Saturday Spin #2

What’s up peeps! Edition #2 of Saturday Spin starts… NOW

Rostam: Bio 18

Starting hella chill with the amazing Rostam, whose work you are likely familiar with even if you don’t know him by name: he’s a member of Vampire Weekend. This track is from his third full-length solo album, 2021’s Changephobia. If you like what’s hitting your ears right now, spin the whole album for yourself. There are wicked sax solos and lo-fi beats and lush arrangements and expressive lyrics and it’s a treat.

Rostam: Unfold You

I recently picked up this album on aggressively green vinyl (a Spotify special) and the contents of this edition are a perfect example of why the accessibility of digital media will never overtake the experiential joy of interacting with the physical version.

Let’s take a beat here to get into that:

My expectations for this edition of the album were low, but having missed out on the Vinyl Me, Please record club limited release I felt compelled to scoop this one up. Luckily it vastly exceeded my expectations. I said “oh, shit!” aloud twice while taking this out of the sleeve for the first time - when the book of sheet music, lyrics, and liner notes fell out, and when I saw that the photo was hand-signed. Since everything is readily available digitally these days, I’ve noticed that the physical version is an afterthought - most of the new release vinyl I’ve bought over the past 7 or so years includes the disc (in a crappy paper sleeve, often pressed so poorly it’s warped beyond playability or skips on the first spin), and a scrap of paper with a download code, because digital is still king here.

Taking that as a baseline, this is some killer packaging, and it incorporates features that the digital world can’t handle. Sure, Spotify has lyrics (on some songs) that (sometimes) scroll along as you listen, but I don’t want to have to put the song on to see the words and am often not able to stare at the screen when the song is playing. A physical book of lyrics caters to the experience of sitting down and listening to the thing intentionally, and that’s always been my favorite way to take it in. The sheet music mixed in throughout the lyric book is the real winner though. It reminds me of how, prior to the advent of recorded music, many homes had some kind of instrument (piano, maybe guitar), a person in the household who could play it passably well, and the popular hits of the day were flying off shelves in the form of sheet music so that people could recreate them. I could make these sound of songs myself instead of listening to the produced versions.

Granted, this album features some absolute saxophone wizardry, so maybe not. One of my brothers is a Bari sax player and I sent him a pic of the notation for the sax solo on Unfold You, jury’s still out on whether he has the quintuplet runs and grace notes all ironed out yet.

Including a signed photo makes the record feel all the more personal, and I can’t think of a digital equivalent. Maybe Rostam could DM me to say “Hello thank you quite a lot for listening to my record many times,” but that’d still feel a little cold. If I remember right there were 500 of these released, so dude sat and wrote his name in sliver sharpie 500 times. I can respect that effort. A signed picture also isn’t something I’d intentionally seek out from any artist, and it does feel a little fangirl-ish to have it hanging above the desk where I’m typing this out. Not that I’m going to let that stop me from keeping it there.

Alex Lahey: I Haven’t Been Taking Care of Myself

There is some GREAT music coming out of Australia lately – Courtney Barnett, Middle Kids, Mallrat, and Alex Lahey. You can’t find a bad song in her catalog, but this one is far and away my favorite. It’s fun, it’s relatable, it’s peppy with dark subject matter, and I am SO DEEPLY STOKED that I’m seeing her live in a couple months.

See also: Love You Like A Brother (which very much reminds me of my own little bro), Every Day’s the Weekend

Mallrat: Groceries

Speaking of Mallrat, this is my wife‘s absolute FAVORITE song so having heard it thousands of times I can confirm, it’s a bop.

See also: Charlie

Karate Boogaloo: Look Around

If I’m out in the world and hear a cool song, I will do my level best to figure out what it is, and luckily the music was loud enough and the conversation quiet enough at the coffee shop yesterday that I was able to track this one down. And then I spent my whole morning shuffling through their tracks. Excellent choice if you need some soul grooves in your life, and in keeping with the theme for these last few recs, they are also from Australia.

See also: Do You Even Know What A Passport Is

Rex Orange County: Keep It Up

Want a song that is just nice? Rex Orange County has some of those. This is one of them. It’s a sunny one for sure, and I could use the reminder in the chorus every once and a while:

Keep it up and go on, you’re only holding out for what you want.

