So today is my friend Josh's birthday. I met Josh at a birthday party a few weeks ago, and then he actually showed up to my friend Monica's book launch, which he said he would but I don't think any of us actually expected. And since then, we've started hanging out. The first time we hung out after that we actually went to the Julia Jacklin concert together, which turned into much more drinking at night and then sharing music. One of my favorite things. So in honor of his birthday, I'll share an artist today who he recommended to me, who I really like, named Ama Lou.
She's another extremely talented, very young artist. I think she's about 20. She put out her first EP, DDD, last March, which followed up a few random singles over the last couple of years. The first and last tracks on the EP (Tried Up and Wired) are both fantastic, with the middle one (Wrong Lesson) being good. To go along with the album, though, she created a 13 minute short film that combines videos for each song. She was fully in control of the creative process for the songs and video(s), so since it all goes together so nicely, I'm just going to drop the whole video in here and share all 3 songs.
I am exhausted today. I don't know why. I didn't sleep well on Saturday and Sunday night for some reason, but I actually slept quite well last night. So I don't know why I just feel like I have no energy. And work isn't super busy right now, so I feel like I'm just making stuff up at the office. I can't think of what to write either. I'm just trying to kill time and look busy for a bit.
So I'll just share a couple quick songs with you. With today's musical theme being artists I heard about thanks to SXSW. Up first is Pavo Pavo, a new band from Brooklyn. I had actually heard their song Mystery Hour previously, but didn't listen to the full album (also called Mystery Hour) until just last week. And honestly it's not that great. But Mystery Hour is pretty fantastic. So here's that.
And then on the complete opposite side of the musical spectrum, I'll also share the song Talking, also off the album Talking, by Elderbrook. Once again, fantastic song. This album, as a whole, I would say is better than the Pavo Pavo album. But this is the song that stuck out, and I have to give the whole album another listen to decide if I actually like the band, or if I just really like this one song. Or maybe a few songs. But for sure I really like this one song.
So I had a pretty damn good weekend. Excellent mix of relaxation and activity. I had a great Sri Lankan dinner Friday night with one friend and his friend, and also found a great wine bar not too far away at the same time. Well, before dinner, but close enough. And then Saturday had a nice yoga class and ran some errands, and went to my first Sofar Sounds event in the evening (more on that later, but this is what we're here to talk about today).
Then on Sunday, I got up early and went to help a friend try to sell products she's making at the weekend market in Bondi. It was her first time at the markets, selling her own products for the first time, so it was nice to be there to support. And then I went to the French Film Festival in the afternoon, and watched what turned out to not be a French film, but an incredible film. It is apparently a French production, but not in French at all. It's all in English. It's called The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, and it is the best movie I have seen in a very, very long time. It's basically a sort of modern fairy tale about an Indian guy who goes to find his father and ends up on this crazy journey. It is so well made, so well written, and made me so happy. I honestly can't recommend it enough. Go find it and watch it.
Ok, but now back to Sofar Sounds. I had heard of it before because I'd seen videos on YouTube. They basically do pop-up secret concerts. What I did not know previously is that they are all over the world and you can just apply to go, and if you get selected, you go. I was told by a friend when I moved to Australia that you can sign up for it, so I have been applying every month and finally got accepted. All I knew is that we were going to some random place they sent us, and we could bring our own booze, and we'd be seeing a concert. It turns out we sat on the grass in someone's backyard and had 3 sets from 3 local up-and-coming bands, each very different. It was a super friendly and wonderful atmosphere, and I would highly recommend to anyone to check it out in your city and try to go. Best $15 spent this month, probably.
So today I'm sharing songs from the 3 bands we saw. The first was Kadimakara, a sort of soul-y group made up of the singer/bass player from Indonesia, guitarist from Colombia and Malaysian drummer. Out of the 3 bands, they were definitely the one with the most room for improvement. Their songs had nice bones, and you could hear what they were trying to do, but it seemed like they just need to practice more and flesh the songs out a bit more to get to a really great level. But anyway I'll share their song Owl. It's only got 4 views on YouTube, so go listen and support them!
Then we've got Good Pash, a rock band made up of four women here in Sydney. Actually I think the drummer is American, but at least the two guitarists / vocalists are from Sydney. And no clue about the bass player. They make rock, with witty and ironic lyrics. Think Courtney Barnett. And they were probably the best of the night (although I'm putting this in chronological order, so they come second). They don't have a lot of songs available online, so I'm sharing A Yacht in Sydney Harbour, their newest single. This may have actually been my least favorite song of the night. And in fact, my favorite songs were the ones sung by the brunette singer (this one is sung by the blonde lady). No clue what their names are. But they do make some great songs, if you can find more. Or if you happen to have the chance to see them.
