it looks like they had a great time making them.  They certainly had me chuckling.  After the unfortunate passing of The Sadies’ front man Dallas Good back in 2022, the band’s future was uncertain. The surviving members convened with longtime friend Rick White (Eric’s Trip, Elevator) and their album under the name Rick White & the Sadies really filtered both sides of the amalgamation into a heady psych-roots brew that truly honors Good’s spirit.   

Gastr del Sol

Jim O’Rourke and David Grubbs haven’t worked on music together since the late 1990s, so when they announced the arrival of the archival collection We Have Dozens of Titles, people’s ears pricked up.  It’s a beautifully assembled box of treasures from across the band’s short-lived career, including songs from a long-forgotten live set that demonstrate why their influence lives on in many threads of the sub-underground’s exploratory music scene.

Dog Faced Hermans, Epic Soundtracks & Jowe Head

The reissue and rediscovery thread continues with Scottish anarcho-punks Dog Faced Hermans. The band digitally remastered their final salvo Those Deep Buds this year, just in time for that album’s 30th anniversary. It’s as powerful and relevant as it was decades ago, the post-punk and free jazz maelstrom searing into our brains while Marion Coutts’ social commentary cries out from among the whirling dervish of angsty energy. Similarly sonically engaging for me was a recently discovered trove of post-Swell Maps recordings from Epic Soundtracks & Jowe Head (https://glassmodern.bandcamp.com/album/daga-daga-daga).  Daga Daga Daga is bookended by the previously released single “Rain Rain Rain” and its b-side “Ghost Train” but features a number of never-been-heard tracks that are short in duration but loaded with manic energy and engaging rhythms. Swell Maps fans, take note: you’ll want to get your ears around this record. 

The List

OK, everyone loves a list, so here are the records that took the edge off the bad vibes of 2024 and raised my spirits.  These are in no particular order.

Rosali — Bite Down

Winged Wheel — Big Hotel

Magic Tuber String Band — Needlefall

Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance — Jinxed by Being

Mount Eerie — Night Palace

Dirty Three — Love Changes Everything

Rider/Horse — Matted

Honey Radar — Pink Acid Jogger EP

Chris Corsano — The Key (Became the Important Thing [and Then Just Faded Away])

Rick White & the Sadies — S/T

Styrofoam Winos — Real Time

Dog Faced Hermans — Those Deep Buds (reissue)

Epic Soundtracks & Jowe Head — Daga Daga Daga (reissue/rediscovery)

Gastr Del Sol — We Have Dozens of Titles (compilation)

Love Child — Never Meant to Be (1988-1993) (compilation)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor — No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead

Haptic — Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions

[tuuneoftheday]

Styrofoam Wino - Rollin' with You

[dustedmagazine]

Lou Turner — Microcosmos (Spinster)

Lou Turner finds the cosmic in the everyday on this second solo album, delivering warm, well-considered songs with a casual aplomb. In my review of her debut Songs for John Venn in 2020, I noted that, “Turner is hard to box in, one minute direct and plain spoken and countrified, the next urbane and entangled in arch word play,” and that is still the case. The Nashville songwriter frames her philosophical queries in the warmest, simplest terms, framing them in the subtle twang of acoustic guitar, the softest brush on snares. She views planetary history through the homey lens of her backyard and every verse of space-traveling “Microcosmos” ends with the image of her cat pawing at the sky.

Joe Kenkel and Trevor Nikrant, Turner’s compatriots from countrypolitan songwriters’ collective The Styrofoam Winos, rally to support these delicate but well-crafted compositions. There are lovely little instrumental touches throughout, the brass and pedal steel that billow out of “Tame and Ugly,” the Latin syncopation of “Green and Growing,” the really kind of perfect marimba rattles that punctuate “The Smallest Mercy.” And yet, though they are by no means minimally made, the songs have a fresh, clear purity. Embellishments never get in the way of the clean lines of the words and melody. 

The title track is a marvellous thing, transparent and mystical and wryly humorous at the same time. It ponders our place in the universe, but also takes time to poke fun at gender reveal parties (“The planet was born in the back yard/No gender reveal but plenty of blue”). But the other songs have their own charm. “Big Ole Head” swaggers and fiddle-sways like a lost Holly Golightly tune, while “What We Might Find” turns high school ordinaries like hall passes and speech class into the impetus for cosmic wandering. 

