#wmua

by Alex MacLean

It’s rare to hear a record so brimming with life and creative energy as this one, at least for me. The kind of work that reminds you of the power music can have; paradigm-shifting, life-sustaining stuff. If you've heard the Alabama Shakes, you've heard this artist’s voice and her songwriting, but Jaime, her first release under her own name, feels like something else entirely.  While the Shakes are firmly a guitar band devoted to rock music, Howard's approach is more varied on this one, with jazz and soul creating the backdrop for idiosyncratic arrangements that don’t really sound like much else now. It is an experimental, soul-searching album that is joyous, adventurous, tragic and romantic, concerned with mining the past for a blueprint on how to move forward and always do better. 

This unique and eclectic approach makes itself apparent from the first track, the funky and political “History Repeats.”  This track is followed by a pair of love songs, “He Loves Me,” and “Georgia.” The former is a stomping, swaggering gospel song devoted to God, the only man who loves Howard unconditionally even when she’s “smoking blunts...drinking too much,” and just doing what she wants. At first it seemed to be a romantic sentiment, but the song is intermittently interrupted by samples of a preacher’s impassioned sermon. The latter finds Howard expressing desire for a woman named Georgia to notice her. She wants so badly for her “to know what [she] means when [she] says hello.” It starts from a quiet place with stuttered hi-hats and Howard singing falsetto, but eventually the crush blooms, and the song blasts off from an organ break into a coda of laser-like sustained guitar. Other highlights include the stunning “13th Century Metal,” which rides a “Funky Drummer”-like groove and an ancient-sounding keyboard into oblivion as Howard repeats a number of powerful mantras: “We are all brothers and sisters,” “My spirit will never be stomped out,” “Give in to love.” The song swells and swerves in and out of dissonance, inviting choirs of saxophones and other voices to join in. 

The ninth track, “Goat Head,” brings the pace of the record to a halt, in the most stunning way. The song delves into Howard’s personal history and identity, detailing a hate crime her family experienced in her childhood, and the negative and inaccurate impressions foisted on her as the child of a black man and a white woman in small-town Alabama; choice line: “See I’m black, I’m not white / but I’m that, nah nah I’m this, right?” The song also strips back a lot of instrumentation and low end, opting for a minimal, airy trap-style beat with a chopped-up piano loop. This lets the lyrics, and Howard, speak for themselves without the possibility of her message being misconstrued. 

Jaime is so engaging because Howard is so confident as a songwriter and her band is so talented that she is able to essentially throw out the rulebook on making records. Not that there is one, but a lot of deviations from pop song form and production unequivocally make for a singular and more compelling pop record. Speaking of the band, Robert Glasper guests on keys and Nate Smith plays drums on most tracks here. Smith may not be a name you know, but it should be, because his performances on this album are the source of much of these songs’  power. The drum sound is heavily compressed and distorted in many songs, pushed to the foreground of the mix. This would seem like the “wrong” thing to do to a lot of mix engineers, if you’re trying to get a clean and clear drum sound, but it brings raw power and heft to Smith’s precise yet relaxed timekeeping; it makes the effortless cool of playing just behind the beat a key feature of these songs, just like J Dilla’s unquantized MPC drums were as they changed the face of music back in the 1990s. 

Jaime above all, rewards repeat listens. Every song has something ot offer; after many listens just sort of tuning out those that weren’t my favorite tracks, the magic of “Short and Sweet” became apparent, it does so much with just a sparse acoustic guitar instrumental and Howard’s impassioned vocals. It is definitely an album worth going back to if you missed it when it first came out.

By John Matraia

We are currently living through a historical event and at times, it is difficult to keep our spirits up. All we can do is try to adapt and do what we can to keep ourselves safe and sane while being cooped up indoors. One way to cope is to try and step away from the tragedy for an hour or two. I’ve personally found myself watching movies, reading, or listening to music to distract myself. There are many different ways music can help, but I’ve found that albums that distinguish themselves from the rest are those that create a distinct atmosphere and a world of their own. They do this by establishing consistencies, not just sonically, but also in terms of subject matter.

An atmosphere alone isn’t ideal though. Many albums fall victim to using the same presets, filters, or vocal pitching across songs to the point where they blend together and create an album that serves as nothing more than a soulless tone. What is really impressive is an album’s ability to have a collection of songs that stand strong on their own, while also reinforcing the qualities that many of the tracks around them share, thus creating a cohesive piece.

You may be thinking that I’m just describing a concept album, and some may use that term more loosely than I do, but the projects I point out below are not in-your-face with a singular story or meaning. While they create their own universe, that universe may vary from listener to listener because these projects allow us to make our own interpretation of it, while still focusing on certain themes and stringing the project together musically. This is exactly what makes these albums below such transcendent experiences.

