Fluxblog 313: Drea the Vibes Dealer • Izy • Museum of Love • Nick Hakim & Roy Nathanson
Plus: Pump Up the Volume: Samples, Scratches, Acid, House 1987-1990 and Eric Weisbard on the podcast
This week’s episode of Fluxpod features the veteran music critic and academic Eric Weisbard, author of the new book Songbooks: The Literature of American Popular Music. This conversation covers his career from early days in the San Francisco critic scene of the late 80s/early 90s, his work as a key writer at Spin in the mid-90s, his experience co-editing the influential Spin Alternative Record Guide from 1995, his time at the Village Voice and the EMP museum, creating and running the Pop Conference for many years, and his career as a professor at the University of Alabama. If you're interested in the culture and history of music criticism, you're gonna want to listen to this one – it’s on all the podcast platforms and the Fluxblog Patreon.
This week’s playlist is PUMP UP THE VOLUME: SAMPLES, SCRATCHES, ACID, HOUSE 1987-1990, which uses the classic M/A/R/R/S single as the nexus point connecting hip-hop, sample-based music, house music, and hip-house at the end of the ‘80s. I should point out there’s a few key songs that I couldn’t include in this because they’re not on streaming - Bomb the Bass’ “Beat Dis,” Coldcut’s “Say Kids What Time Is It?", anything at all in this period by De La Soul or John Oswald. But other than that, it covers a lot of ground. BTW this one is extremely energetic – I particularly recommend this for running or gym use! [Spotify | Apple Music]
There’s No Question That I Love You
Drea the Vibes Dealer “Save Me”
“Save Me” has the feeling of being unable to fall asleep in an incredibly comfortable bed. The feel of the track is loose and relaxed in a jazzy coffee shop sort of way, but the composition is spiked with bits of anxious energy and features a lead vocal that’s a bit like lying there unable to turn off your mind because it’s stuck in obsessive loops. Drea the Vibes Dealer is singing about a pure love that’s tied up in interpersonal complexities, her lyrics seem to move through the steps of logic and clauses while always coming back to simple, blunt messages. The backing vocals, apparently also performed by Drea, are a brilliant touch – a nod to girl group innocence, but also an echoey ambiance that complements the more spacey jazz elements of the song.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
A Little Worse Than Ever
Izy “They Don’t Care”
Izy is a trio of young men from Melbourne who play neo-soul like grizzled veterans –always a crisp and tight pocket groove, but also loose enough to let every part feel breezy and spontaneous. “They Don’t Care” sounds like they were aiming for a very D’Angelo-on-Voodoo sort of feel and mostly got there, though they’re not as strong with atmosphere. Ryo Montgomery’s guitar is the focal point here, carrying the main melody with a warm tone and elegant but not terribly fussy jazz inflections. The lead vocal and harmonies are strong too, but whereas the music seems to flow quite naturally from the players, the vocals seem like they’re working a bit too hard to sound American. It’s hardly a deal breaker, much less a problem for this particular song, but I suspect they’ll level up if they can figure out how to perform in this style with more personal vocal styles.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
It’s Our Fate To Be Replaced
Museum of Love “Cluttered World”
The groove of “Cluttered World” rumbles along in a holding pattern, a steady core for a song that’s otherwise fairly chaotic. The rogue element is mostly the piano performance, where even the most delicate parts seem haphazardly bashed out by someone with a good sense of which notes to hit but minimal respect for the instrument. Pat Mahoney’s vocal is nearly as wild a presence as he affects a Nick Cave-ish manic crooner energy, belting out key lines at the ends of verses for dramatic emphasis but also hitting less expected lines with raw emotional phrasing in a way that makes the song feel a bit shaky and drunken. It suits the song well – he is, after all, singing a strange love song about connection and affection in a world where everything is finite and the clock is always ticking.
Buy it from Amazon.
The Heads Too Big For Their Bodies
Nick Hakim & Roy Nathanson “Cry and Party”
The music in “Cry and Party” is essentially the result of Nick Hakim doing a “yes, and…” with poetry written in advance by Roy Nathanson. Hakim’s composition complements the conversational flow of Nathanson’s words but also serves to illustrate his notions, conjuring up a big boisterous party with a slinky bass and cheerful horn groove while some pre-party sadness seems to linger in the air. Hakim and Nathanson evoke a wonderful atmosphere here, without using all that many elements they sketch out a space that feels very specific. I can picture this room, I can imagine people moving through it, and I can see the guy Nathanson is speaking as kinda static off in a corner.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
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• Claire Shaffer at Rolling Stone wrote a great article about Tramp Stamp, a supposed queer punk band that have been mercilessly clowned on by TikTok users for being obvious industry plants with direct ties to alleged abuser Dr. Luke. Even aside from the icky Dr. Luke connection, the Tramp Stamp thing is fascinating and sorta hilarious in that it’s this incredibly cynical thing but everyone involved is too clueless about young audiences and out of touch with current social media to be effectively cynical.
• I really like this New York Times article by Eric Ducker about how Aphex Twin's "Avril 14th" has had a long life in covers, samples, and licensing - I feel like the world is ripe for more people bringing excellent old songs into long lasting relevance, in a way getting back to pre-1980s musical traditions.
• Here’s Larry Fitzmaurice on Broadcast’s Tender Buttons and more broadly on the topic of how influence works in music.
• Off-Panel, the interview podcast for SKTCHD, released a rare in-depth interview with the masterful comic artist Frank Quitely this week. I literally did a double-take when I saw this pop up in my feed!