#charlie saufley

[sinceileftyoublog]

Six Organs of Admittance Interview: More Than a Couple Chairs

Photo by Kami Chasny

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When Ben Chasny dives into something, he usually dives deep. Upon answering the phone in February, when I called him to talk about his new Six Organs of Admittance album Time Is Glass (out today on Drag City), he seemed a bit scattered. Despite mentally preparing himself all day for the interview, he got distracted by a "What are you digging lately?" Bandcamper compilation Drag City asked him to put together to advertise his record release. (A music fan with a voracious appetite, Chasny was rediscovering music he had purchased a couple years prior and forgot about.) Six Organs records often occupy the same dedicated headspace, Chasny setting aside blocks of time to think about nothing else. That is, until Time Is Glass. On his latest, Chasny blurs the lines between his outside-of-music life and the music itself, the album a batch of songs that reflects on the magical minutiae that sprout during a period of needed stasis.

The last time I spoke to Chasny, he and his partner [Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers] were still settling in from their move to Humboldt County in Northern California. "When Elisa and I first moved here, we didn't have any friends," Chasny said. "But there's a group of us that live in Humboldt now. A bunch of my friends moved up since the last time I talked to you." That includes fellow Comets on Fire bandmate Ethan Miller and his partner, fellow New Bums musical partner Donovan Quinn, and folk singer Meg Baird and her partner. "Every New Year's Day, if it's not pouring rain, we take a walk on the beach," said Chasny. One such photoshoot on January 1, 2023 yielded the album cover for Time Is Glass: That's Miller and his poodle, along with Baird's Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley. This unintentional artistic collective meets up often, whether for coffee or as Winter Band, a rotating cast of area musicians who form to open up for musician friends when they come through town, like Sir Richard Bishop of Sun City Girls. As such, according to Chasny, Time Is Glass is a celebration of community.

Perhaps the supportive strength of his artistic family gave Chasny the willpower to incorporate elements of his daily life into Time Is Glass, something he couldn't avoid. He didn't share with me exactly what in his personal life made it impossible to separate the two, though he mentioned his dog, a difficult-to-train puppy that was a mix of three traditionally stubborn breeds. Said dog inspired "My Familiar", a song that uses occult language to inhabit the mind of his obstinate canine companion. "And we'll burn this whole town / No one says there's good," Chasny sings, alternating between his quintessential hushed delivery and falsetto, his layered vocals atop circular picking exuding a sense of sparseness. Indeed, you wouldn't expect a Six Organs record about home life to sound totally blissful; Time Is Glass is at once gentle and menacing. The devotional "Spinning In A River" portrays the titular carefree act as lightly as the prickle of Chasny's guitar or as doomily as the song's distortion. "Hephaestus" and "Theophany Song" imagine their respective mythological characters as gruff and voyeuristic. "Summer's Last Rays" indeed captures a sense of finality, Chasny's processed guitar and warbling harmonium providing the instantly hazy nostalgia before the fade-out. The album is bookended by songs more straightforwardly hopeful, the opener "The Mission" a dedication to friends falling in love with their new place of residence, the closer "New Year's Song" a twangy ode to dreaming. But it's the moments in between that Chasny was forced to capture on Time Is Glass. And thankfully, what was born out of necessity yielded, for him, new ways to interpret the same old, same old.

Read my conversation with Chasny below, edited for length and clarity. He speaks on domesticity, mythology, playing live, and Arthur Russell.

SILY: You've lived in Humboldt County for a bit. Is Time Is Glass the first Six Organs record in a while you made while situated in one place?

Ben Chasny: I did do a couple records here before. The first one, I was in the process of moving here, so I wasn't really settled. The second was at the beginning of lockdown. This is the first one I felt like was recorded at a home. Everything was settled, I have a schedule. When I was doing the first one, I didn't even have furniture in the house. I had a couple chairs. [laughs]

SILY: Do you think the feeling of being recorded at a home manifests in any specific way on the album?