Liquid Swords – GZA (1995)

Liquid Swords gives me a feeling similar to the one I felt when I watched Michael Mann’s film Heat from the same year. The world of Los Angeles in Heat, contrary to the film’s title, is actually cold, devoid of any compassion or love. The icy blue hues that consume so much of the film’s color palette represent the city’s cold nature and the characters’ inner workings. The film is raw and up close and personal with the characters and the multiple lives that they each balance. On Liquid Swords, GZA (and other members of the Wu-Tang Clan) recognize the reality of the world they are living in, and this album is them coming to terms with that reality and telling their story. The intoxicating combination of GZA’s otherworldly raps and RZA’s barren beats place the listener directly into New York’s cold world in 1995. Everything, down to the way the album is mixed, drops the listener into their story.

The beats on Liquid Swords are dark and skeletal, with grim storytelling to match. Its minimal production doesn’t distract from the rapping, but everything included is necessary for the album’s success. GZA reflects on his surroundings, most notably on tracks like “Cold World”, speaking on the violence and other social problems that surround him in New York. Along the way though, he also establishes his dominance as a top tier rapper who will slay any opponent he comes across. It wasn’t just RZA’s production that created the bleak aura of Liquid Swords. GZA’s way of translating the daily problems people in his position faced for the listener to give them a harsh, yet realistic depiction of his life adds to this nature and brings the listener in. Liquid Swords is a true timepiece that captured the gritty essence of a night in New York, and has also proven to be a lasting piece of music that has influenced the generations to come.

The OOZ – King Krule (2017)

The OOZ is King Krule’s slow and lengthy descent into loneliness. It translates emotional outbursts into music on post-punk influenced tracks like “Dum Surfer”, and converts roaming aimlessly into ambient pieces like “The Cadet Leaps.” Tracks here include subtleties in the background that would be musically impressive even without the dark jazz infused instrumentation that graces the foreground of those tracks. The album drags on in the most realistic way possible, following our protagonist as he copes with the dreary world surrounding him.

The album’s moody nature swallows the listener through fleeting guitar solos and alienated keyboard melodies. The instrumentation of “Lonely Blue” becomes more climactic as Archy’s vocals become louder and more helpless. The experiences Archy describe seem uncertain to the listener at times, but the mystery within the songs reflect the unpredictable essence of his experiences. We empathize with his sense of misdirection, and wander along with him in a world that seems hopeless at times.

Big Fish Theory – Vince Staples (2017)

Even if Big Fish Theory came out today, it would still be ahead of its time. There is nothing quite like this album, and I’m sitting here waiting for it to get the credit it deserves. If nothing else, from a production perspective alone, it is remarkable. The beats are sharp and cold with rhythms that move in hot and sweaty fashion, serving as a wake-up call within an album that has a very gloomy feel to it. The punchy, booming bass on every track feels like the thunder that accompanies a rainy day.

Regardless of whether the track goes down a more electronic dance route or takes on an industrial sound, Vince’s adrenaline-packed delivery is hard to ignore. When a track like “Big Fish” takes a funkier approach, a subtle running water sound effect plays throughout the track and strings together the album’s motif of water, supplemented by other tracks with bubbly synthesizers and futuristic recordings. A small detail like this only adds to the theme of drowning created by the other tracks through Vince’s lack of optimism about society’s future and even the way his vocals are mixed. We hear this distrust in Vince’s lyrics that are fed up with the system and the dystopian world that the music of the album creates.

Wildflower – The Avalanches (2016)

Wildflower is breezy and care-free musical bliss. It’s rooted in nostalgia and creates a sense of longing for the unknown future in the listener. The light, airy rhythms and angelic vocals are pure joy in sonic form. It’s full of bright and colorful textures, and flows together beautifully. The run from “Subways” to “If I Was a Folkstar” features infectious grooves that float above the glistening samples and take us on a journey like none other.

The group’s unique sampling style we heard on Since I Left You is still there, but Wildflower presents more easy-going instrumentals at times that give the listener space to breathe and lounge on the beach. Not only that, but The Avalanches also make room for a number of guest appearances on the record from the likes of Danny Brown, MF DOOM, Biz Markie, Ariel Pink, Toro y Moi, and more.

While the first three projects I pointed out featured murky aspects, I’m glad to end this piece on more of a cheerful note with an uplifting album experience. Many of us tend to resort to consuming darker art, and it’s good to be in touch with that side of ourselves. It’s important to understand our situation and face it. At the same time though, it’s important to take a step back from all of this and try not to worry or mope around too much, because better days are ahead.