Turner’s songwriting is the main draw, idiosyncratic and modern but steeped in a Nashville tradition, but she also gives a nod to another writer, Simon Joyner, in her cover of “You Got Under My Skin.” The song upends cliches about cowboys, romantic relationships and the creative process, and you can see why Turner felt a kinship. These songs are clever, idiosyncratic, precise and funny, so carefully crafted that they seem familiar immediately, but also surprising. They avoid the easy resolution every time. 

Jennifer Kelly

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Lou Turner

Lou Turner (aka Lauren Turner) grew up in Texas, playing music in school and at church. She remembers hearing her mother harmonizing along with everything—from commercials, to songs on the radio, to religious hymns. Her listening quickly expanded in high school and college from singer-songwriters like Dylan and Van Zandt to folk and jazz traditions from around the world .  Her latest album, Songs for John Venn, puts an unconventional twist on the folk songwriter art.  “Turner…is hard to box in, one minute direct and plain spoken and countrified, the next urbane and entangled in arch word play. She takes none of it overseriously, however. There’s a breezy lilt and devil may care insouciance in these tracks,” says Jennifer Kelly in her review for Dusted.

I tried to make this list within the confines of things that had a hand in inspiration or thinking behind my recent album “Songs for John Venn,” but I ended up including a couple that I’ve found especially pertinent to my quarantined existence and thought someone else might, too.

Dory Previn – “Listen”

I first came across this poem while reading one of Dory’s autobiographies. It floored me, then, but this video made me cry the first time I watched it. Dory’s songs and writing are so radically vulnerable yet playful—she’s got absolute gumption and guts. I love the spirit of her work and am really thankful she let us in on everything going on inside of her beautiful, curly head. See also: “Did Jesus Have a Baby Sister?”

Captain Beefheart – “My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains”

I have an eternal itch for a marimba embedded in an unlikely sonic landscape. This song will scratch every nuance of that itch while tucking it into a tight, pining love song with maybe one of his best lyrics, to boot. Such a poignant, piercing longing embodied in that yowl.

Pauline Oliveros – “Ear Piece”

https://activities-index.github.io/1971/11/01/EarPiece.html

I’ve been spending time with my copy of Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice by Oliveros since the pandemic began and has provided so much time to listen. “Ear Piece” is this series of questions that are almost smart-ass in their repetition and yet I’m always surprised at where I end up when I sit with them. I’ve started using them as a prompt for poetry.

Annie Dillard – “Living Like Weasels”

https://public.wsu.edu/~hughesc/dillard_weasel.htm

My friend Hilary introduced me to this stunning essay and I’ve since read through a collection (“The Abundance”). All of her work has this urgency to it—it’s pragmatic, but also poetic, speaking to a deeper, innate nature we share with animals. This essay was subliminally responsible for my song “But the Bees,” or at least shares a perspective with it. It’s examining weasels for how they do what weasels do, without analyzing, and how we might live in such a way. I would love to go to Annie Dillard’s church with her sometime.

The Raincoats – “Dance of Hopping Mad”

I have few words to express how much I love this song! I saw The Raincoats in London for their 40th anniversary of The Raincoats last year for my birthday, and interviewed them afterward via email. Onstage and off, they are comfortable with themselves and one another in a very palpable way. This song embodies that kind of openness—experimental and passionate without being self-serious. Oh, and there’s a vibraphone on here which connects to that marimba itch I mentioned before.

Michael Hurley – “Letter in Neon”

During quarantine, my bandmates in Styrofoam Winos and I have been sending one another Michael Hurley covers and overdubbing on one another’s tracks. I think we’re looking at a double album of Hurley covers here pretty soon, hah! I can’t think of any songs better than his for a together-apart kind of community—someone who’s undeniably individual and also wildly open and collaborative. This song was one I hadn’t heard until a couple weeks ago—the lyrics are absolutely magical and about feeling connected through time and space. It’s got a bit of a Crazy Horse vibe, too, which is really wonderful.

High Risk – “The Common Woman”

My friend Chris kindly gave me this 7 inch for my radio show and I immediately went and bought the LP. High Risk was a group of women in California in the 70’s who played with a fierce freedom, featuring Cyndy Mason Fitzpatrick on tenor and flute. This track is astounding—centered around Judy Grahn’s sprawling poem, “The Common Woman.” Improvising on a theme around a spoken poem is such a specific and spiritual task that I really respect and wanted to include on my record—this song was a big inspiration for how I approached that.

