2020 Music Retrospective Part Two

 For part two of my 2020 music retrospective, I figured I'd showcase two young musical acts which I've been kind of obsessed with over the second half of the year.

The first of these acts is Boston-based band Sweeping Promises, who sound as if they've plundered their parents' record collections for all of their circa-1979 post-punk albums.  Listening to Sweeping Promises, I hear a blend of Joy Division, Kleenex, The Slits, maybe a hint of Gang of Four.  The band has a spare sound buoyed by vocalist Lira Mondal's sweet vocals.  I'm partial to groovy bass lines punctuated by jagged, staccato guitar licks, synth noodling, and bubblegum vocals- so this is right up my alley.  Out Again, the first song I heard by the band, immediately grabbed my attention, but I believe my favorite song by them is Hunger for a Way Out, which is a perfect description of my feelings about this terrible year:

 

My post-election theme song is Rot, by Allegra Krieger.  I dig her voice, and I like the crunchy guitar song of the track, but it's the lyrics which have me obsessed, as they describe the situation of the current Occupant of the White House perfectly:

Give a little, take a lot
And live out your days like some sanctified parasite
And when your empire begins to rot
Return to the earth without a question without a fight 

He's not really fighting, just allowing his increasingly deluded surrogates appear to do so in order to extend the scam.   Here's the song for your listening pleasure:

 

With the pandemic, live music has been dealt a blow, and I sincerely hope that young artists such as the acts I've highlighted in this post can hunker down until we get this thing behind us, and have a successful 2021.  Being cooped up at home, good music is one of the necessities of life, and I hope we are able to repay the artists that kept us entertained in this hard time once the world restarts.

2020 Music Retrospective Part One

This being the end of the year, I figured I'd put out a brief music retrospective for the year.  I also decided that I'd split it into two parts to reflect the developing zeitgeist of the year, and I am choosing two songs by old stalwarts to begin.

Perhaps the signature song of March and April was the April 2020 release Living in a Ghost Town by The Rolling Stones.  Lyrically, it captures the pandemic year mood perfectly:

YOU CAN LOOK FOR ME BUT I CAN’T BE FOUND 

YOU CAN SEARCH FOR ME I HAD TO GO UNDERGROUND 

LIFE WAS SO BEAUTIFUL THEN WE ALL GOT LOCKED DOWN

 FEEL A LIKE GHOST LIVING IN A GHOST TOWN

Yeah, Mick, you said it... you summed up 2020 in less than four minutes:

 

The other song by an old stalwart that I chose is Got to be Tough by Bastard faves Toots and the Maytals, which references the social injustice that the Black Lives Matter movement was founded to shed light on.  It's also a good prescription for living in a year in which everything was terrible:

 

This song takes on an uncommon poignancy given that Toots succumbed to COVID-19 in September.  This combination warning and pep talk was his last gift to the world.

The topicality of these songs are a perfect illustration of the ability of clever artists to continue to release relevant material while old enough to collect social security checks... the Stones and the Maytals released music as up-to-date as cable news headlines, and provided solid grooves while doing so.  These songs aren't happy by any stretch of the imagination, but they possessed the sort of dourness which manages to be uplifting.

Someone's Having a Bad Christmas

Today is Boxing Day, a day traditionally occupied by giving small presents to the neighbors and public servants (such as letter carriers), after the big family celebration on Christmas Day is over.  I made sure I gave out presents to the neighbors on Christmas Eve, preparatory to submerging into a weekend of work.  It's also the Feast of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, which in my neighborhood, with its many Irish immigrants, is a big pub day.  I have to be at work at midnight, but in a normal year, I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to meet with friends for a hot toddy before having to get ready to go in.  This year, that's just not an option... maybe tomorrow would be a good whisky day.  I do plan, though, on making some 'virgin' eggnog tonight on the job to see what the fuss is about (I can spike the leftovers tomorrow when I get home).