BC: I started to incorporate daily domestic routines into the record, more often. A lot of the melodies were written while taking the dog for a walk, which I've never done before. There was always stuff to do as I moved in. The times weren't as separate. Before, it was, "Now I'm recording, now I'm doing life stuff." There was a merging of everything here. I would listen to it on my earbuds while taking walks and constantly work on it for six months.

SILY: It definitely has that homeward bound feel in terms of the lyrics and the sound, like you've been somewhere forever. There are a lot of lyrics about the absence of time, and there's a circular nature to the rhythms and the guitars. Does the title of the album refer to this phenomenon?

BC: A little bit. Time does seem, in general, post-lockdowns and COVID, different. The lyrics on the record have a bit more domesticity. It always seems like there was something that had to be done, that would normally keep me from doing music, that I tried to incorporate here. Maybe I'm just getting older, too. I'm getting more sensitive towards time. I'm running out. [laughs]

SILY: Was there anything specific about your domestic life that made you want to include it in your music?

BC: Just that I had to include it in order to do anything. It was no longer separate. The way life ended up working out, I could no longer separate my artistic life from other life. I had to put the artistic aspect into it in order to work. Instead of getting frustrated, I brought [music] more into the house.

SILY: Did working on the record give you a new perspective on domesticity?

BC: I don't know. A little bit. I was just trying to come to terms with basic life things. Let me look at the record, I forgot what songs are on it. [laughs] The song "My Familiar" is about my dog. I got this book called Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, which was sort of taken from transcriptions of witch trials from Scotland in the 1500's. A lot of dealing with things like witches' familiars and demon familiars. I found a very strong similarity between that and my dog, which seemed like it was maybe a demon. She's a Husky-German Shepherd-Australian Shepherd mix, so as a puppy, she needed a lot of work. So that became a song. That's a more humorous way everyday life made its way into the music.

[With regard to] the last song, "New Years Song", Elisa and I have a contest on New Year's Eve when we're hanging out where we go in separate rooms and have one hour to write a song. We come out at 11 or 11:30 and play the song for each other. We've done it for a few years now. This was the song I wrote for New Year's Eve going into 2022.

SILY: You talk about God on Time Is Glass and delve a little bit into mythology. Was that something you were thinking about on a day to day basis when writing?

BC: The “Hephaestus” song was just a character. That was a rare song for me in that I was trying to make sounds that particularly evoked a mythological figure. I've made nods to mythology in the past, but the titles were almost an afterthought. This particular song, I was trying to make the sounds of that character in their workshop with the fire and anvils. I was trying to evoke that feeling. That was kind of a new one for me.

SILY: Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but you also seem to talk a bit about your state of mind on "Slip Away".

BC: It's funny you caught onto that, because I wasn't really expecting to bring it up during interviews. I wouldn't say that I came close at times in the past couple years to schizophrenia, but I could see way off in the distance and horizon what that would be like. I...was trying to write about that. At the same time, the lyrics that have to do with two minds and the splitting of the mind are also somewhat of a reference to the idea of a celestial twin or Valentinian gnosis, how you have a celestial counterpart. That idea [is behind the concept of] someone's guardian angel.

SILY: On a couple songs, you sing to someone or something else. "The Mission" you've mentioned is for a friend and their new partner. What about on "Spinning in a River"?

BC: Maybe it was more of a general idea. It wasn't so much to a person as to a general concept of Amory.

SILY: What were all the instruments used on the record?

BC: I had some guitar, I was singing, and there's some harmonium on it, which I did a lot of processing on, lowering it octaves. I've got some really basic Korg synths. Electronic-wise, there's a program called Reactor I like to use a lot. I do it a little bit more subtly than electronic artists. I use it more for background.

SILY: I picked up the harmonium on "Summer's Last Rays"! I feel like you never truly know when you're hearing a harmonium unless it's in the album credits. Sometimes, that sound is just effects.

BC: There are two different harmoniums. When the bass comes in, that's also a harmonium, but I knocked it down a couple octaves and put it through some phaser. It has a grinding bass tone to it. This is actually one of the few Six Organs records with bass guitar on it. Unless it's an electric record with a band, there's never really been bass guitar. I was really inspired by Naomi Yang's bass playing in Galaxie 500 and how it's more melodic. I told her that, too.