Bartees Strange: Heavy Heart

I have had Bartees Strange in my recommendations before, and I certainly will again – great guitar playing, great songwriting, distinct vocal delivery and genre blending arranging check every box for me. This is his latest release, but be sure to dig into the back catalog too. Boomer is an absolute highlight, with lyrical phrasing in the verses sourced from hip-hop and a full-on stomping blues guitar breakdown (complete with references to the Devil, all that’s missing is mention of a crossroads). Finding an artist who seems to just be building up steam is always an exciting event – Bartees toured with indie star Lucy Dacus this past year, is currently touring in support of Car Seat Headrest, and I’d wager that next time he comes through town he’s at the top of the bill.

See also: Weights, Boomer

Widowspeak: Everything Is Simple

I do a thing occasionally where I wind my way through totally unknown artists on Spotify (sometimes using curated playlists, other times chaining together bands using the “sounds Like” section) and queue up a few hours’ worth of fresh music, adding anything that catches my ear to a playlist I’ll revisit in the future. That’s where this song came from, and when it came up again during a random shuffle the other day I stopped what I was doing to enjoy that ascending guitar hook that drives the song right from the get go. I hope it catches you in the same way.

Run The Jewels: JU$T

If you don’t know RTJ (like I didn’t a year and a half ago) you are missing TF out. The band is made up of NYC’s El-P and Atlanta’s Killer Mike, blending hip-hop styles across scenes, and this track is a perfect showcase of that combination. My favorite music (or really any media) is the stuff where the closer you look/listen, the more reason you find to like it, and that’s been my experience with RTJ.

On pass one, you hear the beat, the hook, the samples, a line or two sticks with you. Pass two, you hear El-P say “Got a Vonnegut punch for your Atlas shrugs” and you’ve got to spend the rest of the time unpacking that masterful twist of language. Pass three your hearing the layers and appreciating the Zach De La Rocha (of Rage Against the Machine) verse that wraps the track. There’s a fantastic episode of the podcast Song Exploder where you can hear Killer Mike and El-P break this song down themselves.

See also: Close your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)

The Roots: Living in a New World

I recently started reading everything I could get my hands on written by Questlove and have decided that he is who I want to be when I grow up. A musician, author, designer, culinary entrepreneur, and now Oscar-winning director who can take on any creative pursuit and excel phenomenally. As part of this endeavor I’ve been digging into the music he made with The Roots, starting out by picking up Game Theory on vinyl. On my first listen through I couldn’t help but put this song on repeat when it came up (which is saying something, given the effort it takes to repeat a track on vinyl). As with RTJ, the more I listen the more I like.

I’m always delighted when I find a new artist that has a substantial catalog for me to dig into, and that is of course the case with The Roots as they’re fast approaching the third decade of their existence. The most delightful aspect of discovering that catalog (mostly through Quest’s books, I’m well overdue for an extended listening session) has been the breadth of their past offerings. I grew up hearing a LOT of Elvis Costello as my dad is a major fan. In my head he owned every Elvis (only the first name was needed in our household and Presley’s full name was used to differentiate) disc, though since he’s just released his 32nd studio album I’d imagine I was wrong in that assumption. In Questlove’s Creative Quest he mentions a Roots collab record with Elvis Costello, and I truly can’t imagine what it will sound like but am certain it will have some serious depth for me to dig into over multiple rotations.

Wet Leg: Chaise Longue

I’m gonna bet you cool folks know this song already, but if not – now you do, and it will never leave your head. It’s irresistibly catchy, some of the words are made up, there are Mean Girls references, it does so much without really doing anything at all. Wet Leg came seemingly out of nowhere with this track in the summer of ’21, and while they have yet to drop a full LP the hits have kept on coming.

I first heard this track on my local public radio station (hi Indie 102.3!) and the DJ who introduced it told a story about hanging out with family on Thanksgiving and discussing the track with their dad and uncle, both of whom loved it and found it reminiscent of rock from earlier eras. Months later on a call with my folks my mom asked “oh have you heard of this band, Wet Leg? Dad found them somehow and it’s so funny!” At a family reunion a few months after that my younger cousins were remarking on how much they liked the song as well. I can’t pin down what exactly it is – maybe the traditional rock instrumentation of two guitars, bass, and drums, maybe the nearly monotone vocal delivery that is reminiscent of early 70’s NYC punk, perhaps the modern pop culture references in the lyrics paired with the sheer fun of saying the phrase “Chaise Longue” – but somehow this song perfectly spans generational taste to be universally regarded as fun and cool. Personally, I’ll listen to it another 500 times or so this year.

See also: Wet Dream

That’ll do it for tunes today! See y’all next week.