NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS #13
New York State (of mind)
Man, you take one week off and it feels like starting over. In case you’ve forgotten, my name is Christian Finnegan and this is the music newsletter from which you forgot to unsubscribe.
Kambri and I are back from an eight day tour of beautiful of NY State. We saw gorges in Ithaca, falls in Niagara, suffragettes in Seneca Falls, diamond mines in Herkimer, a fort in Ticonderoga and mountain peaks in Lake Placid.
I am currently recovering from Vista Overload.
Also, Kambri was filming out the front windshield a couple days ago and she somehow captured an Amish teen taking a selfie. With an iPhone. Mid buggy ride. The 21st Century is weird, man.
Enough about my lovely vacation. I’m here to bring music to your ears! In today’s NMFO:
An apology to The 1975
The blessed weirdness of Kevin Barnes
Guttural chants
A dispatch from Jonistan
Church Kid rock
and…photos!
Here we go, yo.
GOOD STUFF
As always, a Glossary of Terms.
The 1975, “Part of the Band”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Being Funny in a Foreign Language
Nutshell: Orchestral sophisti-pop
Voltage: 4
Thoughts: Mea culpa. Based on my research (none), I’d mentally filed The 1975 under “Instagram Music”—antiseptic pop for Greek system normies who aspire to Coachella. I also held it against singer Matty Healy that he insists on being called “Matty”. But credit where it’s due, “Part of the Band” is a near-perfect little tune. I love the strings and the unexpected switch-up leading into the chorus. I also dig Healy’s lyrical delivery, which feels structured and spontaneous at the same time, a la “You Can Call Me Al”. I’m impressed, despite my continued misgivings w/r/t "Matty”.
Pairing Suggestion: Packing your bags
of Montreal, “Hmmm”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Freewave Lucifer f<uck f^ck f>ck
Nutshell: Creepy synth-pop
Voltage: 4 (and later, 7)
Thoughts: There are originals in this world and then there’s Kevin Barnes, the uber-prolific mastermind of of Montreal (yes, the “o” in “of” is intentionally lower-case and yes, I hate it). For 25 years, Barnes and his various collaborators have been putting out weird and often inspired kitchen sink indie rock that’s as likely to evoke the 60’s psychedelia as Disco as the bleeps and blurps of a dial-up modem—often in the same song. of Montreal can be “a lot” and I won’t claim to love everything they do, but hoo boy when it lands… I will always admire/envy an artist with a muse as active and provocative as Barnes’. Thank god for weirdos.
Pairing Suggestion: Virtual reality serial killing
Heilung, “Asja”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Drif
Nutshell: Neo-pagan folk
Voltage: 4
Thoughts: So you want to re-live The Northman in your head? Do I have the band for you! According to my pal Wikipedia, Heilung describes its music as "amplified history from early medieval northern Europe". What does that mean, in practical terms? Drum-thumping, guttural chants and woodwinds likely made from animal bones. It’s quite engaging, but on first listen I found myself praying, “Please don’t let this be some weird Nazi shit”. Yes, some wannabe Viking dweebs have latched onto Heilung, but the band has shot them down rather definitively. Ironically, I see Heilung as a part of a recent spate of artists embracing musical folklore, like The Hu from Mongolia and South Korea’s Jambinai. “Asja” isn’t exactly a toe-tapper, but every fertility rite needs proper mood music.
Pairing Suggestion: Undulating before a dead stag or whatever
Come on, you know you wanna…
FOR FANS OF…[Joni Mitchell]
A few weeks ago, Joni Mitchell appeared onstage for the first time since the 2015 brain aneurysm that had everyone writing her obituary. Assisted by a horde of peers and admirers, Mitchell performed a bunch of her classics at the Newport Folk Festival.
Even if you’re not a fan, it’s touching stuff. You need only watch Wynonna Judd’s face (keeping in mind what she recently endured) to be reminded that music is our best defense against despair and the greatest tool we have in coming to terms with these oh-so-temporary bodies of ours.
I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours listening to Joni Mitchell, especially over the past decade. But I can’t rightly say I know her work intimately, in the same sense that I’ve spent hundreds of hours using Duolingo but if you dropped me in the middle of Guadalajara, I’d be semi-fucked.