JUST finished rigging up my own little setup so i can listen to college radio at home and immediately i'm introduced to this fantastic song

Feeling the quarantine blues? Check out the WMUA staff picks for their top albums!

Nina (Programmer) - Sawayama (Rina Sawayama, 2020)

I was counting down the days to this album from the moment it was announced. Rina’s sound is texturally rich, and here she offers a multitude of genres, from heavy metal to synthpop. The high notes in some of these songs are really impressive, and the timbre of her voice is lovely. Sawayama is proof of her excellent craftsmanship and willingness to take risks.

Top tracks: “Dynasty”, “Who’s Gonna Save U Now?”, “Tokyo Love Hotel”

John (Finance Director) - Whole Lotta Red (Playboi Carti, 2020)

Despite coming out in the last week of 2020, this was still my second most listened to album of the entire year, so I had to pick it. People love to hate this for some reason but I think Carti delivered a great follow up to the instant classic that was Die Lit.

Top tracks: “Rockstar Made”, “ILoveUIhateU”, “Slay3r”

Andy (News Operator) - This Is Happening (LCD Soundsystem, 2010)

One of the things I miss most right now is dancing: the rush of euphoria and that feeling of being caught up in the moment. This album has helped me fill that void. The song writing is top notch, the melodies are addictive, and frontman James Murphy’s lyrics are often just as catchy as they are relatable.

Top tracks: “Dance Yrself Clean”, “I Can Change”, “Home”

Judge (Technical Director) - Mena (Javiera Mena, 2010)

Coming from a similar place as Andy, without a doubt my most listened to record since COVID began is Javiera Mena’s second record, Mena. It’s pop sugar injected straight into the bloodstream. It’s jumping into a dark river with your lover. In more literal terms, Mena is nine tracks of emotional dance pop perfection with peaks and valleys of energy, hooks to fill your storage unit with, and a loving, freeing spirit.

Top tracks: “Primera estrella”, “El amanecer”, “Luz de piedra de luna”

Zoe (Communications Music Director) - Stillness In Wonderland (Little Simz, 2017)

Little Simz has a sound that many have tried to conquer but very few have mastered. This jazz-rap album takes you through the inner workings of the artist’s fantasy world, and she paints a stunning picture. Between the high quality production and the well-articulated verses, one can’t help but to get sucked in and appreciate her artistry. Not to mention, this album has insane collaborators (BADBADNOTGOOD, Syd and Chronixx just to name a few).

Top tracks: “Picture Perfect”, “Shotgun”, “One In Rotation + Wide Awake”

Bonnie (News Editor) - Hypersonic Missiles (Sam Fender, 2019)

I first listened to the single with the same name as the album and loved it. I was immediately drawn to the lyrics and his voice. The lyrics can resonate with so much of our generation, those who feel disconnected from the rest of the world and realize the horrors out there. The songs on this album can be felt by all of us as we go about our lives.

Top Tracks: “Hypersonic Missiles,” “Saturday,” “Leave Fast”

Melissa (Public Relations Director) - Who Am I? (Pale Waves, 2021)

Harkening back to the early 2000s goth-pop, this album may remind you of Avril Lavigne’s Let Go, so I obviously had to choose it. This album dives into personal awakenings and being your true self. Since their first album, lead singer Heather Barron-Tracy came out publicly and their drummer Ciara Doran announced they are non-binary, providing inspiration for their new album. Who Am I? has been called “a candid portrayal of queer love”.

Photo and Review by Alex MacLean

The new record by Destroyer, Have We Met, is full of digital sounds: Synth VSTs, drum samples, glass-shattering sound effects, all accompanying chief songwriter Dan Bejar’s distinctive vocals. He is the band’s only constant through a number of musical and lineup shifts since his home four-track debut in 1996. Expanding into full band Bowie-esque glam rock, piano-led ballads, and MIDI experiments; folding in prog, folk, and finally dance music, ambient, and jazz into their sound with each new album. So I didn’t know what to expect from a live show at this point in time. Would there be a band? Would the new songs dominate the setlist or would the back catalogue? Destroyer doesn’t tour often, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity no matter what.

Nap Eyes was intended to be the opener for this show, but they had to drop due to a visa issue. So instead, Elastic Stars, the solo project of Destroyer’s bassist Colin Cowan came out to play some songs. He sat down at the drum kit with his acoustic guitar in the center of the stage and stomped the bass drum and hi-hat pedals along with his spirited, folky pop songs. It was a really nice way to open the show as a replacement for what was planned.

