New Music – Page 209 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Lucid Lynx’s Lushly Psychedelic “Nothing to Find” is a Chill Commentary on the Empty Rewards of Seemingly Endless Choices

LucidLynx2_sma — Lucid Lynx, photo courtesy the artists

The beginning of Lucid Lynx’s lushly psychedelic song “Nothing to Find” is a bit of a nod to Pink Floyd’s “Breathe” before the song uncoils into neon-dappled tonal territory with the synths and languid guitar swells. Chords are struck and dissipate like distant fireworks. All of which suits as the soundtrack to a song that sounds like it’s about being in a place in your life where maybe you feel a bit adrift about everything yet wondering what is next. Thus the title of the song which serves as a refrain following propositions like “We could get lost in each other, hold on for another, we could be looking for something” but “have nothing to find.” Like that notion that maybe we do get what we really want or think we want, no matter what that is, only to find the reality of that thing, that relationship, that opportunity isn’t really as fulfilling as we thought it would be, doesn’t get us to where we want to be. And do we really know any of what those things are if we don’t know ourselves? A heady thing for a chill psych pop song but those propositions run through the song like another one, “We could be running in circles and we could be looking for something and have nothing to find.” It sounds like a very modern dilemma where there seem to be all these options and if you’re fortunate enough to live in the American empire and aren’t on the bottom rung you don’t really have to choose one forever or commit to much. The song doesn’t critique that aspect of society so much as highlight the casualness with which we often approach such things not realizing it’s a massive luxury and how that mindset makes it easy for us to disassociate and get stuck. Listen to “Nothing to Find” on Soundcloud and follow Lucid Lynx at the links provided.

lucidlynxband.com

https://lucidlynx.bandcamp.com/merch

The Early Warnings Invite Us to Get Some Enjoyment in Life as a Necessary Part of Human Existence on “Waste Away”

TheEarlyWarnings_WasteAway_cover_crop — The Early Warnings “Waste Away” cover (cropped)

The Early Warnings somehow made a typically overcast day in Seattle seem upbeat and even joyful in its video for “Waste Away.” The song is an unabashed celebration of the little things in life that we’re told are a waste of time but are essential to our well being in a way that can’t be quantified in monetary terms. In fact, the lyrics in the song eschews commercial considerations and focuses on the experiences that we can share and embrace “wasting away” with friends doing the things that make everyday life not seem so drab or something to be endured. An important thing to remember at a time in American culture when most people are overworked and our priorities have been insidiously warped into tricking us into putting all our time in making ourselves “useful” to the economy for the sake of the economy and not make the economy serve us and liberate us to pursue and explore the things that give life meaning and a proper context and to enjoy it with the people we love. Without plenty of that no business matters. Quality of life does, the environment and other weighty issues do, but without the ability to nourish your spirit everything gets to be a real drag really quickly. Watch the video on YouTube of the band frolicking about in the Pacific Northwest including some choice footage of Gas Works Park in Seattle.

bandanna Bids Farewell to the Old You and Welcomes the New on “Epilogue”

bandanna_Epilogue_cover_crop — bandanna “Epilogue” cover, image courtesy the artists

“Epilogue” sounds like a farewell to something, to a period in one’s life, to a place where you made a lot of memories, to the ways of being and living that went along with that time and that context that seemed to anchor your existence but which can come apart so seemingly easy when life’s demands or unexpected circumstances provoke the change hit. The image in the lyrics “take down the drawings and pull out the tacks” is so poignant to anyone who has spent time being creative alone and harboring some of your work to yourself whether in college or living in some unglamorous apartment that served its purpose and seemed like home. The song by Tallahassee, Florida group bandanna begins in a wistful, introspective manner but in the last third or so of the song the energy amps up and the volume swells dramatically in a gesture of the final goodbye to your old life and outmoded attachments on your way to the next chapter and recognizing that what seemed to be the defining adventure and phase of your life for so long was exactly that. Listen to “Epilogue” on Spotify and look for bandanna’s album uncertain/ty to be released through Cat Family Records in 2020.

