Fluxblog #306: Brijean • Virginia Wing • Cassandra Jenkins • Ariana Grande • Your Old Droog
Plus: MTV News legend John Norris talks about Britney Spears and 6ix9ine on the podcast
This week’s episode of Fluxpod features John Norris, a veteran music journalist who has written for a wide range of publications but is best known for his work at MTV News for two decades. In this conversation we talk about the trajectory of MTV News through his tenure there, discuss recent documentaries about Britney Spears and 6ix9ine, and get into issues of ageism in media. Along the way we digress into anecdotes of some of his firsthand experiences with Spears, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, and Ariel Pink, as well as being the guy who had to go on TRL to break bad news to the youth of America. You can find the episode on all the major podcast platforms and on the Fluxblog Patreon.
Speaking of which…I’d like to put this as subtly and gracefully as I can, but if you were ever going to contribute to the larger Fluxblog project via Patreon or Ko-Fi, this coming month would be a particularly helpful time to do so!
There’s no playlist for this week, but I have added quite a bit to the ongoing Fluxcaviar rolling 2021 collection, so I strongly recommend getting on that if you haven’t already. I’ve also updated my public Stereolab playlist, which is designed as an introduction to the groop, and shared a Basement Jaxx best-of playlist.
Also, I’ve been adding a lot to the 20th Century Rocks Instagram, where I share images from old magazines that I have.
Here’s this week’s regular posts…
New Perspectives That Feel Good
Brijean “Softened Thoughts”
The bass in “Softened Thoughts” feels heavy, strong, and thick, a stark contrast with the soft, hazy feel of everything else in the arrangement. It’s like a powerful current at the center of the track and every other sound just flows along with it, and the entire point both musically and lyrically is the pleasure of letting go and moving where it wants to take you. Brijean Murphy sings with a serene but confident vocal tone, sounding a bit like a much less melancholic version of Beach House’s Victoria Legrand. Her words are very romantic and addressed to someone else, but even as the “you” becomes a “we” near the end of the song, the focus is very much on her experience in the moment. She’s “finding new perspectives that feel good,” and that includes taking in everyone and everything around her, but the main point of the song seems clearly stated when she sings “my mind feels renewed.”
Buy it from Bandcamp.
A Remedy For Every Crime
Virginia Wing “Moon Turn Tides”
Merida Richards’ voice is aloof, deadpan, and very English – the sort of speak-sing that’s traditionally always worked so well with artsy post-punk and electronic music. In “Moon Turn Tides” she affects the arch imperiousness of the extraordinarily posh, starting off the song by cautioning the rabble in the audience to not touch anything – “it’s all very, very expensive.” From there on she’s singing about how you don’t belong, that you don’t know what you’re doing, and most hopeful things you hold on to are just a lie. The music emphasizes the feeling of alienation by giving you the indication that it’s a groovy pop song, but the off-kilter rhythms and cold, shrill textures keep it from ever sounding too comfortable or inviting. There’s a lot of pleasure to be found in the song, but it does require some small amount of masochism, and a willingness to play submissive to its cruel, domineering aesthetics.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Any Kind Of Broken
Cassandra Jenkins “New Bikini”
“New Bikini” is a song in which each refrain has someone suggesting that someone else go into the ocean as a remedy for their problems – “the water, it cures everything.” Cassandra Jenkins sings this with sensitivy but also some degree of ambiguity, as it’s never quite clear how much she’s buying into the advice. She doesn’t come off as skeptical, though. She mostly just sounds like someone open to finding peace in any way she can find it. The music, with its light jazz feel and atmospheric brass, evokes a meditative beach setting. Melancholy, yet very serene. You can almost feel the water in the distance, maybe not something that can provide a true cure to sorrow or illness, but at least something that can offer a connection to nature and a soothing feeling of weightlessness.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Even When The Learning’s Done
Ariana Grande “Main Thing”
“Main Thing” is Ariana Grande doing an extremely Ariana Grande song. It’s Grande in what has become her most natural mode, or maybe more like Grande on autopilot if you don’t want to be generous. The track is vibey but unobtrusive, basically a tonal palette and rhythmic click that gives her some form to work with and plenty of space for her to sing in a way that’s somehow both showy and understated at the same time. Almost all of my favorite Grande songs have her veer into a very specific melodic pattern – a fluttery scale flourish that typically lands at the end of verses or choruses. If you don’t get what I mean, in this song it’s the way the melody gently speeds up for a sort of curlicue at the end of the first verse: “Been a minute since I tasted something so sweet.” I can’t get enough of that trick, as far as I’m concerned it never fails no matter how many times she does some iteration of it. It flatters her voice, it’s melodically lovely, and it’s perfect in expressing the sort of lusty-infatuation-with-a-tiny-dash-of-nervousness feeling that she does better than most anyone else.
Buy it from Amazon.
Never-Ending Highlight
Your Old Droog & Tha God Fahim featuring Pharaoh Monch “Slam Dunk Contest”
Your Old Droog has a voice perfect for sort of very NYC-centric rap he specializes in, a surly rasp so worn and weathered that people used to think he was Nas using a pseudonym. With a voice like this, it’s almost like rapping is a calling he couldn’t refuse – like, I’m sure sounding this cool would be a benefit in any walk of life, but it’d still be wasted on most other professions. “Slam Dunk Contest” is a showcase for Droog in shit-talk mode, and his collaborators – rap partner Tha God Fahim, producer Nottz, and guest star Pharaoh Monch – shine in their own right, but mostly either put a flattering frame on his flow or complement it with similar energy and intensity. Monch, a legend at this point, really clicks in this context – the Nottz arrangement brings out the villain in him, and he plays the role with a surreal panache.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
LINKS LINKS LINKS
• I’m pretty fond of the British independent music magazine Loud & Quiet so I generally recommend following the site, but here’s their collection of their favorite records from February 2021 if you’d like to get a sense of their taste.
• This week’s episode of Song Exploder about Sasha Sloan’s “Until It Happens to You” is, to me, a fascinating document of how two musicians with different impulses towards very generic aesthetics collaborate and end up with a song that’s a sort of bland nowhere thing.
• I don’t usually mention my House of X X-Men blog project here but if you are interested, there’s a new post up this week about the most recent Jonathan Hickman/Mahmud Asrar issue in which we finally get to see what’s going on inside The Vault.