SILY: On "Theophany Song", are you playing piano?

BC: Yeah, that's at my friend's house. I just wanted to play a little melody.

SILY: Was this your first time using JJ Golden for mastering?

BC: I've worked with JJ before. He did Ascent and a few others. I particularly wanted to work with him this time because I had just gotten that Masayuki Takayanagi box set on Black Editions and saw he had done that. I have the original CDs, and I thought he did such an amazing job that I wanted to work with him again.

SILY: Is that common for you, that you think of people to work with and you dig a record they just worked on and it clicks for you?

BC: That's the first time I had just heard something and thought, "Oh, I gotta work with this person." I usually have a few mastering engineers I work with and think, "What would be good for them?" or, "What does this sound like?" I usually like to send the more rock-oriented stuff to JJ, but I was just feeling it this time.

SILY: Have you played these songs live?

BC: The instrumental "Pilar" I have been playing since 2019. That's the oldest song on the record. I did do one show last September where I played a couple of these songs live. I have some ideas on how to work it out. It will be a solo acoustic show, but I [hope] to make some new sounds so it's not so straightforward. One thing about this record is I tried to write songs in the same tuning. On previous records, I used a lot of tunings, and it was a real pain to try to play the songs live. I did write this record with the idea that most of these songs would be able to be done live.

SILY: What have you been listening to, watching, or reading lately?

BC: I just got the Emily Robb-Bill Nace split LP. I just saw her live a couple nights ago. The latest one on Freedom To Spend from Danielle Boutet, which is awesome. Freedom To Spend is a go-to label for me. Also, this split with Karen Constance and Dylan Nyoukis.

I've been reading Buddhist Bubblegum by Matt Marble, about Arthur Russell and the systems he developed, which I knew nothing about. His compositional systems have almost a Fluxus influence. The subtitle is Esotericism in the Creative Process of Arthur Russell, so it's also about his Buddhism as well. When I first heard about the book, I didn't know if I needed to get it, but I heard an interview with Matt about the detailed systems Arthur Russell came up with. It gives me a whole new level of appreciation for him. It's so good.

SILY: Did you listen to Picture of Bunny Rabbit?

BC: It's so good, especially the title track. It seems like when he has us plugged into some kind of effects or delay, he's switching the different sounds on it, but it makes the instrument go in so many different areas. To me, the title track is worth the price of the entire record, even though the whole thing is good.

SILY: What else is next for you? Are you constantly writing?

BC: This is gonna be a very busy year release-wise. I have a couple more things coming out. It's hard to write stuff because I always think it'll take so long for it to come out. I'm halfway working on something, but I have no idea when it will come out.

#six organs of admittance #interviews #drag city #time is glass #kami chasny #ben chasny #drag city records #bandcamper #elisa ambrogio #magik markers #comets on fire #ethan miller #new bums #donovan quinn #meg baird #heron oblivion #charlie saufley #sir richard bishop #sun city girls #arthur russell #cunning folk and familiar spirits #naomi yang #galaxie 500 #jj golden #ascent #masayuki takanayagi #black editions #emily robb #bill nace #freedom to spend

[dustedmagazine]

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Photo by Rachel Cassells

Furling by Meg Baird

Meg Baird displays a wonderfully unhurried demeanor on her new album, Furling. Right from the eerie, wordless cadence of dirge-like opener, “Ashes, Ashes,” Baird doesn’t so much sing in a conventional sense, but rather exhales shivering wisps of melody that catch in the updrafts of her songs’ brisk, confident gestures. Though it’s often hard to make out her lyrics, there’s rarely any doubt about the feeling Baird is seeking to invoke at any given moment — you feel it in your gut, in the goosebumps that raise up along your arms. Welcome to one of the first great records of the young year.

