Life/Music/Meme dump 3/30
Hello from beautiful West Philly, where the fam is currently visiting Laura’s brother Nate and his partner Sadye. Here is a picture of Naomi walking their cat on a leash:
And here’s the general vibe:
I look very forward to coming here, for the hang of course, but also to eat the amazing Indian, Ethiopian, and middle eastern food with which this area is bursting at the seams. West Philly is a truly special neighborhood that gives me strong memories of 90’s/00’s east-side/north Portland, which is of course my eternal nostalgic standard for cool. And judging from the number of bands that pass through Avalon and call this place home, it has one of the most exciting music scenes in the country right now.
Last night, Nate and Sadye gave Laura and I the very special double-gift of a free evening of babysitting plus tickets to see Beth Gibbons, who released one of my top records last year. She was absolutely fantastic… hearing her voice live gave me chills. And yes she did play a Portishead song (Roads) during the encore, which I was not expecting and was a real treat. Highly recommend seeing her if you can - she’s playing the King’s theater in Brooklyn Tuesday the 1st. Our non-Avalon musical adventures continue this coming Wednesday, when we are going to Tubby’s to see the great Australian band HTRK with our friend Mark Trecka opening. Truly a week-long feast of bleak, semi-apocalyptic musical treats.
On the home-listening front, I’ve spent the past couple days heavily spinning this record by Michael Beharie, a new-to-me artist who played Avalon last week accompanied by Maeve Schallert on violin:
https://michaelbeharie.bandcamp.com/album/promise-2
His vocals remind me of Arthur Russel, while the music has electroacoustic production elements that bring to mind digital cumbia artists like Chancha Via Circuito mixed with the ambient collage sound of someone like Susumu Yokota. And overall he has just a great sense of melody - one of my favorite albums I’ve heard in a while. I’m also listening a lot to the new album by The Fascinating Chimera Project, one of Catskill’s great local bands, playing Avalon this Friday! Really love these guys:
https://thefascinatingchimeraproject.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-the-moon
But now, of course, the reason you’re all still reading - my compulsive need to collect and disseminate digital meme trash, which has remained undiminished by my step back from social media. So, please enjoy your curated dive into the hive mind of the internet:
