NAILED Songs of the Week #41
“Maybe you should just listen to it yourself, and tell me what else it is”
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Guest Editor: Kat Gardiner, Contributor and Writer
“Breast Coast (Hanging Out)” – Childbirth
Finally. An anthem that speaks to the stuff and things of our times. You know, hanging out, doing whatever, with a boyfriend who you’ll love forever because he’s hot.
Okay, I know, I know, I know. It’s all a joke. Even the name is a jab at some other band, but hear me out.
This is a great song.
Cheek lick lyrics and infectious music in that three-chord, cheap amp, Ramone-level, ear-worm simplicity sort of way. I double dog dare you not to sing and/or dance along the second time you hear this ditty. Maybe even the first. I mean really. Pinkie swear. Play it twice and punch me in the face if you aren’t singing along, or at least nodding your head.
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Carrie Seitzinger, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NAILED:
“Walk Away” – The Ritz Club
I love finding new music that has barely been discovered. The Ritz Club’s new EP is still so fresh you could smell it like crisp cut grass, the grass that’s usually greener on the other side, but with this song it’s what you actually find yourself standing in. Sean Jacobi, one member of The Ritz Club, says he wrote “Walk Away” when he was messing around with some John Fahey tunings and an old Roland 505.
Comprised of five band members, three of whom are brothers, The Ritz Club seems to have mastered several different eras, sounds and styles of rock, from Pink Floyd, to Kraftwerk, to R.E.M., to Menomena, and while experimenting a bit along the way, the theatrical directions they take won’t throw you off. Instead, you can get comfortable on this patch of grass, kick off your shoes, and enjoy the audible scenery.
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Guest Editor: Brian S. Ellis, Poet and Author (most recently of Often Go Awry, 2015)
“Re Run” – Kamasi Washington
I am embarrassed with how long it took me to know about this album. Correction: I knew about it almost as soon as it came out, last spring, but I didn’t actually buy it until winter. The three-vinyl format of The Epic seems intimidating, but listening to the music — this is one of the most inviting albums you’ve ever heard in your life. The sound is so lush, so panoramic, cinematic, galactic, you can’t help but be absorbed into it.
The stand out track for me is “Re Run,” as fantastic of a display of Washington’s saxophone as any you’ll hear on the album. The sound features much of what you’ll hear on the rest of The Epic: the open, wooshing, choral, triumphant sound of it. For all its complexity, “Re Run” is a song that has the ability to get stuck in your head. It has a familiarity to it, along with its stunning newness. “Re Run” is one of those songs that can lift you like a title track. Hearing it is like watching your own name scroll before your eyes.
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Matty Byloos, Publisher and Contributing Editor of NAILED:
“Sun Song” – Psychomagic
Maybe it’s because I miss the sun. Maybe it’s because all of this weather induced gray darkness of the Pacific Northwest winter feels about as slow as watching crystals grow. Maybe it’s because the video imagery reminds me of Kenneth Anger, and how the moon rises too fast. Maybe it’s got something to do with how the reverb’s settings are keyed just enough to feel like tiny fingers on my neck. Maybe it’s the way I can’t tell if I’m listening to a man or a woman, even though I know it’s a man, or maybe it’s a woman and I don’t care because it’s just the voice I like listening to right now, when the sun can barely be bothered to lift the clouds again. Maybe it’s because the melody sounds like I’m listening to a story.
Maybe you should just listen to it yourself, and tell me what else it is, and all of these things or none of these things and something else.
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Check out Songs of the Week #40 for even more great music from the editors and contributors behind NAILED.