Tropicália documentary film

That trip to London last year where I saw The Raincoats also included a trip to the Tate Modern where my partner and I saw “Tropicália” by Hélio Oiticica (an exhibition that originally opened in Rio de Janeiro in 1967). That was my introduction to Tropicalia as a broader movement--apparently Veloso liked Oiticica’s artwork so much that he titled his song that, and the rest followed. This film came out in 2012, but we watched it for the first time last week (and already want to re-watch). There’s some incredible footage in the film as well as a series of interviews that provide context for this movement that I’d loved the music of but not spent much time digging into the history of. The final sequence of Veloso playing solo knocks me out!

Bob Dylan – “Precious Angel”

Stream on Spotify

This song is foundational to me in a way I’m not sure how to talk about. I grew up in a devoted religious home and Dylan’s evangelical albums speak to me in a unique way because of that. This song has a lot of intense, damning biblical imagery and language (some of which borders on comical) and yet the refrain is so hopeful: “Shine your light / Shine your light on me / You know I just can’t make it by myself / I’m a little too blind to see”—It’s that classic moment of reaching the end of yourself and reaching toward—in this case, maybe God, and maybe this “precious angel” character who might be a lover. I love that the wires are all crossed in this song. I have the 7 inch and play it at 33rpm so that it lasts even longer and his voice thunders out an even deeper shade of desire.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland – “Song From Beads”

I didn’t mean to make this a list about how great of a trip I had last year to London, but I saw this magical musician perform during that trip, too! He’s making beautiful music now (don’t miss his ecstatic live show) but nothing recorded hits me as hard as this 1969 self-titled album. “Song From Beads” has the most ideal swirl of free-and-loose playing within a tight confine of a well-crafted song. His lyrics are consistently spiritual without being cloying and the guitar playing on this song blows me away. Honored to leave whoever is reading on this note!

[dustedmagazine]

Lou Turner — Songs for John Venn (Spinster)

Songs for John Venn by Lou Turner

Lou Turner, once of Texas now residing in Nashville, has a sly country air, tossing off mildly sardonic observations with a sweetly crooked smile. She’s made two solo albums before this one, and another with the similarly rustic Styrofoam Winos, but this is her first with Spinster, a label which has been killing it with the female-centric out folk lately, and this one is no exception.

Songs for John Venn is named for the erstwhile Anglican priest and mathematician who, in the 19th century, pioneered the overlapping circles we have come to know as Venn diagrams, demonstrating that things are not always as neatly, exclusively categorized as we might imagine. Turner herself is similarly hard to box in, one minute direct and plain spoken and countrified, the next urbane and entangled in arch word play. She takes none of it overseriously, however. There’s a breezy lilt and devil may care insouciance in these tracks.

To get at Turner’s engaging way of blending the mundane with the psychedelic spin out, why not start with “But the Bees,” which begins in a prosy description of just how hard it is to get anything done in a really comfortable chair. The verse is brisk and purposeful, hurried up by mobile bass and fluttering with blasts of jazzy flute, as Turner tells us, “I try to write while in the reading chair/I try to find lucid lines while sitting there, sitting there/I end up staring, just sitting there doing nothing in the reading chair.” You can feel the sense of purpose and the way it gradually losses its potency. The chorus, when it comes, is a dreamy distillation of mental wandering. “But the bees…” Turner sings, stretching out the syllables until they hardly seem like words at all, letting them drift and hang like a daydream, “…are promenading in the honey suckle.” The lyrics are drawn out like a summer afternoon. By the end of the song, we too are drowsily looking off into the middle distance. Likewise “Flickering Protagonist” vamps and swaggers, flute blowing, bass thumping, a careless lightness in its slouchy verse, a chug in its rhythms. But at this interstice, the song blows out into a swirling, slo-mo psychedelia, an eddying sway of guitar and flute and overtone.

Turner grew up in the church and her mostly spoken “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” touches on that tradition, while situating it firmly in the day-to-day. As she speaks about a dinner with a friend, she floats up hymnal fragments in soft guitar tones, faint echoes of the divine in ordinary life. The conversation turns to John Venn and the spiritual implications of secular songs, and Turner lifts into a luminous verse of the spiritual in the title. The dinner—and the song—ends in cherry cheesecake, quotidian, but with a shaft of otherworldly light shining through.

Jennifer Kelly

[paulisded]

The Ledge #465: New Releases

It's the first Friday of the month, so you know what this means. Yes, once again I have over two hours of the best new indie, garage, power pop, punk, and Americana releases. Plenty of veteran acts, and even more brand new artists. If you care about rock and roll, you'll care about this episode.

Tonight's episode is dedicated to Lane Campbell.

