Category: Americana

Review: Lucy Dacus – Home Video

If they gave out awards for Most Brutally Honest Album of the Year, Lucy Dacus‘ Home Video would certainly win it in 2021.

The singer-songwriter’s new record is a deep dive into her upbringing, teen years, and even recent years. It’s a record about self-exploration, finding and losing love and friends, and always moving forward despite the past trying to put on the brakes.

“Hot & Heavy” opens with bold guitars and bolder lyrics by Dacus about fiery passion that fades but is never forgotten. “Christine” tells a story about Dacus and a dear friend riding along one night in the back of her friend’s boyfriend’s car…and Dacus knowing her friend is stuck in a relationship that will do nothing but hold back her friend from her true potential (“If you get married, I’ll just throw my shoe at the altar and lose your respect. I’d rather lose my dignity than lose you to someone who won’t make you happy.”).

“First Time” hides a tale of new love and new sex under its rock drums and guitar strums. “In the summer of ’07, I was sure I’d go to heaven,” Dacus sings in the beginning of “VBS” (Vacation Bible School), a song about teenage sexual and spiritual confusion that erupts into buzz saw guitar at one point. “Cartwheel” starts with the sound of a record or tape starting up from a dead stop and quickly becomes an acoustic ballad for someone who chose another over her.

As if the album wasn’t heartbreaking enough, “Thumbs” is a song about Dacus fantasizing and offering about killing her friend’s long-absent father when he comes to town for a visit and pretends nothing is wrong. “Going Going Gone” is another song about walking away from a relationship she knows with yield no further results.

Dacus’ use of Autotune on “Partner in Crime” is jarring at first, but makes sense when you consider it’s a song about duplicity. “Brando” is a tale of Dacus skipping school with a boy to watch movies, knowing that he’s Mr. Not Quite Right but going along anyway. “Please Stay” is a soft plead for Dacus’ lover not to leave just yet, and how seeing their items around her place is like walking through a museum of heartbreak. The album ends with “Triple Dog Dare,” a song / confession about Dacus exploring her sexuality and being nervous as hell the whole time. It’s a gorgeous coda to the whole record.

I’m tempted to write, “This record is not for the timid.” due to it’s raw honesty, but maybe it is. It’s a record for anyone feeling timid about who they are, who they love, or who they can become.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Liam Kazar – Due North

“I hang my coat on any old hook, but I prefer the second from the left,” Liam Kazar sings on the opening track of his fun, funky, and solid debut album Due North. The album mixes a lot of influences, sometimes sounding like a Warren Zevon album, other times like a Lindsey Buckingham or Joe Jackson record, but most of the time like Kazar’s groovy self. It’s the kind of album that makes you want to hang out with him for a night just to hear his stories.

That opener, “So Long Tomorrow,” blends Kazar’s rock guitar with a groovy bass line and his witty lyrics as he tells himself, and the rest of us, to stay in the present. “Old Enough for You” bumps and bubbles like a witch’s brew created in a disco, with Kazar singing about trying to be hip and refined in order to impress a potential lover. The sassy, swinging “Shoes Too Tight” was one of my favorite singles of 2020. The whole thing grooves in a way that is hard to describe and impossible to ignore.

“Nothing to You” mixes some alt-country twang into the record while Kazar sings about pining from afar for someone who barely knows he exists. “On a Spanish Dune” starts off like a sad synthwave track and then transforms into a meditation on the self. “Everybody’s asking me what I’m going to be. I couldn’t tell you if I tried. I’m just a poem with an open line,” Kazar sings – and sums up presence and ennui in two sentences.

“The clouds are coming over, but I shouldn’t be surprised,” Kazar sings on “Frank Bacon” – a snappy, slick track with some smooth guitar work from him and plenty of lyrics about realizing you have to play the hand you’re dealt and make the best of it. “I’ve Been Where You Are” has synthwave touches while Kazar let’s us know that he’s been in the same boat of the blues as we’ve all journey on from time to time.