Dan Bejar is much taller than I imagined, he towers over the rest of his band members on stage when he isn’t crouched down next to the monitor, which he does often when he doesn’t need to sing. Backed by a formidable six-piece band, Destroyer gave the audience a dynamic set that showcased the performers’ range. Though the setlist leaned towards newer songs, some greats from fan favorites Kaputt and Destroyer’s Rubies fully vindicated my time of refuge in those records as a lonely high schooler. Those two are probably the high points of Bejar’s record-making career, and make good entry points for curious listeners.

Opening appropriately with Have We Met’s opener, “Crimson Tide,” the band floated between two major seventh chords as the rhythm section kept up a driving backbeat over Bejar’s lyrics about hospital stays and washed-up entertainers making their last stand in a world that’s falling apart. Having made Thief in 2000, a concept album about--and highly antagonistic towards--the music industry, Bejar has always been interested in questioning the role of entertainers and their relationship to industry in an increasingly precarious world. After all, this is the guy who once uttered “A life in art and a life of mimicry is the same thing!” during a ballad called “Looters’ Follies.” All of the new songs sounded great, particularly “It Just Doesn’t Happen” and “Cue Synthesizer” were invigorated with new energy provided by drummer Joshua Wells, driving the songs with powerful, danceable rhythms and frequently mesmerizing fills. Bassist Colin Cowan’s slap bass in “Cue Synthesizer” was powerfully groovy. I noticed at this show that a lot of Destroyer’s recent work mines America’s urban commercial-entertainment culture; hearing both “tinseltown swimming in blood,” a New Order-like synth pop number from 2017’s Ken and “Times Square,” a sardonically romantic folky song about New York’s gaudiest block. Mid-set, Bejar announced he was going to read a poem by the late great Lou Reed, and his band began a cover of Reed’s song “Ecstasy.” It was a welcomed peek into the influences of a singer and writer I admire. The set reached peak energy as the band joyously blasted through “European Oils” from Rubies, singing wordless hooks along with Bejar and playing as loudly and skillfully as they could. They finished the set with “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker,” a lengthy high point of Kaputt with lyrics written by the artist Walker herself, the former portion of the title referencing the New York duo. The trumpeter, who had been providing wonderful texture and space by micing and running his trumpet through an effects pedalboard, began the song with several minutes of distorted and warped ambience that I could feel reverberating around in my skull. It could have gone on for an hour and I wouldn’t have minded a bit. The song is one of my very favorites of theirs.

By John Matraia

The new album There Existed an Addiction to Blood from clipping. is experimental rap, and more specifically, horrorcore, at its finest. It might be the group’s best project to date, and for those who have heard their back catalog, you’ll know that that’s saying quite a bit. But this is truly that good. The group’s 2019 album sucks the listener in, and leaves no room for turning back.

This project is bombastic at times, noisy at times, and genuinely terrifying throughout. Based on the first single, cover art, and the release date, fans knew at the very least to expect something spooky this time around. And boy, did the hip-hop outfit deliver on that. This album is full of breathtaking moments and boundary pushing production, and it’s thematically laser-focused, which are just some of the elements that make this a stand-out release.

Daveed Diggs blacks out on pretty much every track on the album, most notably losing it on tracks like “Nothing is Safe” and “Blood of the Fang”, where his breath control is on another level. Not to mention, his lyrics all over this project are scarily vivid and precise. He proves what makes him such a talented rapper time and time again here on top of some of the sharpest industrial production in all of music. The way that the group is able to weave substance, like commentary on race, drugs, authenticity, death, and more, into this project and keep it cohesive is an incredible feat.

Blood is the musical equivalent of a horror movie, and that’s exactly what the group was shooting for. It’s sure to darken any mood: with moments of suspense, alongside twisted storytelling scattered with shocking moments. There’s a time and a place for an album like this, and I can’t say I’ve heard anything quite like it. I never thought I’d hear Benny the Butcher rapping on a track that morphs into a two minute noise outro. Nor did I expect the album’s outro track to be an eighteen-minute recording of a piano burning, fittingly titled “Piano Burning.” It makes sense though. This slow, low destruction of grandiose beauty is what this record is all about.

By Alex MacLean and Judge Russell On a humid Saturday in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the 2019 Dream Picnic took place at Gateway City Arts. A day festival curated by Brooklyn indie band Rubblebucket, this year featured performances from Western MA acts such as Carinae, Raspberry Jam, and And The Kids, as well as national touring acts STRFKR, Sidney Gish, and Guerilla Toss. 

After Guerilla Toss’s performance, we caught up with the New York dance-punk band’s singer and violinist, Kassie Carlson, and asked her a few questions about movies, restaurants, and inspirations behind the band’s upcoming EP, What Would The Odd Do?, out November 15 on NNA Tapes. The band will be on a US tour starting October 19th.