For the most part, Baird’s songs are built from common chords you can imagine any guitarist strumming at an open-mic night or around a campfire. It’s the way they’re played, though, and the manner in which Baird and partner Charlie Saufley delicately embellish the arrangements that musters magic. The waltz-time sway of “Star Hill Song” sparkles with bells, the whoosh of delayed guitar, the patter of congas. On “Cross Bay,” it takes little more than 12-string guitar and voice to summon the ghost of Nick Drake. “Unnamed Drives” is carried forward by the shimmer of ride cymbal and the ominous whomp of a well-recorded kick drum. The insistent bass on single “Will You Follow Me Home?” drives the song into a head-nodding groove. The woozy modulation on “Twelve Saints” casts an intoxicating spell, only for a surprising chord change to whip the rug out from under your feet.

 Throughout it all, Baird’s voice is an instrument of rare beauty, simultaneously assured and elusive, like a soft-focus Sandy Denny wandering in a fever dream. No matter how lively the arrangements through which her vocal weaves, Baird sounds both unrestrained and in complete control of her delivery. Though Furling is a fitting title in this regard, in the sense of closing around something, of creating a feeling of being safe and loved, there’s also a sensation of unfurling, of opening out, of expansiveness, of fearless abandon. That’s a rare balance to strike, and one that proves intoxicatingly addictive.

 Tim Clarke

#meg baird #furling #drag city #tim clarke #albumreview #dusted magazine #folk #rock #acid folk #charlie saufley #san francisco

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Damon & Naomi - Best Video Film & Cultural Center, Hamden, Connecticut, May 12, 2023

Following up Powers / Rolin, we're keeping it duo-y this week with a fabulous tape of Damon & Naomi in the "almost pretty" state of Connecticut earlier this year. D&N were playing Best Video Film & Cultural Center, a nonprofit venue/community gathering space that honestly seems like one of the coolest places in the entire Nutmeg State. "I don't know why we haven't played a video store before," Damon marvels, later noting the unexpectedly excellent acoustics that a wall of VHS tapes provides.

And yeah, he and Naomi are wonderful as always, playing several tunes from their latest/greatest A Sky Record along with some welcome dips into their rich back catalog, which now stretches back over 30 years. I especially enjoy the songs in which Naomi picks up her bass — such a unique and absorbing sound. In the first issue of the highly recommended new zine Head Voice (more on that soon), Ben Chasny and Elisa Ambrogio go deep with Yang about that sound. "[I]f you play really low all the time, the club starts to vibrate and everything falls off the shelves. It's like a seismic sound, all those super low notes. But I think I really started playing higher up because I always write the bass lines by singing them, so that is where my voice is. I also just thought it sounded pretty and it cut through."

The laid-back setting also encourages banter, so we get to hear about D&N's newly adopted cat, misadventures on the Merritt Parkway and Tim Buckley's appearance on The Monkees. And hey, there's even a majestic rendition of the old Galaxie 500 chestnut "Another Day" ... though I'm also going to suggest you check out the radical version of this song from around the same time with Meg Baird and Charlie Saufley. (Oh and then maybe you can dig the quartet's radical Popol Vuh cover???)

In case you haven't guessed yet, this recording is another dig into the Alex Butterfield Archives, which have given us untold treasures over the past several years. Go dig through the tapes! Thank you, Alex!

#damon and naomi #alex butterfield archives #meg baird

[screamingforyears]

IN_A_MINUTE:

AN INDIE EXPRESS…

“FOUND” is the second single from FUCKED UP’s forthcoming LP titled ‘One Day’ (1/27

@mergerecords

) & it finds the Toronto-based quintet of vocalist Damian Abraham, guitarists Mike Haliechuk/Josh Zucker, bassist Sandy Miranda & drummer Jonah Falco bringing a charged-up piece of indie-tinged & anthemically roused PunkRawk.

//

THE GOLDEN DREGS are here w/ “SUNDOWN LAKE,” the second single from their forthcoming LP titled ‘On Grace & Dignity’ (2/10 4ad) & it finds the London-based songwriter/producer Benjamin Woods teaming up w/ vocalist Issie Armstrong to wax nostalgic across a 3:49 clip of stoic yet funky ArtPop that divulges our narrator’s hometown coming-of-age tale.

