Tuesday Tracks: Your Weekly New Music Discovery – June 15
Clockwise from top left: seeyousoon, Adia Victoria, Spaceface, SUUNS, Charlie Parr and Hot Flash Heat Wave.
Ever find yourself skipping song after song on your playlist after the thousandth rotation? A fresh perspective often breathes life into music, so here are some new singles to give a spin. Hot Flash Heat Wave, SUUNS, Spaceface, Adia Victoria, seeyousoon and Charlie Parr are taking over this week’s collection of Tuesday Tracks.
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Adia Victoria, “On and On” — Anything Adia Victoria does, I’ll pay attention to. The hard-to-categorize singer’s work weaves blues, rock and soul influences into something shaped by the politics and aesthetics of hip-hop as well—a comfort between genres that’s evident on this delicate, mostly acoustic cover of Erykah Badu’s ’90s hit. The song comes courtesy of a suicide prevention collaboration with Sounds of Saving, and includes an interview with the artist talking about the saving power of the blues (very literally in her account of it) and the need for self-forgiveness—while sharing other painfully honest reflections on navigating depression in a broken world.
Spaceface, “Happens All the Time” — This is the kind of buoyant ear-candy I think most of us need after a year of lockdown. Surfing between modern funk, indie and psychedelic rock (think Khruangbin for a starting point)—“Happens All the Time” packs a lot into three minutes, with tempo changes, surprise choral vocals and bubbling analog keyboards. Spaceface, led by Jake Ingalls of the Flaming Lips, stands out by doing something surprisingly obvious: focus on crack analog musicianship as much as interesting electronic sounds. You won’t get to see them in action if you watch the video to this single, but do it anyway; the cardboard muppets in action are as fun, un-self-conscious but super well-executed as the song itself.
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seeyousoon, “Faster Please” — Big, ebullient Florida energy is what diverse 9-piece seeyousoon provides in ample portions on “Faster Please.” It’s an almost chaotic mashup held together by an irresistible uptempo beat with stops and fills that hook your ear. It’s music for house parties, summer barbecues and moments of exuberance you’ll later regret—all the stuff we’ve set aside for lockdown. Listening to this track feels like what the video shows: a grab-bag of voices with a common mission. The group says the track was inspired by hip-hop from the early 2000s that influenced the members—and in the essence, if not the details, you can hear Dirty South founders like Goodie Mob.
Charlie Parr, “Everyday Opus” — “Everyday Opus” opens with a solo guitar intro that calls to mind Jack Rose and John Fahey. Sensitive and nimble guitar-picking that creates shimmering acoustic sounds—it’s a powerful mood, and that’s before Charlie Parr starts singing. Parr’s day-in-the-life takes us into an empty office, where the working-class narrator picks up after the professionals. Their “empty cans of Faygo” and other residue tell him who they might be. “This one likes football/ That one has a pup,” he sings. Charlie Parr leaves his solitary job like a ghost, before anyone sees him.
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SUUNS, “Witness Protection” — I’m probably not the first to think of this, but here’s one way to describe this group: SUUNS are cool, both in the mood and the temperature sense as well as the “they’re hip” sense. It’s not until a minute and a half into “Witness Protection” that the beat really drops, and at three minutes it ventures off in a totally different direction before whiting out in abstract waves. This Montreal band’s sound, often labeled krautrock or art-punk, is in a calmer mode with “Witness Protection” than it is on other releases, like the throbbing “2020” that goes to work on your head like an electric massager. This song instead acts on you like a disquieting narcotic, telling you something’s not quite right at the same time that it soothes you.
Justin’s pick: Though I’m as ready to enjoy the summer as anyone and the good vibes of Spaceface’s “Happens All the Time” and seeyousoon’s “Faster Please” got plenty of listens this week, I kept coming back to Charlie Parr’s subdued, if not exactly mournful, “Everyday Opus.” It’s rare to come across folk music this powerful and immediate, which feels gritty and contemporary and at the same time, timeless—it’s beautiful stuff. If “Everyday Opus” is any sign, Parr’s forthcoming Smithsonian Folkways release Last of the Better Days Ahead will be a good one.
Follow editor Justin Allen at Twitter.com/_justinallen_.