WMUA: So y’all have a new EP coming out soon, yeah? Kassie Carlson: Yep! What Would The Odd Do?

WMUA: So I was going to ask what some of the inspirations behind the new songs were, in terms of the music and lyrics? KC: What Would The Odd Do? Is kind of, like, all of us, the counterculture people, the weirdos, the freaks. Like instead of asking, “what would Jesus do?,” anyone who has grown up in a religious environment, y’know, and weighing so much on god, this is what would the Odd do! [laughs]

WMUA: and the lyrics?

KC: Mostly just about existential dread and the presence of darkness, and lightness in the world.

WMUA: I feel that. So what was the recording process like?

KC: Well, we recorded at the Outlier Inn in Upstate New York, it’s kind of like a retreat/recording studio that our friend has where you can go and stay there and record a record, but it’s actually near where my house, so I didn’t stay there. My friend Josh has got goats on the property!

WMUA: Goats are so funny, there’s goats by my house and me and my housemates whenever we drive by we yell “GOATS” and they all look at you

KC: I don’t know how true it is, but I read something recently that goats can see facial expressions, and understand them. It’s the eyes, the square pupils.

WMUA: Woah! I’ve never really gotten that close to a goat before.

KC: You should! Y’know, there’s like the cat eye, the goat eye...I was thinking a lot about eyes and perception when I was watching this animal show the other night, about predator and prey, how the prey has eyes on either side, the predator has eyes on the front, and what that does to how you see and interpret things.

WMUA: Wow, what a thought! It’s all in the eyes.

WMUA: So some of the questions I’ve written here have to do with the music but some of them are just fun questions, like if there are any movies you’re loving as of late?

KC: Oh God.

WMUA: Or any movie you’ve seen recently that you liked?

KC: I saw Midsommar in theaters, it was cool, maybe that’s like an obvious thing,

WMUA: That’s the last one I went to see in theaters, I loved it.

KC: There’s lots of people with flower headbands out today, so I was thinking about it. It’s fucked but like, also beautiful. You know our music video for “Plants”?

WMUA: Haven’t seen it yet, no.

KC: Well the editor for Midsommar did that video.

WMUA: Woah, that’s so cool!

KC: Yeah, Max Berger and Jade Goheen. It’s got really cool editing.

WMUA: I’ll have to check that one out!

KC: New song “Plants”!

WMUA: New song “Plants,” it’s great, we’ve been playing it at the station.

KC: Sweet! [laughs]

WMUA: So y’all currently live in New York? KC: I don’t live in NYC anymore, I live upstate in the mountains now.

WMUA: Well, so do you have a favorite place to eat in New York?

KC: I do, of course! It’s called Lupe’s East LA kitchen, it’s in SoHo. It’s amazing, it’s where we have all our band meetings, so if you go there you might see us!

WMUA: What kind of food?

KC: It’s Mexican food.

WMUA: Are there any bands that you’re looking forward to seeing tonight? KC: Oh yeah, well I saw Homebody earlier, amazing band, amazing beats, amazing voice, also Rubblebucket obviously, STRFKR, it was cool to see Toth, all the bands are really specal and curated tonight, so it’s fun.

WMUA: For sure for sure! [laughs] oh this question is kinda goofy, but, I really like your song “Jackie’s Daughter,” yeah, I was wondering how Jackie and her daughter are doing?

KC: They’re doing awesome! Killing it, yeah. That song, people always request it, but it’s kind of hard to do it live, we haven’t really figured it out yet. 

WMUA: I’m really glad you played “Meteorological,” I love that song!

KC: Yeah, that one’s about trying to predict your own feelings and thoughts.

WMUA: Like a meteorologist!

KC: Exactly! But they’re always wrong!

WMUA: I also really like all of the artwork on your records, I was wondering how you go about picking it or designing it if someone in the band does it

KC: It’s actually a lot of different people, Keith Rankin does a lot of our art, he does Orange Milk Tapes, and he does, like, epic airbrush stuff, he’s killing it right now, doing billboards, other albums, stuff for magazines. But GT Ultra, that’s like 70s acid strip paper from Mark McCloud, his house is filled with acid sheets, they all have really interesting designs, and that was one of them. And the new one is Yu Maeda, an artist I found on Instagram who is super amazing.

WMUA: What are you guys listening to in the van? KC: Usually a lot of the Grateful Dead, because it’s something everyone likes, I’m also really obsessed with Emeralds.

KC: Thanks for taking the time to do this, hope the tour goes well!