July 11, 2025
SOMETHING OLD
Marc Benno - Speak Your Mind
1971
Marc Benno - Speak Your Mind
1971
Marc Benno is a Texan great with an impressive list of credits like Leon Russell, The Doors, Clapton, Rita Coolidge, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But on this song, that all washes away while Benno stands out all on his own.
It’s a slow, beautiful, and bluesy tune that hurts. His guitar weeps and his words resonate. Personally, each verse leads me further from my lyrical understanding. Is it in the same vein as Bill Withers' Lean on Me? Is it lovers finally being honest with themselves about the end?
Whatever it is, it makes me cry. I think this Youtube comment said it best:
SOMETHING NEW
Geese - Taxes
July 8th, 2025
Geese - Taxes
July 8th, 2025
My greatest obsession since earlier this year...: the Brooklyn band Geese. Following their brilliant, wild sophomore album 3D Country, the group just released their new single this week. It will serve as the penultimate track on their upcoming record Getting Killed.
Grim lyrics like I should burn in hell and I will break my own heart from now on are accompanied by a slow-building, strangely optimistic sonic feel. Drummer Max Bassin evokes African drumming in the first half before switching into a rock rhythm once singer Cameron Winter drags out a single note for a solid 11 seconds.
Is it empowering to evade your taxes? Was it actually the IRS who crucified Jesus?
SOMETHING BORROWED
Aretha Franklin - Border Song (Holy Moses) (Elton John)
1972
Aretha Franklin - Border Song (Holy Moses) (Elton John)
1972
Elton John released Border Song on his 1970 self-titled album. It was his first song to chart in the United States, but Aretha would shoot it up even higher when she took it to church.
When Elton and Taupin found out Aretha would cover it, they “nearly pissed [their] pants with excitement.”
Those two white guys sure did write a gorgeous soul song, but Aretha brought her gospel singing background and a deep civil rights intuition to make it reborn anew into something even greater.
SOMETHING... BLUE
Neko Case - Gumball Blue
2018
Neko Case - Gumball Blue
2018
Neko Case was not having the best time during the recording of this album. She was being stalked and her house was destroyed in a fire. But tragedy brings beauty, right?
Vivid lyrics like damp bodies crammed in Times Square help us envision a less than perfect world.
For me, this song contains one of those magic moments: it starts around 1:44, with you’re banished to a planet with no sounds. The layers and harmonies on “no sounds” and then those siren-like sounds are all so rich. Then it all comes to an abrupt halt, and suddenly Case’s voice sounds like she’s singing through a telephone.
Finally we conclude this section to ease into the next verse with the line:
Sometimes where there's smoke...there's just a smoke machine, honey.
What a refreshing, simple deconstruction of the “where there’s smoke there’s fire” idiom.
Sometimes where there's smoke...there's just a smoke machine, honey.
What a refreshing, simple deconstruction of the “where there’s smoke there’s fire” idiom.