The slightly countrified “No Time for Eternity” has some of Kazar’s best vocal work (with help from Andrew Sa). He keeps it simple, which gives it more impact. “Give My World” takes on a bluesy feel with its lyrics and guitar work, but then becomes something dreamy with the use of bird calls and psychedelic synths. “It seems I haven’t changed, half as much as I’ve let you down,” Kazar sings in a brutally honest self-appraisal. The synths turn into church organs on the closer, “Something Tender” – a song about realizing that enabling and embracing illusions, especially those in relationships, ultimately leads to misery.

Due North is a stunning debut, and easily one of the best debuts I’ve heard in a while and one of the best albums of the year. There’s nothing here you won’t like.

Keep your mind open.

[The subscription box is due west of this.]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Madi Diaz returns with a strong new single – “Woman in My Heart.”

“History of a Feeling” cover art – photo by Lili Pepper

Nashville-based songwriter Madi Diaz announces her new album, History Of A Feeling, out August 27th on ANTI-, and today presents a new single/video, “Woman In My Heart.” History Of A Feeling undeniably marks Diaz’s status as a first-rate songwriter, a craft she’s spent years refining. Across the album, Diaz cycles through the full spectrum of emotions as she comes to terms with the dissolution of a meaningful relationship. She plays the line between the personal and the general with dexterity: in Diaz’s hands, quiet moments of self-pity are transformed into grand meditations on heartbreak, and unwieldy knots of big existential feelings are smoothed out with a sense of clear-eyed precision.

Diaz started working on History Of A Feeling three years ago, before beginning collaborations with co-producer Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver) with whom she worked closely to flesh out the album’s instrumentation. It’s a homecoming record of sorts that points to her Nashville songwriting roots. Pulling from a range of folk, country and pop leanings, as much influenced by Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna as PJ Harvey and Kathleen Hanna, History Of A Feeling is comprised of the most direct and introspective songs Diaz has ever written. Throughout, she seamlessly weaves a profound sense of intimacy and camaraderie as her lyrics are relatable to anyone who has experienced heartbreak and great change in some manner. These universals are shaded by the fact that the relationship breakdown Diaz is chronicling coincided with her former partner transitioning, a complex reckoning Diaz approaches with empathy, candor, and care. “The bulk of this music came from dealing with a kind of tsunami clash of compassion, both for my former partner while she was discovering a deeper part of her gender identity long hidden, and my own raw heartache over having lost the partner I knew,” Diaz says. “I felt so torn through the middle because half of me wanted to hold this person through such a major life event, one that is so beautiful and hard, and the other half felt lost—like I had lost myself in someone else’s story.” It was a sea change that reverberated and ricocheted in her reflections on their relationship and her own sense of self moving forward and her process of healing.

Following the previously released singles “Nervous,” “New Person, Old Place,”and “Man In Me,” which all appear on History Of A Feeling, “Woman In My Heart” came out in one long stream-of-consciousness sweep. Throughout the track, Diaz’s resounding voice pierces through building guitar and percussion. “This song came out in a sort of waking dream while I was actively learning how to part with someone,” says Diaz. “It was hard enough not to miss/hurt/hate/fight/fuck/feel/get over them, and, what was even harder, was the love we had felt more and more like a mystery and the pain was the only thing coming in clear.” The accompanying video, directed by Diaz and Jordan Bellamy and filmed in Colorado, visualizes Diaz’s feelings of unfamiliarity. It was made with no treatment and no plan, just impulse and excitement, letting the music be the guide. Diaz elaborates: “Stumbling in the dark in old abandoned gold mines, whispering to horses at 9500 feet and digging relentlessly, all of these physical motions called out to us as a signal in a desperate attempt to unearth the truth.”

Watch Madi Diaz’s Video for “Woman In My Heart”

Pre-order History Of A Feeling
 
Watch Madi Diaz’s “Nervous” Video
 
Watch the “New Person, Old Place” Video
 
Watch the “Man In Me” Video
 
History Of A Feeling Tracklist
1. Rage
2. Man In Me
3. Crying In Public
4. Resentment
5. Think Of Me
6. Woman In My Heart
7. Nervous
8. Forever
9. History Of A Feeling
10. New Person Old Place
11. Do It Now

Keep your mind open.