//

“TRAIN TO HARLEM” is the latest single from KORINE’S forthcoming LP titled ‘Tear’ (2/17 Born Losers Recs / Avant!) & it finds the Philly-based duo of Trey Frye & Morgy Ramone unleashing a saccharine rush of all-up-in-the-feels NuWave that never shies away from the poppiest of moments while simultaneously wrapping itself in a warm cloak of 80’s sonic nostalgia & upping the danceability.

//

MEGAN BAIRD is here w/ “STAR HILL SONG,” the second single from her forthcoming solo LP titled ‘Furling’ (1/27 Drag City Recs) & it finds the San Francisco-based artist teaming up w/ her longtime Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley to flicker through life’s memories over some sweetly strummed, moodily hazed & Mazzy-esque DreamPop.

//

I’VE POSTED THESE TRACKS BELOW FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE...

////

#music #fuckedup #thegoldendregs #korine #megbaird #rock #pop #synthpop #newwave #punkrock #goth #gothic #indie #indierock #dreampop #altrock #alternative #alternativemusic #alternativerock #popmusic #rockmusic #electronicmusic #indiemusic #Aesthetic #musicblog #screamingforyears

[rainingmusic]

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound-The Slumbering Ones

#assemble head in sunburst sound #the slumbering ones #when sweet sleep returned #michael lardas #jefferson marshall #charlie saufley #anderson landbridge #camilla saufley #psychedelic rock #stoner rock #acid rock #music #music video #music is love #music is life #music is religion #raining music

[flankingmanoeuvres]

Listen to: MEG BAIRD & CHARLIE SAUFLEY - Protection Hex by Six Organs of Admittance

[deadheadland]

TONIGHT! 50th Anniversary Celebration Of Classic Grateful Dead Albums ‘Aoxomoxoa' & 'Live Dead’ Taking Place Tonight, October 28 & Tomorrow, October 29 Complete line-ups for each evening are: October 28 - ‘Aoxomoxoa’ Alex Bleeker (Real Estate) Holly Bowling (Phil Lesh & Friends) Brigid Dawson (thee Oh Sees) Paula Frazer (Tarnation) Greg Loiacono (Mother Hips / Green Leaf Rustlers) Steve Gunn October 29 - ‘Live Dead’ Jason Crosby Raze Regal (Once and Future Band) Dan Lebowitz (ALO) Bill Orcutt  Meg Baird and Charlie Saufley (Heron Oblivion / Espers)  Steve Gunn  The Chapel in San Francisco has announced the final round of special guests for its 50th anniversary celebration of the legendary Grateful Dead albums ‘Aoxomoxoa' and 'Live Dead' taking place tonight and tomorrow, October 28 and 29, respectively.  For the complete album performance of ‘Aoxomoxoa' tonight, Steve Gunn, Holly Bowling (Phil & Friends) and Alex Bleeker (Real Estate) join the bill. For the performance of 'Live Dead’ tomorrow evening, just announced guests include Jason Crosby (Phil & Friends) as well as the return of Steve Gunn from night one. Curated by Ethan Miller of Howlin Rain, the house band each evening is an all-star line-up featuring some of California's most ground-breaking improvisational musicians, including guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, keyboardist Adam MacDougall, bassist Dan Horne and drummer Austin Beede.  50 years since both albums were released in 1969, The Grateful Dead's Aoxomoxoa and Live Dead have grown only more vital and relevant as they continue to be discovered by new generations to this day. Created by The Grateful Dead through the vision and embrace of wide-eyed, fearless improvisation, Miller and company will shine a light on the evolution of that unbridled spirit and creative blueprint in which he and his fellow musicians still revel a half century later. Tickets are on-sale now. A portion of proceeds from each night will benefit The Grateful Dead’s long-standing charity, The Rex Foundation. (at The Chapel) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Lz9AShSvd/?igshid=1wm1ibcc9v89k

[mreugenehalsey]

Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore's 'Between Two Worlds' Conjures A Spectral Sunset

Guitarist and singer Meg Baird and harpist Mary Lattimore operate at the frayed edges of psychedelic music, sounding at once elegant and fuzzed-out.