It's been a 'blah' Christmas, pretty much spent hunkered and bunkered at home or at work, but I've heard from family and friends, so I can't complain.  Via Tengrain, though, we learn that Vulgarmort has spent this festive season complaining about being a loser.  Even with his large family and his vaunted, flaunted wealth, the guy is miserable.  He has a teenage son and a passel of grandkids, one would think he'd put down his goddamn phone and live for once.  I'm glad he's in a blue funk, though, because through his incompetence and venality, millions of Americans have had their Christmases (and Hanukkahs, and Diwalis, and Thanksgivings, and... you get the picture) ruined.  He's even worst than Scrooge, old Ebeneezer only immiserated a handful of people, and had a redemption arc at the end.

I sure hope he spends the rest of the year simmering... like a pot of water made fragrant with the addition of cinnamon and clove, ready to be added to a small glass of whisky with lemon and honey.  I hope his digestion is off all week, maybe from a bit of underdone potato.  I don't foresee a redemption narrative for the guy, no Scrooge or Grinch he, so his running chronicle of angst all week has been balm for me... since Weihnachtsfreude is in short supply this year, I'll settle for Schadenfreude.

As Merry as it Can Be

 Here's wishing everyone a merry Christmas, as merry as it can be in this terrible, horrible, no good year.  Here in the NYC metro area, the holiday began with a tropical storm- gale force winds and torrential rain, so the drive home from work was no picnic.  It was good sleeping weather, though.

When I awoke, I texted back and forth with siblings, called mom, and texted various friends and relatives.  Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, though the general tone was that we'd throw insane parties when this plague ends.

I decided on a fancy-yet-simple dinner, luckily I found a nice steak on sale at the supermarket a couple of nights ago.  Plated with mashed potatoes, pureed celery root, and Swiss chard sautéed with garlic and red onion, it formed a nicely balanced meal.  While dining, I listened to a reading of a slightly abridged version of "A Christmas Carol", a novella I read every other year.  It should be required reading for all policy makers, especially in fraught times like this year.  

I have to go to work at midnight, so I'll probably nod off and nap when I finish this post.  I'm used to the sort of raucous Christmases typical of a large family, so a Noel nap seems a bit off, but it's appropriate for this strange, solo Christmas.  I can hold out for a big summertime blast in six months.  

Merry Christmas, stay safe, be well.  May 2021 be the best present EVER.

Socially Distant Christmas Eve

 Social distancing and quarantining being the order of the day, working on Christmas Eve really isn't a hardship.  Yesterday, I did my shopping for the day, buying several varieties of seafood so I could do whatever sort of take on the fish thing that I could pull off on the job... I do have a hotplate, toaster oven, and microwave here.  I also picked up a couple of bottles of prosecco for my upstairs neighbor, who always puts together a plate for me when she knows I've been working on a holiday, gift cards for her children (because they are good kids, unfailingly kind to the small army of peers who are always over to shoot hoops or do homework), and a bottle of whisky for my next door neighbors.

I left my apartment and handed over the wine and gift cards to my upstairs neighbors elder child, then as I left the house, I ran into the new upstairs neighbors, who moved in at the beginning of the month (the previous tenants relocated to Buffalo, NY, when the husband acquired a government job).  After a brief chat, I went next door, and as I was knocking on the door, my neighbor pulled up.  I gave him the bottle and we had a nice chat.  He told me that, in case of bad snowstorms and worse parking situations, I could always park in his driveway.  I joked that this was the reason I brought over a bottle of whisky.  

Earlier this year, he and his wife lost their yellow lab, Sétanta, to old age and hip pathology.  Sétanta was the first neighbor that I met when I moved onto the block, a big, friendly dog who was the perfect sidekick to my good-hearted, sociable neighbors.  My neighbor told me that he and the missus were getting a black lab puppy named Finn, keeping up the tradition of naming dogs after heroes of Irish legendry.