[You’ll be in my heart if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Liam Kazar announces debut album coming August 6th and releases new single, “Frank Bacon,” to boot.

Photo by Alexa Viscius

Kansas City-based, Chicago-raised musician, songwriter and chef Liam Kazar announces his debut album, Due North, out August 6th on Woodsist / Mare Records (Kevin Morby’s Woodsist imprint), and today presents a new single/video, “Frank Bacon.” Throughout the last decade, Kazar has been recognized for his adaptability and deftness in the studio and on stage, leading to tours and collaborations with Jeff Tweedy, Chance the Rapper, Steve Gunn, Daniel Johnston, amongst others. While Kazar has consistently been a dream bandmate over the past several years, making his own songs presented a chance to finally find his own voice. Due North is a personal revelation, where the more Kazar wrote, the more his songs showed what kind of artist he’s always wanted to be – one whose own joyous rock songs are so irresistible, full of charm, wit and heart, they feel timeless.

Like most musicians, the pandemic threw Kazar for a loop, knocking out both his touring revenue and his part-time gigs as a bartender. With so much spare time in his Kansas City home, he decided to pursue his longtime love of cooking by creating the restaurant Isfahan, which honors his Armenian heritage and his family’s journey to the United States from Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. “In COVID, my mantra was to not have my heart broken about the future and be present,” says Kazar, explaining that ethos is one of the reasons why he named the LP Due North.

Much like carving out his own space in the food world, learning how to find his own musical style was a rewarding challenge. “This record kind of all stemmed from a conversation I had with Jeff [Tweedy],” says Kazar. “I showed him some of my earliest songs I was working on and he told me, ‘It sounds like you’re writing for the people in your bands, you’re not writing for yourself.’ He was completely right.” With that needed insight, Kazar decided to start from scratch and write songs that felt like himself. Along with Spencer Tweedy and Lane Beckstrom, Kazar enlisted keyboardist Dave Curtin (Woongi), co-producer James Elkington on pedal steel, as well as Ohmme and Andrew Sa on backing vocals. Due North was mixed by Sam Evian at his Flying Cloud Recordings Studio in upstate New York.

During the making of the record, Kazar kept coming back to two words: “joyful” and “vulnerable.” Kazar elaborates: “I was trying to talk about things that I’m scared about but acknowledging that I’m not that powerful and you can still be joyful in the face of your own insecurities.” Take album highlight “Frank Bacon,” where Kazar sings, “When you’re running uphill and swimming upstream / Nothing’s ever gonna be the way it seems.” Despite any lyrical uncertainty the track is bursting with life, especially in the monster groove from the rhythm section of Tweedy and Beckstrom. “With time I’ve grown wary of lying to myself,” says Liam. “I don’t know if it’s a defense mechanism we do, or just something we grow out of, hopefully. But ‘Frank Bacon’ has become a personal mantra in recent years to be honest with myself and stick with it, because I’m worth it. We all are.” The accompanying video was directed by Austin Vesely and shot in Kansas City, MO.
Watch Liam Kazar’s Video for “Frank Bacon”
Previously released single “Shoes Too Tight,” an undeniable jam with a swaggering exuberance, was a clarifying moment for Kazar in this journey. Kazar slowly tinkered with a synth sound and happened upon the song’s bouncy chord progression, which was “probably the closest to an aha moment that I had of ‘Oh, this is me and this is what I’m into,’” says Kazar. Soon after, Kazar switched gears for the yearning and delicate “On a Spanish Dune” which showcased his emotional resonance as a writer. Though completely different songs, Kazar used these two earliest offerings as guides for what would come next.