And lastly is singer-songwriter Tay Oskee. This guy is from the rural Northern Territories of Australia, and he writes pretty typical singer-songwriter songs, but they've got pretty great messages. He would talk about each song a lot, which I'm not sure how much I like, but I like what he had to say. Pretty much all about being a good person. Which I'm a fan of. Musically, like I said, he's a pretty typical singer-songwriter, with strong influences from The John Butler Trio (which he admitted to later in the set, when he closed with a cover of Ocean, one of their tracks). When I was just starting to get into music, I listened to a ton of singer-songwriters, so now I'm pretty hard to impress when it comes to a guy and his guitar. So I really found him to be nice, but nothing amazing. But he was the clear favorite of the night. Which I also get. I get that people love singer-songwriters. I think I've just listened to more than most people. Anyway, he's pretty good, and he's got the most music out there, and I'm sharing his song Like Waves.
So The National have released a new song. And I have to ask myself: How did I let this get past me without sharing it? I mean, not get past me, but not share it. I was on this. Really on this. Like a lot on this. Because it's so good. And they're one of my favorite bands. And one of the best live acts I've seen. Anyway so now they have a new song called You Had Your Soul With You, which is the first single off their upcoming album I Am Easy To Find, due out in May. And what a song it is. Such a wonderful song. And surprisingly upbeat for The National. They usually make such depressing music. Don't get me wrong, the lyrics are pretty sad, but the song is so happy and positive sounding. Anyway, fantastic first single from what I hope will be a fantastic album.
You have JW Ridley to thank for reminding me that I should have shared You Had Your Soul with You. I just found this guy today, when his new single Homesick (Out The Blue) came up on one of the blogs I read, and immediately made me think of The National. Then I got thinking about how I wasn't sure if I had shared the new song from The National. And realized I hadn't. So now I'm also going to share JW Ridley. The London-based singer-songwriter is fairly new, with only a few songs under his belt, but I'm liking the sound so far. Obviously reminding me of The National helps, but not all songs do that. But I'll keep an eye on this guy.
And I guess while we're on the topic of favorite bands releasing wonderful new songs, I may as well share the new single from Broken Social Scene, which came out yesterday, called Can't Find My Heart. This is the first single from Let's Try The After - Vol. 2, due out in April. And the first new song on the heels of (you guessed it) Let's Try The After - Vol. 1, which came out in February. No clue how many EPs will be in this series, but the songs on them have all been pretty classic BSS. The first EP, in true BSS style, was a mix of instrumentals and vocal tracks, which is something they do a lot, and which I have never minded, although on an EP it made me kind of feel like there weren't enough songs. So let's see how many volumes come out in this series and then whether or not they put them together into a single album and how I feel about that. But I feel good about the first EP (not great, just good), and I feel real good about Can't Find My Heart and some of the other tracks on the first EP.
So I guess it's rainy season here in Sydney. It's been like nonstop every day for the last week. And over the weekend it was insanely strong. The heaviest rain I've seen here in Sydney. Then out in some of the suburbs, there was insane hail as well. A couple of my employees had damage to their cars and homes, because of hail the size of softballs. It is nuts. I once had huge hail in South Africa the size of my first, which broke through one of my windows and damaged a lot of cars (luckily not mine), but this is so much worse. Luckily the hail was only one day and it's just been rain since. But it really makes you not want to do anything.
Despite that, though, I have done some stuff. I went to a great art show this weekend. And I found a couple artists who I really like. There was this one Australian lady who paints very Miyazaki-esque scenes of various Japanese inspired spirits and animals, and I kind of love them. I didn't buy anything over the weekend, but I've been thinking about them every day, and I'm going to keep looking at them, and if I'm still thinking about it in a month or so, then I may just give in and buy one. They are quite expensive, but if I love it, might as well treat myself, right??? That's what I think.
Ok, anyway, enough with the rambling pointlessly, and on to the rambling with a point. And today's point is to introduce a couple of queer women making music. I should actually say one queer woman, and one non-binary person. This is the first time I'm actually writing/talking about non-binary people, so I may get something wrong. Let's see.
Anyway, I feel like I've posted quite a few queer, black, male artists. But there's a lot of the queer ladies out there as well. Generally speaking, I think there is a stereotypical queer women's music sound, which everyone just associates with acts like The Indigo Girls. And now, in modern times, it's the heavier version of that alternative folk rock, made by people like Courtney Barnett. So in that vein, I found a new artist I quite like called girl in red. And she is unabashedly unapologetic about her queerness, as evidenced by i wanna be your girlfriend.
