Take Five: Breaking down, building up, and chilling out
It’s all music today, so you have many opportunities to click on a link or two and discover some new music
“Take Five” is posted each Friday, and offers five things I spent some time with over the course of the previous week. No criticism, no in-depth analysis, just a few things I think you might be interested in checking out. When the spirit moves me, I’ll post other things at other times.
It’s all music today, so you have many opportunities to click on a link or two and discover some new music.
1. Mike Viola - “Drug Rug” and Iowa City stop
Mike Viola might have the best voice in rock. You certainly have heard it — he's the one on lead vocals on the once-ubiquitous "That Thing You Do" from the 1996 Tom Hanks-helmed film of the same name. But it is on his own songs that this grainy, expressive instrument is best heard. If pushed, I would characterize Viola as power pop, but as his career has evolved, so has his sound. His lyrics have taken on a rich depth, and the tight production of his early major label albums has given way to a casual looseness that lets the songs breathe; some Laurel Canyon has crept in to leaven the once tightly wound pop of old.
I saw Viola for the only time at South by Southwest in 2000. The second time the fuses blew during his 1 a.m. set in a tiny club, he and his bandmates grabbed acoustic guitars and headed outside. Spying an empty mini pickup parked on the street in front of the club, Viola climbed into the bed and put on an impromptu performance that attracted more passersby than he'd drawn inside. This willingness to go where things lead has served him well.
Viola comes to Iowa City on Oct. 9 for a show that is part of the Englert Songwriter Series. (Don't be confused; the show is at Gabe's).
One of my favorite recent Viola songs is "Drug Rug" from his 2021 album, Godmuffin. This video in his "Songs Start to Finish" series shows how the song evolved from a snippet recorded on his phone under the title "Brother Mole" into the funky finished product. The official video for the song, which allows Viola to indulge his movie monster fetish, is also worth a view.
2. Patricia Brennan - Breaking Stretch
I'm a sucker for mallet instruments in jazz. That combination of melody and rhythm just hits (pun very clearly intended) hard for me, particularly when the musician is inventive and willing to subvert expectations. Patricia Brennan is such a player. Over the course of three solo albums, she has charted a path that sets her apart from the increasing number of creative mallet players. Brennan appeared as part of several ensembles before going out on her own — literally, in this case.
Her solo debut Maquishti was just that, an album of solo marimba and vibraphone. On the follow up, More Touch, she led an unorthodox quartet that found her joined with a drummer, percussionist and bassist for a rhythm-heavy swirl that foregrounded her instrument. Now she returns with that same quartet augmented by two saxophones and a trumpet. With each release, her contribution becomes less centered and the music more adventurous.
The new Breaking Stretch swings while maintaining the same improvisational spirit that has characterized her work to date. Saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Mark Shim, joined by trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, add to the melodicism of the tracks, bringing a texture and a strong Latin vibe to the proceedings. One of the highlights is " Palo de Oros (Suit of Coins)," a song that centers on Kim Cass's bass for the first two-and-a-half minutes. When the horns enter, it is with a start, and then everyone jumps in. Brennan does interesting things with pedals that remind me of Mary Halvorson's guitar work, stretching and molding the sound of her instrument until it sounds like something else before snapping back into shape. Soon, Irabagon's soprano sax takes a similar journey, barking and squeaking until the melody overtakes and envelopes him.
3. Luke Stewart - Unknown Rivers
Sometimes a visual juxtaposition leads you down a fruitful path. I have had Luke Stewart's Unknown Rivers on my phone for a while but hadn't listened yet. Scrolling through, I saw its cover directly across from Brennan's, and as you can see from the above, it was an arresting combination. After listening to Brennan, I went right into Stewart.
I'm glad I finally did. I have been listening to Stewart for years in Irreversible Entanglements, Heroes are Gang Leaders, and Blacks' Myths, among others, but this is only the second album I've heard under his own name, billed this time with the Silt Trio. As with most other contexts in which he plays, this is a stripped down affair, just Stewart's bass, Brian Settles on tenor sax, and drummers Trae Crudup on four studio tracks and Chad Taylor on three live ones. The result of this lineup is a lot of space for each instrument to explore. Settles tends to dominate melodically of course, but each player brings an angular and driving rhythmicality to the performance.
My preference are the three tracks that end the album that were recorded live with Chad Taylor on drums. The elegant "Dudu," which stretches out for 12-plus minutes, is a highlight. It starts with peaceful interplay driven by Stewart's bowed his bass. A breakdown around the halfway point finds Taylor skittering around his kit as Stewart and Settles give chase. The entire thing then erupts in a burst of free playing that carries through to the end. That flows into the more compact title track, that swings along, carried by Stewart’s thick bass notes and Taylor’s busy high hat.
4. Lou Barlow - “Run to You”
My love for Lou Barlow's Sebadoh was such that in the early to mid-90s I was buying everything he released. I got onboard with 1991's Sebadoh III and was fairly faithful throughout the decade. That was an expensive relationship, because in addition to the prolific Sebadoh, Barlow also had a penchant for releasing seemingly every spool of cassette that wound its way through his four-track under the name Sentridoh. The results were mixed, of course, as is always the case with an artist who favors quantity over quality, but that is part of the reward, picking wheat from chaff. Erstwhile Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley issued some of Barlow's work on his Smells Like Records, and that relationship continues today with Shelley's new label, Vampire Blues. Shelley has compiled an album of 20 songs from these out-of-print releases, to be issued in November as Really Insane. I own all of this on 7" singles and CD EPs and such, so I'll pass, but there are some gems here. My favorite for a while was Barlow's odd cover of the Bryan Adams hit, "Run to You." The conceit is that Barlow over-enunciates every word, turning a slow-burning ode to stepping out on your partner into a menacing threat. Not everything here is a goof; in fact, if you can get past the shaky fidelity, some of these songs are the equal of anything found on his “proper” albums.
5. Battery Operated - a mellow Mixcloud
I have been exploring ambient and instrumental music more over the past five or six years, often discovering new favorites by taking the advice of friends, reading reviews, and following Substacks. One of those led me to the music of guitarist Mike Horn under the name Seawind of Battery. His Clockwatching was one of my favorite chill out records of 2022, a go-to way to unwind. He released several live shows and one-offs since, only issuing the official follow up, East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper in August. While I work my way into that more varied album, I turn to Horn’s latest endeavor to learn about other acts. He is the force behind “Battery Operated,” an online radio show hosted by an arts residency based in the French Pyrenees. Luckily, you only need to click a link to hear his curated playlist. His is among dozens of similar shows hosted at the organization’s website, and it’s interesting to click around the many different offerings. A quicker path to Horn’s most recent show can be found here. He promises “a sonic journey through experimental, psychedelic, ambient, cosmic americana, and spiritual jazz,” and the first track yielded a new favorite in the work of "Read/McQueen, whose “Möbius” from their 2021 self-titled debut is a gorgeous way to start the hour-long set.