Sandkamper’s Majestic “Ohne Erinnering” is a Metallic Art Punk Ode to Living Your Best Life

Sandkamper1_crop — Sandkamper, photo courtesy the artist

The way the guitar distorts and rings out throughout Sandkamper’s “Ohne Erinnerung” is reminiscent of the grit, shimmer, melodic weightiness and energy of Les Thugs in the late 90s. In particular the song “Magic Hour” from that band’s 1998 album Nineteen Something. But it also buzzes and hums in a way more suggestive of a rooting in heavy metal like early Smashing Pumpkins the way the melody floats with an unexpected elegance given how the tone is almost cutting. The minor chord progressions and fiery drive and the way the song seems to have a dynamic of everything coming crashing down in a way that bears some comparison with Failure as well. But the guitar solo toward the end of the song is like something out of 1970s heavy metal in that it is a display of technical prowess but it also serves the song and what it’s about, in this case “friendship and dementia,” and the spirit of triumphing over what ails you even if the best you can hope for is leading as good a life as you can with the time you have left. Listen to “Ohne Erinnerung” on Bandcamp and follow Sandkamper at the links below.

soundcloud.com/sandkamper
twitter.com/sandkamper
facebook.com/sandkamper
instagram.com/mauriziomenendez

Kin Capa’s “Rye” is a Lightly Psychedelic Blues Ditty About a Simple Life After the Fall of Civilization in the Wake of the Climate Crisis

KinCapa_Rye1_crop — Kin Capa, image courtesy the artist

On first listen Kin Capa’s single “Rye” is a fairly straight forward, shuffling blues rock ballad. Palm muted, clipped guitar riff, and a drum beat that sounds like it was tapped out by hand before translated to a minimal drum arrangement. The repeated lines echoing ever so slightly is like a hypnotic mantra rippling forth from some place in the subconscious mind. There’s just something slightly otherworldly about the track like there has been some phasing put on the guitar, the drum track and the vocals so the song sounds like it’s operating in some kind of mythical time and indeed the song is about the impending ecological collapse but also a hope for the survival of the human race if not for late capitalist civilization. The lyrics focus on the essential components of a future after modern civilization has fragmented and fallen under the weight of its own hubris and unsustainable economic model and the political systems perpetuating it that do little to address the so-called externalities that are outside the scope of the theoretical foundations of the ideas and principles of the world we know. And yet there is a jaunty quality to the song’s rhythm that finds some hope in the edifice of a corrupt and self-destructive civilization cracking and other opportunities for people to present themselves if only we can find a way to scramble out of the way of the fallout. The track is part one of nine of the forthcoming Kin Capa album THE AMERICAN OPERA: Act II. Listen to “Rye” on Spotify and follow Kin Capa at his website linked below.

kincapa.com

The Jazz-Inflected “Schisandra” by Dayspired is a Richly Textured Journey Toward Inner Tranquility

Dayspired2_crop — Dayspired, photo courtesy the artists

For “Schisandra,” Dayspired (Matthew Bejtlich and Neil Desai) brought on board Ashish Vyas, bassist for downtempo legends Thievery Corporation and Stephon Alexander, theoretical physicist and jazz saxophonist. Dayspired brought the playful percussion, textures and easy flowing structure and Vyas and Alexander brought the grounding for a song that in structure and composition was designed to reflect the schisandra berry, the “Five-flavor berry.” A keyboard melody sits in the background as an array of percussion sets the pace and bell tones course through the proceedings while the bass pulses the song along and Alexander’s expressive sax sits in the foreground of the mix. While the root of the song is a reflection of five components coming together to create a greater whole it also suggests movement like a day spent riding a train through an exotic landscape like the lands of Eastern Russia and Northern China where the aforementioned berry is most often found and the mix of cultures one would encounter along the way, it also suggests a period of reflection where maybe your body is at rest but the mind is active in taking in an experience and seeing it for where it fits into your life. The song doesn’t sound complex but the complexity rests in the way its diversity of detail assembled to make something unified. Listen to “Schisandra” on Spotify and follow Dayspired at the links below.

soundcloud.com/dayspired
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0sYDWVlEmrg05E7SgDc1mZ
instagram.com/dayspired
facebook.com/dayspired

Bled Tape Gets Us to Feel Both Headlong and Introspective on “Feels Better in the Morning”

BledTape_Tulip_cover2_crop — Bled Tape *Tulip* cover (cropped)

An urgent rhythm gets “Feels Better in the Morning” by Bled Tape off to headlong pace from the very beginning. The contrast between that rhythm and the sparkling, expansive, distorted guitar and ethereal melodies makes the song sound a bit like a Krautrock song. Think something like Neu! with dream pop instincts. The constant up-sweep dynamic makes the song feel like it’s constantly ramping up before it plateaus off into space only to catch that rapidly ascending tonal breeze again all while the song surges forward. The effect is one of both irresistible motion and introspection. Those two modes should be at odds yet Bled Tape reconciles the divergent impulses on this song. Listen to “Feel Better in the Morning” on Spotify.