After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs. And if you buy these records directly from the artist or label, please let them know you heard these tunes on The Ledge! Let them know who is giving them promotion! You can find this show at almost any podcast site, including iTunes and Stitcher...or

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SHOW!

1. Mo Kenney, I'm Not Like Everybody Else

2. Jason Ringenberg, Before Love And War

3. Jason Ringenberg, Nashville Without Rhinestones

4. X, True Love, Pt. 3

5. X, Strange Life, featuring Robby Krieger

6. The Hold Steady, Spices

7. The Hold Steady, Heavy Covenant

8. The William Loveday Intention, To Sing The Blues You Gotta Be Blue

9. The Members, Country Pub Rock and Roll

10. The Stereotypes, Atomic Bomber

11. The Breakup Society, Slow Day at the Outrage Factory

12. The Breakup Society, All The Integrity Money Can Buy

13. Speed Week, Cost of Living

14. Michael Beach, Curtain Of Night

15. Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Sean Delear

16. Local Drags, Springfield Discount Cemetery

17. Local Drags, Give A Shit Anyway

18. Public Opinion, Bag Full of Money

19. The Rubs, I Want You

20. Blacks Beach Boys, Piehole

21. New Rocket Union, Hypnotized

22. New Rocket Union, Out of Mind

23. NOFX, I Love You More Than I Hate Me

24. Mikey Erg, Can't Be Too Careless

25. King Khan Unlimited, Narcissist

26. King Khan Unlimited, Opiate Them Asses

27. Styrofoam Winos, Stuck In A Museum

28. Trash Ferraris, No Taste

29. Apollo 66, Fly Trap

30. The Exbats, Hercules (2020 Summer Long)

31. French Girls, Soda Pop

32. Hayley and the Crushers, Jacaranda

33. Randells, Karen

34. Wild Sandals, One summer long Ft. Hayley Cain

35. Jagger Holly, Good Time (All the Time)

36. Giant Eagles, Out Of Love

37. The Queers, All To You

38. The Ramonas, Broke

39. Pavid Verman, Rocky Point

40. Burger Weekends, Surfin' Girl

41. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Pleura

[noloveforned]

we're on wlur at 4pm today but starting next week we'll shift back one hour to 5pm as the station slowly returns more student djs back to the schedule! last week's show is available below for anyone that missed it.

no love for ned on wlur – february 19th, 2021 from 4-6pm

artist // track // album // label stereo total // más menos cero // no controles // elefant adele and the chandeliers // german on my mind // first date // orange carpet era bleak // era bleak // era bleak // dirt cult amor fizz // no es imposible // el fin de la atracción // grabaciones del jacuzzi true sons of thunder // rattle trap // it was then that i was carrying you // total punk david nance // clockout // duty now for the future cassette // (self-released) grace turner // dead or alive // half truths ep // (self-released) veronica bianqui // if love's a gun, i'm better off dead // veronica bianqui // people in a position to know styrofoam winos // stuck in a museum // styrofoam winos // sophomore lounge infinite x's // brand new reconnection // infinite x's (remastered) // jealous butcher tele novella // paper crown // merlynn belle // kill rock stars * the avonden // nix aan de handa // god is de liefde // soft office quality used cars // ripoff merchant // good days/bad days // spoilsport cool sounds // back to me // bystander // osborne again gal costa featuring rodrigo amarante // avarandado // nenhuma dor // biscoito fino aerial east // the things we build // try harder // partisan * floating points // falaise // crush // ninja tune carm featuring georgia hubley and ira kaplan // already gone // carm // 37d03d mary lou williams // ode to saint cecilie // free spirits // steeplechase vibration black finger // can you see what i'm trying to say // can you see what i'm trying to say // jazzman herbie hancock // hidden shadows // sextant // columbia piper // tobenai tori // i'm not in love // ship to shore bobby womack // secrets // the poet // beverly glenn made kuti // free your mind // for(e)ward // partisan * grace jones // breakdown // warm leatherette // island brisa roché and fred fortuny // i do not need repair // freeze where u r // black ash * eccentric blabla // osiris rising // eccentric blabla // kleine untergrund schallplatten beach youth // memories // singles ep // beau travail satellite jockey // 2 emo 4 me // le week-end // le pop club alec harryhausen feat. emily jane powers // farmer's daughter // don't worry, baby- beach boys covers from the pre-pet sounds era // beach boys club pretty in pink // letters // pretty in pink cassette // eternal soundcheck uni boys // i like that in a girl // the boy who paints rainbows- a colorful tribute to television personalities cassette // paisley shirt

* denotes music on wlur’s playlist