#31: Other Green Worlds
Texas Krautrock, Free Flowing Folk Rock, Progressive Instrumental Americana
Hey Folks. Hope everyone is making the best of these last couple weeks of summer. We’re going to attempt our first-ever family camping excursion at the end of the month in the Adirondacks. It’s a little nerve-wracking considering how the kids are going to adjust but also very exciting. I got to buy a new tent, something I haven’t done in 20 years, so that was kind of fun.
So I was able to get to a couple of Phish shows when their excellent summer tour rolled through upstate New York at the absolutely perfect Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Incredibly, I got connected with a pair of fifth row seats for 8/9 so a friend and I were kind of gobsmacked at the luck for a lot of the show. 28 years seeing this band and I’ve never been so close. Actually I never had a seat for a summer show. I’ve always just been another lawn creature out there. The show was just incredible. The setlist, flow and jamming were at a level I hadn’t witnessed in this century from the quartet. Being so close it was neat to see all the micro interactions and it was great to catch a rare Gordon smile. Pair the gig with a very chill pre-show hang off site and on shakedown and you have an experience only this band can really offer these days.
I returned on Sunday, 8/11 with the whole family and got a fuller, slightly more stressful experience. There are A LOT of families at shows these days so I never once considered it being a bad move to bring the kids. As a sober parent of two kids under 6, I want to share these magical musical experiences with the young ones and have no need to hide any sort of behavior from them. I only went alone on Friday to get some real deep listening in, something that’s hard when your almost two year old wants to cruise the lawn conducting vibe checks on everyone. We posted up toward the back of lawn among other crews with littles and just had a wonderful time: The kids snacked and danced and ran and slept and my partner and I were able to be tired parents with some really good music in the background. I was so glad to see most other families getting by as we did—without screens or pads, just arts, crafts and vibing. A total win, even if we did split 3/4 of the way through the 2nd set because those kids were just done/sleepy.
This week’s episode of The Trailhead, of course, had to have some Phish. So we dedicated the second hour to a couple really amazing jams they’ve whipped up this summer. First we had a killer standalone Wolfman’s Brother from the band’s first festival in 9 years, Mondegreen, followed by my favorite section of the tour; the Tweezer → Pillow Jets from 8/9 in Bethel.
But before we got to the jams, we heard a bunch of new music of the quiet and contemplative variety that dissolved into some dancefloor directions. We got new guitar-centered sounds from Colorado trio Prairiewolf and the Bay Area’s Chuck Johnson before things got bumping toward the end of the first set with sublime, impossibly organic electronics from the Pacific Northwest’s tondiue, NYC’s YAI and LA’s Photay.
It’s a mix that really hits a lot of interesting spots and I have to say I’m pretty proud of it so give it a listen and even if you have massive phear, try the second set and see what happens.
LISTEN TO TRAILHEAD 143 HERE
1. Chuck Johnson - Teleos - SunGlories (Western Vinyl, 2024) 00:00
2. Prairiewolf - Revisionist Mystery - Deep Time (Centripetal Force, 2024) 07:18
3. Thought Leadership - XIII - Ace of Swords (Darkly Inclined Tapes, 2024) 10:48
4. Shuttle358 - flux - optimal.lp (12k/KeplarRev, 1999/2024) 15:20
5. Total Blue - Jaguarundi - Total Blue (Music From Memory, 2024) 22:50
6. Photay - Derecho - Windswept (Mexican Summer, 2024) 28:24
7. YAI - The Spiral - Sky Time (AKP Recordings, 2024) 32:41
8. tondiue - Chocolate - Word to the Centipede (Kelp Roots, 2024) 36:18
9. Phish - Wolfman's Brother - Mondegreen, The Woodlands, Dover, DE, 8/15/24 (LivePhish, 2024) 1:07:47
10. Phish - Tweezer —> Pillow Jets - Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, Bethel, NY, 8/9/24 (LivePhish, 2024) 1:27:18
A record can make the home of little, wild kids feel peaceful on a Saturday morning is a record for me and that is precisely what we have with Pat Keen’s I Saw a Bug (Island House, 2024).