(Image credit: Rachel Pony Cassells, Charlie Saufley/Courtesy of the artist)

from Music : NPR https://ift.tt/2Rx0EnZ

[listentodelion]

Meg Baird (with Charlie Saufley) - Back to You

Rhinefarm Session

#meg baird #charlie saufley #rhinefarm sessions #Gundlach Bundschu Winery #winery #live music #2015 #2015 music #folk music #sonoma #california #barrel cave

[dustedmagazine]

Tim Clarke’s 2023: Ears on the Prize

1. Rozi Plain — Prize (Memphis Industries)

Even though it was released way back in January, Prize is such an understated album that it nearly slipped under my radar completely. It popped up on some mid-year lists, including that of Dusted’s Margaret Welsh. The initial hook for me is that Rozi Leyden plays bass in This is the Kit (see my #3), but I had no idea she wrote and released her own music. From initial listens I was utterly beguiled, the economy of the songwriting and the richly colorful arrangements drawing me into obsessive repeat listens. Prize is a supremely absorbing and gently uplifting album, and one that I’ve played and enjoyed more than any other this year. Its beauty and clarity gradually reveal subtle, intoxicating depths.

2. Jana Horn — The Window is the Dream (No Quarter)

If Prize dominated my listening in the second half of 2023, it was The Window is the Dream that took pride of place in the first half — and it was one of my picks in the Mid-Year Exchange. They’re similarly oblique and alluring albums, but Horn’s record is shot through with a shadowy disquiet that seems to evoke a love gone sour. The chemistry among Horn’s band, especially the standout turn from electric guitarist Jonathan Horne, is truly something to behold, and elevates this superficially simple album into another realm entirely.

3. This is the Kit — Careful of Your Keepers (Rough Trade)

Rozi Leyden has played a key role in not one but two of my favorite albums of the year. The second is This is the Kit’s Careful of Your Keepers, notably produced by Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys. Rhys shepherded the long-standing indie-folk band to create their best album to date, on which Kate Stables’ intimate songwriting is given a fresh, expansive dimension.

4. Wilco — Cousin (dBpm)

It was producer Cate Le Bon’s involvement in Wilco’s latest that piqued my interest, but thankfully Jeff Tweedy and co. have also brought their A-game on this one. Supposedly conceived pre-pandemic and then shelved, Cousin is a gloriously deep and emotionally engaging album from a band who have always seemed, to me, on the verge of creating something great, but never quite get over the line. With Le Bon’s help, Cousin takes a confident step beyond.

5. Pile — All Fiction (Exploding in Sound)

It’s taken for granted that Pile can dole out cathartic, noisy guitar records, but All Fiction feels different. Rick Maguire, Alex Molini and Kris Kuss maintain the electric dynamic they’ve always possessed, but shift their focus onto making the music between the crescendos more immersive and textural. It works brilliantly.

6. Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Furling was released so early in the year, and so much great music has been released since, that it’s easy to forget just how good it is. As noted in my Dusted review, “Baird’s voice is an instrument of rare beauty, simultaneously assured and elusive, like a soft-focus Sandy Denny wandering in a fever dream.” When you situate such a voice within some of Baird’s best songs to date and embellish them with sensitive playing by her partner, Charlie Saufley, you’ve got a record of enduring beauty.

7. Devendra Banhart — Flying Wig (Mexican Summer)

Flying Wig is the second album on this list to be produced by Cate Le Bon. Here, Le Bon’s aesthetic is writ large, from the melancholy drift of the synth arrangements to the heavily modulated saxophone parts. Through it all Banhart sounds acutely lonely, while also luxuriating in the beauty of his musical backing. It’s a heady vibe, that’s for sure.

8. King Krule — Space Heavy (XL)

There are few musicians who simultaneously come across as hopelessly spaced out and gutturally pissed off at the same time. Archy Marshall is one of them, and his latest album drifts even further into dislocation and bewilderment than 2020’s stellar Man Alive!