As a power pop enthusiast, I gravitate towards streamlined melodies that button up neatly without frayed ends. Joni Mitchell wrote plenty of those early on—“River” and “Big Yellow Taxi”, to cite obvious examples. If she’d only ever churned out standard verse-chorus-verse fare, she’d still be a Hall of Famer. But as geniuses do, she grew restless and left a lot of casual fans in the dust. She not only kept the ‘frayed ends’ in her songs, she wove them together to create a wholly unique sound. The nation of Joni (Mitchellia? Jonistan?) has its own language and, unless you grew up speaking it, it takes a special mind to become fluent. I only sorta get by.
Joni’s jazz forays can be hard to parse, and my mind tends to wander. I’m done trying to “get” Mingus. Conversely, Blue is a masterpiece, but my enjoyment feels a bit rote at this point. I know “Carey” like I know my multiplication tables. It’s the in-between stuff that puts me in a music appreciation Flow State. Every time I put on Hejira, it’s as if I’m hearing it for the second time. I know the general shape the songs, but the chord changes and melodic left turns resist my attempts at memorization. It’s an enjoyable failure every time—what a pleasure to be dunked on!
Obviously, Joni Mitchell is one of a kind. But if you’re looking for another songwriter who pushes things a bit beyond the standard pop template, I’d like to firmly nudge you towards Madison Cunningham.
Madison Cunningham on Apple Music // Madison Cunningham on Amazon Music
It’s possible you’re aware of Madison Cunningham. Heck, she was nominated for a Grammy (for what that’s worth). NPR listeners may recognize her as a semi-regular on Chris Thile’s “Live From Here” (RIP) or perhaps one of her many extremely good covers has graced your social media feed at some point.
This young woman is what you might call a triple threat. Her singing voice is a versatile and pure. I’ve seen her live twice and she nails every single note, which is notable given the tricky nature of her melodies. Her guitar playing is even better—understated and inventive, with a special attention given to tone. She’s got serious chops, but she doesn’t really do “solos”, preferring instead to weave tasteful proficiency into the meat of her songs.
And as good as her singing and playing is, it’s her nuanced and adventurous songwriting that makes her, dare I say, an Important Artist1. In addition to Joni MItchell, you’l hear bits of Jeff Buckley, Brian Wilson and Lennon and McCartney.
In my opinion, there’s only one thing keeping Madison Cunningham from being a huge star: she’s not cool. At all. And I don’t mean “she’s so nerdy she’s actually super hip”. No, Madison Cunningham is 100% guile-free. Her stage banter is earnest and stiff, she doesn’t seem particularly culture savvy and in the three years I’ve been a fan, her personal style has evolved from “sister-wife” to '“sister-wife on a makeover show”.
If I sound like I’m describing someone who grew up ultra religious, it’s because I am indeed describing someone who grew up ultra religious. Cunningham got her start playing Praise and Worship Music with her dad. Her music is now secular, but there’s still a “church kid” vibe floating around everything she does. Ordinarily that would put me off, but as I said way back in NMFO #1, music is what happens between your ears; everything else is culture. And what Madison Cunningham puts between your ears is consistently lovely and thought-provoking. Besides, guile is overrated.
Is good, no?
SOME BULLSHIT
I came across "Part of the Band” via “Justin Hawkins Rides Again”. Hawkins, frontman of The Darkness, does a lot of “reaction” videos based on user suggestions. His feelings about The 1975, and this song in particular, mirror my own. Difference is, Hawkins is a trained musician who can actually back up his bullshit.
You can watch Madison Cunningham’s recent Tiny Desk Concert and decide for yourself how accurate I was, both about her prodigious musical gifts and her (refreshing?) uncoolness.
A few more vacation photos before we go? Fine, but only because you demand it.
And that brings us to the end of another New Music for Olds. Thanks for hanging. In honor of Labor Day, I assign you the task of sharing this post. Until next time!
S.G. Goodman, the last “Important Artist” I wrote about, toured with Madison Cunningham last year, FYI.
I haven't listened to a new of Montreal album in quite some time but I'll definitely check this one out, thanks. But as an Old, I do miss the pre-electronic psych-pop.
Brilliantly written as always. I haven’t even gotten to listen to the music yet. This shite is just a great read and I love the pics. Seeing a horse buggy parked at a Walmart in Lancaster, PA had me baffled but the selfie, that’s some new new!