So I just found out about her last week, but it seem she's been around for about a year now. And based on what I've read, she seems to be gaining traction due to her raw sound and raw lyrics, which very openly and honestly talk about her own life, and which resonates with a lot of her fans. But I just like her music. I think it's really good. It is pretty minimal, but I read one thing that I liked in an interview with her where she said that her songs might feel like they're incomplete or basic, but it's because she's done everything she had to do with them, and there's just nothing more to be said. She's gotten her message across, and it seems to be working. Anyway, she's only got a few songs out at the moment, and one EP titled chapter 1 (which i wanna be your girlfriend is on). So here's her latest single, i need to be alone.
But now we're going to move far from any stereotype and talk about Dua Saleh. This person is awesome. They (Dua Selah is the non-binary person and uses they/them pronouns, but it is only one person I am talking about) just put out their first EP called Nur. Which, from the first beat is awesome musically, and not at all shy about queerness. Just give a listen to the opening track, Sugar Mama.
That song is so insane. I love it. And the whole EP is like this. They have put out an amazing piece of music. And, to make things even better, they have a super interesting story. They were born in Sudan, fled as a refugee to Uganda, and eventually made it to the US where they settled in the Midwest and now make music out of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. So insane. A non-binary, queer person from the extremely conservative Sudan, now making this beautiful and explicit music in (what I think is) a relatively conservative part of the United States. I only wonder where they would be if they had stayed in Sudan. Or if they'd even be alive. It's kind of nuts. But anyway, I am glad they are in America and sharing this amazing music with us. The other track I'll share is Warm Pants, which is the first track I heard by them, and my favorite.
I think last week was the most stressful week in work history for me. Not that I'm going to go into it in a public forum like this. But damn. It was bad. And it continued into this week a little bit, but things have started looking up. I actually thought about quitting last week. Like, why do I bother? But I'm over that now. Still bored, but not super stressed. So that's good.
I did make up for all the stress by getting incredibly drunk on Friday night. I went to a housewarming party at the Moishe House, this Jewish group that I'm sure I've talked about in the past so won't go into now. Anyway, got incredibly drunk. Not sloppily, which is good. But I did drink like 2+ bottles of wine between 8pm and 1am. And actually I thought I was doing ok, but knew I was drunk and left, and blacked out by the time I got home. Which is a 2 minute walk away. So I was much more drunk than I realized. And in retrospect, very glad I left. Luckily I did have enough wits about me in the middle of the night to cancel my Saturday morning yoga class. So that was good.
Anyway let's move on to music. Music which does not make me think of getting super drunk or Jews at all. In fact, we're starting out with one of the farthest things musically from Jews - Country music. What!?!? I know, right? Michael listens to country music?? Well, no, not really. Generally not. I'm happy to give it a listen, I just generally don't like it. But there is a very interesting woman named Yola who is all over the indie scene these days, and she has caught my attention. This woman makes country music. Pure and simple. So I have no idea why I like it. But I do. In fact, one of my favorite songs is Fly Away, off of her first EP, Orphan Offering, which came out back in 2016.
So country. But this woman herself is super interesting. First of all, she's a big, black woman. Which is not your usual demographic for country music. Also, she's British. And, after deciding she wanted to be a musician, she basically got kicked out of her house and was living on the streets. But she's damn good. I mean, listen to those vocals. Plus it helps that she was picked up by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, who produced her debut album, Walk Through Fire, which just came out a few weeks ago. It's a pretty decent album, especially considering the whole country thing. The first major single, and the one that got her a bunch of buzz and caught my attention in the first place, is Faraway Look, which is wonderful.
Now we'll move away from Country music, but not too far away. Just into the genre of folk, which is something I can totally get behind. And we do have another misfit in the folk world, J.S. Ondara. Before you ask (because I did and wasn't sure when I just listened), J.S. Ondara is a man. But he's got a very sultry, androgynous voice. He's also just put out his first album, called Tales of America. But here's the fun part: he's also not American, and making some of the most American music out there (Yay for melting pots! Boo for walls!)! Anyway, the man is Kenyan and ended up in the US somehow (I know I read about it, but can't remember the details) and then started making music. Or maybe he was already making music, who knows. But his music has taken on a completely American bent. Now, very often with new artists, I introduce their first song, even if it isn't my favorite. Usually because it's what caught my attention or got me turned on to them. But I'm going to skip that for J.S. Ondara, and just move on to my favorite track off the album, called Lebanon.
How wonderful is that song? And how good does he sound? He totally reminds me of Tracy Chapman, which is probably one more reason why I wasn't sure if he was a man or woman when I first heard him. So that first single I referred to is called American Dream, and it's a really nice song, and definitely caught my attention, but I did not think it was worth all the hype. But enough to make me listen to the album. And then I found these amazing tracks like Lebanon, or Torch Song, the other one I'm sharing with you. And there's more of them! The whole album is really incredible. Might be a strong contender for my Top 10 this year, in fact.