9. Arrowounds — In the Octopus Pond (Lost Tribe Sound)

No other album released this year has quite sounded like Arrowounds’ In the Octopus Pond. It’s a singular and immersive blend of ambient and post-rock that evokes exemplary reference points such as Bark Psychosis, Dif Juz, and The World On Higher Downs. And if you enjoy this, Ryan Chamberlain has released another three albums this year, each venturing in a different direction.

10. Cory Hanson — Western Cum (Drag City)

Wand’s Cory Hanson put out his excellent second album, Pale Horse Rider, in 2021. It features a little six-string extroversion here and there, but doesn’t quite prepare the listener for album number three. Western Cum is Hanson in full guitar-hero mode; his playing is absolutely blistering. Though nothing on the album quite surpasses early single “Housefly” for sheer wind-in-your-hair thrills, Western Cum is a supremely enjoyable rock record, built to be played loud.

Also excellent (in alphabetical order):

Activity — Spirit in the Room (Western Vinyl)

Daniel Bachman — When the Roses Come Again (Three Lobed)

BCMC — Foreign Smokes (Drag City)

Califone — Villagers (Jealous Butcher)

James Ellis Ford — The Hum (Warp)

PJ Harvey — I Inside the Old Year Dying (Partisan)

Tim Hecker — No Highs (Kranky)

Blake Mills — Jelly Road (New Deal / Verve Forecast)

The Necks — Travel (Northern Spy / Fish of Milk)

Andy Shauf — Norm (Anti-)

#dusted magazine #yearend 2023 #tim clarke #rozi plain #jana horn #this is the kit #wilco #pile #meg baird #devendra banhart #king krule #arrowounds #cory hanson

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Meg Baird + Chris Forsyth, Cafe Nine, New Haven, Connecticut, October 26, 2022

True story — my first exposure to the guitar stylings of Chris Forsyth came via Meg Baird's classic 2011 LP Seasons On Earth. Which is one of the reasons that it's cool that these old Philly phriends have been touring as a sweet double-bill in recent years. I pointed you in the direction of a tape from the Detroit stop of their fall 2022 run a little while back, and now, we've got another excellent recording from the ever-rewarding Alex Butterfield Archives. Thank you again, Alex! Keep it coming.

Accompanied by guitarist Charlie Saufley and the killer rhythm section of Doug McCombs and Ryan Jewell, Meg kicks things off with a set that's heavy on her most recent (though then-unreleased) LP Furling. A good thing — that album was one of my 2023 favorites, a collection that features some of Baird's best songs yet. It's great to hear them in a live setting, with Saufley's sensitive/imaginative leads complementing Meg's keys, voice and guitar. They wrap it all up by inviting Forsyth onstage for "Will You Follow Me Home?", Charlie and Chris getting into a nice Whitten/Young/"Cowgirl In The Sand" kinda interplay.

McCombs and Jewell remain on duty for Forsyth's subsequent set, which showcases the guitarist's most recent LP Evolution Here We Come. As per usual, the sterling six-string work is the main draw — but Doug and Ryan threaten to steal the show; check out the churning groove the pair kick up on the closing "Robot Energy Machine." Unreal!

#meg baird #chris forsyth #alex butterfield archives

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Meg Baird + Chris Forsyth - Third Man Records, Detroit, Michigan, November 1, 2022

Thanks to the mighty Detroit Lightning blog for these tapes of one of the best double bills of 2022 — Meg Baird and Chris Forsyth! Meg has a new one coming out early next year and it is incredible. Just check out "Will You Follow Me Home" which, in a just world, should be a major hit. Chris, of course, just released Evolution Here We Come, another in a long string of masterpieces. You need it.

The rhythm section for both Baird and Forsyth during this tour is worth noting, too — drummer Ryan Jewell and bassist Doug McCombs. Both legends! Throw Charlie Saufley (Heron Oblivion, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound) into the mix and we've got one incredible night of music. I think there might be a west coast Baird Forsyth tour in the works for 2023? Keep your eyes peeled.

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#meg baird #chris forsyth