Kazar will play his record release showAugust 7th at Chicago’s Sleeping Village. Tickets are available here. In the meantime, Isfahan pop-up events have been announced in Chicago, North Adams, MA, Kansas City, MO, and New York State. A full list of dates can be found below. 
Watch the “Shoes Too Tight” Video

Watch the “On a Spanish Dune” Video

Watch “Holding Plans” (Demo) Lyric Video

Pre-order Due North

Due North Tracklist
1. So Long Tomorrow
2. Old Enough For You
3. Shoes Too Tight
4. Nothing To You
5. On a Spanish Dune
6. Frank Bacon
7. I’ve Been Where You Are
8. No Time For Eternity (Ft. Andrew Sa)
9. Give My World
10. Something Tender

Liam Kazar Tour Dates
Sat. Aug. 7 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village – RECORD RELEASE SHOW

Isfahan Pop-Up Kitchen Events
Thu. June 10 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
Fri. June 11 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
Sat. June 12 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
Thu. June 17 – Kansas City, MO @ Kanbe’s Markets
Mon. June 28 – North Adams, MA @ Tourists
Tue. June 29 – North Adams, MA @ Tourists
Wed. July 7 – Mt. Tremper, NY @ The Pines
Fri. July 9 – Livingston Manor, NY @ Sunshine Colony
Sat. July 10 – Livingston Manor, NY @ Sunshine Colony
Sun. July 11 – Livingston Manor, NY @ Sunshine Colony

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Situation Chicago 2

Situation Chicago 2 is a fine compilation of Chicago bands and artists, and proceeds go to helping artists and venues affected by the pandemic (which, by the way, is pretty much all of them). The project is part of the CIVL SAVE fund, which needs all the help it can get to support independent music venues throughout the Windy City (full disclosure, some of these venues are my favorite venues in the country).

“Sinistry” by MIIRRORS is a fiery live rock cut with some light goth touches. Robust‘s “Dont Know Why” is a smooth example of Chicago’s vibrant rap scene. The bass line alone on it make impregnate you. Speaking of great example of Chicago’s music culture, Fess Grandiose‘s “Keep the Rhythm Goin'” is a prime one of Chicago house music (a genre that, while popular, still deserves to be better known around the globe). Umphrey’s McGee and Bela Fleck team up on the bouncy and bright “Great American.” Reduxion‘s “The Imperial Boxmen” is sweet funk jazz that will make you want to spin your lover around the room. Speaking of fun, Jeff Park delivers a great instrumental cover of WAR‘s “Slippin’ into Darkness.”

“Drowning” by Neptune’s Core starts side B of the vinyl with strong power-pop hooks. Goth country makes an appearance with The Goddamn Gallows‘ “The Maker.” V.V. Lightbody‘s “Really Do Care” is a slice of dream-pop complete with birdsong and cat’s purr-like guitar. Erin McDougald‘s lovely, sexy “The Parting Glass” is a wonderful exemplar of Chicago’s jazz club scene and makes you want to seek out her live performances.

It’s a good compilation, and proceeds go to a great cause. You can’t miss.

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Punch Brothers – The Phosphorescent Blues (2015)

Named after a Mark Twain short story, Punch Brothers play a cool brand of folk that, dare I say, might have some krautrock influences on their 2015 album The Phosphorescent Blues.

My possible evidence for that is the opening track – “Familiarity.” On it, lead singer and mandolin player Chris Thile goes bonkers on it, playing at the speed of a hummingbird, while singing in seemingly a different time signature, and the rest of the band puts down sparse, repetitive beats and bass for over ten minutes. Crank up the fuzz and put in a second drummer and this could be an Oh Sees tune.

The record is full of musical mastery like this. The bass line on “Julep” is so smooth that it might cause you to fall on the floor. “Passepied (Debussy)” is a nice instrumental. “I Blew It Off” and “Magnet” are as good pop tunes that Fountains of Wayne might’ve written. “My Oh My” has great vocal work to back the instruments, and “Boll Weevil” gets back to the band’s folk roots with subtle instruments to underscore the lazy nature of a warm morning in Appalachia.

“Forgotten” comes after another short instrumental and is a soft track with some underlying jazz bass that makes it excel. There’s a fun bounce to “Between 1st and A” after Thile’s vocal intro. It continues throughout the song and puts a pep in your step like a walk on a cool fall day. The album ends with “Little Lights,” a soft ballad that takes its time and is all the better for it. The song is under five minutes long, but it seems longer – in the best possible way.

It’s an impressive record, and a pleasure to hear such master musicians at work.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll have the blues if you don’t subscribe.]