I feel like I don't really have anything to write about lately. There just isn't very much going on, maybe. Now that I'm actually in Sydney more than not, I basically go to work, come home, and then have various evening activities or not. But nothing seems noteworthy. It's generally just yoga or dinner with a friend or a concert. And I usually write about the concerts. But that's really it. Then on the weekends, I find ways to keep myself busy, often on my own, sometimes with friends. But the friends stuff is usually more in the evening. But again, nothing too noteworthy. I do my yoga. I watch movies. Go run errands. I don't know, it just feels like not very much noteworthy is going on these days. But I am keeping myself busy. And it doesn't feel much different form Shanghai life, as far as the types of activities I'm doing. Just less frequent and more often on my own here than it was in Shanghai. So I don't know why I feel like I don't have much to report on lately. But that's how it is. And I guess if anything changes I'll let you know?
But for now, I'm going to share a bit of pop music with you. Not even indie pop. Real pop. I guess it's technically R&B. But it is the grammy-winning, mainstream artist named H.E.R., so counts as popular (i.e. pop) music. And to make her even more mainstream, she was a Disney kid. So she technically falls into the same category as people like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande. Gross. But, H.E.R. is really good. She's only got a couple albums out now, one more hip-hop, one more acousticy, but both very good. Good enough to win a Grammy, which, let's be honest, is not always a sign of music being good. But anyway, H.E.R. is great. Especially the song Hard Place. I've listened to it so many times. Now you can listen to, if you haven't already.
I'm back on the concert circuit tonight, starting with Snail Mail. After a concert-full January, February was a bit quiet. I had Laneway and Cat Power. I think that was it But now I have a concert tonight, I may go to another on Sunday, and then 3 more this month. Plus a musical. Good times. And April will be even better times. I have a one week period after coming back from Germany where I'll have 4 concerts in less than a week. Great times.
But I'm not here to talk about any of the people who I'll be seeing live. I'm here to talk about Dijon, a new artist that popped up last night, and who I'm really enjoying. He's just released his debut EP, Sci Fi 1, which was clearly influenced by Frank Ocean's album Blonde. Specifically the song Ivy, which I love. So much. The first song I heard by Dijon was Dog Eyes, and the similarities are obvious. Which is probably why I loved this song right away.
So then I went and listened to the whole EP, and it's all very similar. Minimal, raw, acoustic songs that all clock in at 3 minutes or less. In fact, Dog Eyes is the longest at 2:57. It almost feels like little snippets of songs, probably also due to the fact that the songs are so raw and sound like demos. But I love them all. My other favorite is probably Bad Luck, the closing track. Which, again, just sort of ends abruptly after picking up beautifully. Starting out beautifully. Picking up beautifully. Really this guy makes beautiful music. I am definitely looking forward to more from him.
I finally went back to Asia last week. I guess I was in Japan in January, but that was just a layover, so I don't count it, even though I did go into Tokyo. But this time was like 3 days in Kuala Lumpur for a conference. Which means I spent most of my time in a hotel but at least got to eat Malaysian food, which is the best. And the last day was a team-building scavenger hunt, which my team won by a landslide, and which was much more fun than expected. But otherwise, not so exciting I guess. My big personal goal was to find a souvenir from Malaysia cause I've been there a million times and have nothing Malaysian in my home, but no luck. So then it was just to spend all the cash I had left over from all the trips I took there (over $500....) and again no luck. In part due to not being able to find a souvenir, I guess. But in the end I found a good exchange rate and got Australian dollars. Which are even better. So that was good.
What a fun update on my life....
Anyway, fun update on music now! All new music! Exciting new music! Lots of it!
First up is Amo Amo. This is a new LA band that is made up of members of other bands, although I don't think they can be called a supergroup since none of the other bands were famous or popular, as far as I can tell. With the exception of Jim James, from My Morning Jacket, who I am not sure if he produces their music or is in their band. Either way, they have a few singles out, my favorite of which is When I Look At You, and an album coming in the next couple of months, and are definitely worth a listen.
Up next in new music is Hayden Thorpe. This guy used to be the lead vocalist in Wild Beasts until they broke up (le sigh. big sad face. i miss them), but now he's put out his own debut solo single called Diviner. It is very slow tempo, minimalist track, but you can definitely hear some of that Wild Beasts coming through. No clue what's coming up in terms of an album, but this is a very pretty, promising start.
And last is new music from a not-new artist, Jordan Rakei. He has already put out two fantastic, soulful albums, and now he's back with Mind's Eye, the first track from a supposed upcoming album. But again, no info on that yet. But this is a sick track. Really fantastic. Song of the week, I'd say.