Penniless Cove’s “River Lea” is a Breakup Song Imbued With Creativity and Poetic Wit

PennilessCove1_crop — Penniless Cove, photo courtesy the artist

“River Lea” by Penniless Cove begins with what promises to be an unusual story of a brief romance colored by deceit and interpersonal intrigue accompanied by impressionistic strums of acoustic guitar or ukulele. But as the song develops, the narrative swells accompanied by keyboards, drums and piano and then back to voice and guitar as details of the story emerge. The metaphor of a voyage and by boat and a day out on the riverbanks as the course of a relationship and the very end when the narrator tells us “No the tide is not right, nor the chemistry.” The latter is a poetic way of saying, in brief, that the relationship wasn’t going any place she wanted to, that it wasn’t oriented in a way that felt right and that ultimately there was nothing really there even if it seemed so at the outset. Most break-up songs are a bit more blunt but, if indeed this is one, “River Lea” conveys such so-over-it-let’s-move-on disdain with a creative flourish. Listen to “River Lea” on Soundcloud and follow Penniless Cove at the links provided.

pennilesscove.com
facebook.com/PennilessCove
instagram.com/pennilesscove

Catch a Dinosaur’s Ambient Instrumental Jam “Minor Details” Takes the Imagination to Unexpected Places

CatchADinosaur_ElevatorMusic_cover2_crop — Catch a Dinosaur, *Elevator Music* cover (cropped)

Catch a Dinosaur’s instrumental ambient jam “Minor Details” has almost a progressive jazz fusion guitar line that runs throughout but it is paired with a swirling synth drone that gives the whole song an expansive, dreamlike quality. That the song comes from an album called Elevator Music could give one the impression of it being way cooler than average music for your elevator ride up a tall office building with walls displaying images of sunset at the beach. But it also suggests a montage of fun, easy times between more action oriented set pieces in a film. Say, for instance, Al Pacino’s character in Scarface, Tony Montana, never was in the army in Cuba, didn’t fall in with drug dealers and a cartel and didn’t go out in a flurry of bullets after alienating and killing people in his life that he loved. Instead, the Tony Montana of this song grew up maybe struggling but made his way through college and started his own, successful, legitimate business and discovered his joy in life in entertaining friends and family and lived for making positive, fun memories with creativity and a loving spirit. Those changes in Tony’s background and reaction to life are, after all, minor details but significant enough to make for a completely different life. Maybe Catch a Dinosaur had that sort of meaning in mind, making adjustments to your own thinking and approach to thinks, but the little details of tone, rhythm and melody of this song and the sound palette make it a more interesting than the individual elements alone. Listen to “Minor Details” on Spotify.

Dax Takes On The Triple Role of Self, Santa and The Grinch in the Absurdly Humorous Video For “Dear Santa”

Dax_DearSanta1_lg — Dax, still from “Dear Santa” video

Dax takes the premise of writing a Santa letter on “Dear Santa” as a launching point to both asses his life up to now, put forth aspirational bravado and a comically disappointed diss. The video tells this story with Dax playing himself and Santa at once. Both writing the letter and responding. And bringing the Grinch into the mix from the beginning, and as a rapper later, Dax ups the ante on the absurd with the demands reaching cartoonish proportions including a death threat to Santa once he says he might not be able to come through on some of those items on the wish list but he knows someone who can “help out,” that being the Grinch, who in this scenario is a big of a gangster. Apparently in the world of this song, Santa and The Grinch are in the same universe and have each other’s numbers. Although we’re finally getting around to writing up the single well after Christmas, it’s the kind of video and song that works regardless of season because a good, weird premise transcends such considerations. Watch the video for “Dear Santa” on YouTube and follow Dax at the links below.

soundcloud.com/thatsdax
instagram.com/thatsdax