Built around Keen’s expressive guitar playing, the album contains multitudes and thankfully isn’t just another solo guitar record (not that there’s anything wrong with those!). I Saw a Bug really reminds me of my favorite Jim O’Rourke record—2009’s The Visitor (Drag City). That album and this one manage to create a sort of twangy, instrumental Americana that never gets too saccharine or overstays its welcome. Both albums incorporate jazzy and experimental influences without getting too self-indulgent. Keen’s album opts for short pieces that sit alongside one another neatly whereas O’Rourke’s moves as one. Pat Metheny’s lesser celebrated 1979 album New Chautauqua (ECM) travels a similar path and it stands as one of my favorites.
You certainly don’t need to be constantly stepping on LEGOs or wiping up messes to enjoy I Saw a Bug but it is an album that certainly makes the mundane feel part of a bigger, more beautiful world and existence. Highly recommended.
Adeline Hotel is Dan Knishkowy but often there are friends and collaborators on his records, changing the accommodations from a quaint little bed & breakfast to a stately temporary palace. And this constant coming and going leads to the glorious unpredictability of Adeline Hotel albums. The newest one, Whodunnit, releases at the end of September via the most excellent Ruination Record Co. and places the project back into the singer-songwriter territory I first encountered some years back when I randomly caught Dan playing his songs on western Queens stage.
Back then I felt Dan’s songs had a strong connection to the smart and hooky writing of 80s and 90s Richard Thompson. The songs were tight and direct and delivered with punchy rock arrangements. Since then, each release has uncovered a seemingly different influence/directions while the underlying folk gets more and more exposed. Without really diving in, Whodunnit may seem like a return to the songcraft of before but its way freer and searching. Press materials cite John Martyn’s Solid Air (1973) and Neil Young’s On the Beach (1974) as possible reference points and they may be but I’m also hearing more of Tim Buckley’s early 70s openness through a modern production filter. Let’s just say fans of Ryley Walker’s pre prog songwriter era will find a lot to hold close on Whodunnit.
Check the album’s gorgeous first single below.
I’m sorry but I really have never wanted to go to Texas. There may have been a fleeting moment in the days before the enshittification of SXSW when I wanted to see a lot of my favorite little bands all in one little town over a few days but the urge was never strong enough to lift a finger. The last 10 years of political polarization and the rise of intentional performative shittiness and ignorance in public and on the internet by accidental conservatives has pushed the Lone Star state even further down on my list of places to visit.
But I know there are good people there and good art being made despite the state’s desire to stamp out every last bit of progress it can find. With all that in mind, listening to Justin Sweatt’s North Texas Electric seems even more revelatory. Being released via the very progressive label Aural Canyon I knew this wasn’t going to be some kind of faux working man country rock but, still, I worried as I saw the title.
Worries melt away when you enter North Texas Electric via its opener “Breath of Joy”. The piece starts in still darkness with synths expanding through the dawn and rising to a sunny melodic motif and resolution. The album goes on to travel to some more buoyant and rhythmic places that never feel like cold, electronic bedroom dreams but rather joyous roaming sun-baked soundtracks built with, per Bandcamp, “mono-synths, vintage string synths, old drum machines recreated in a MPC, and guitars”.
There are road signs and turnouts for Cluster and Harmonia all over North Texas Electric but they lead to bigger, dustier roads and more unexplored skies. Justin Sweatt lives in a much smaller, more interesting Texas than most will ever know and I’ll be going back often.
Absolutely love The Visitor as well, and often scratch my head at the little attention it seems to get amongst other heads... glad to know its hard-filed in your head!
I was listening to the Chuck Johnson a lot yesterday - lovely stuff.