I arrived at work early, covering the afternoon shift so my coworker could spend Christmas Eve with his family.  It's been an uncharacteristically warm and windy December day, with torrential rain in the forecast.  I'm glad I prepared last night for tonight's 'festivities', having stocked the fridge yesterday.  Tonight, it's the cat and I holding down the fort.  I made sure to call mom and text other friends and family.  One of my aunts checked in as well, she's also spending an uncharacteristic solo Christmas Eve, away from the kids and grandkids.  

The cat has been kinda... well... catty tonight.  I gave her a small piece of fish to see if she would be interested, but it held no appeal for her.  Later, of course, she wanted MY fish, paying an unseemly amount of attention to a pasta-with-sardines dish I had thrown together, and my follow-up dish of scallops sauteed with garlic and rosemary also elicited some interest on her part.  Then I made the mistake of opening a tin of smoked oysters, emulating the sound of a cat food can... big mistake, she really wouldn't stop trying to climb my shirt to check out what I was eating.  Besides getting her typical half can of cat food, she also has a small piece of fish that she's left untouched... and she's not exactly a candidate for starvation.  Again, my vittles have more appeal than hers, in her estimation.  

I still have some fish to sautee with a soy/brown sugar glaze to finish up the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, and I suspect that Ginger will suddenly develop an interest in the same fish which, unglazed, lies in her bowl.  She's been well fed, as have I, but I'm sure that she'll develop a covetous streak.  She's scheduled to get her customary half can (about three ounces) of food before I leave, but again, MY food is more appealing to her... I still don't have the heart to put her on the naughty list, though.

This Year's Been Black and Blue

It's no secret to longtime readers that  my favorite Christmas carol is O, Holy Night, and my favorite secular Christmas song is A Fairytale of New York.  I'm always happy to hear new Christmas music that isn't awful, and listening to college radio makes this possible. 

This year, my new Christmas music find is by Glasgow band There Will Be Fireworks.  I recently heard an interview with their lead singer about their song In Excelsis Deo, and it was a tale of a long distance relationship between the Glasgow based songwriter and his girlfriend in the south of England, and how they persevered until they were able to marry and live together.  It's a sweet song about survivng a 'black and blue' year with hopes of a white Christmas.  It's a nice slice of life, and it's good to know that the ending was a happy one:

The funny thing about the interview is that it took place on a New Jersey based radio station, so the song's references to Bruce Springsteen did not go unremarked upon.  I also like the recondite references to Glasgow (the Dear Green Place which also happens to be an Old Grey Town)... nothing like a bit of a puzzle to figure out.

I think this one is going into the Christmas rotation, it's a sweet song that happens to absolutely shred at the end.  With so much sub-par Christmas music out there, it's nice to add a quality song to the playlist.

Straight Talk, no Malarky

It's refreshing to hear a president-elect who can speak in full sentences, especially one who can tell the truth without sugarcoating it or burying it in heaps of denial and obfuscation. In his press conference today, Joe Biden told the cold, hard truth about the COVID-19 pandemic and the sacrifices it will demand of Americans:

Biden: "One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis: I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth. And here is the simple truth: Our darkest days in the battle against Covid are ahead of us, not behind us." pic.twitter.com/h9qHnE2F49

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 22, 2020

Joe Biden is the sort of person who trusts Americans to rise up to the challenges of the day, not a coward who lies to people in an attempt to 'avoid panic'. Trump has governed as an evil version of Zaphod Beeblebrox, it's no wonder that he believed that not seeing the peril would somehow avert the peril. The one thing that gives me some misgivings is Joe's trust that the Republicans, faced with an existential crisis, will join with the Democrats in order to protect their constituents:

Biden is really using this press conference to lean into the idea that when it comes to the coronavirus response and help to hurting Americans, he believes he can work with Republicans pic.twitter.com/f9vFahbmo8

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 22, 2020

He spent so much time in the Senate, he actually came to believe in the congeniality of political discourse, while those of us on the ground get an eyeful of the absolute hatred with which the Republican rank-and-file view anybody to the left of... I was going to write 'Mitt Romney', but they hate him too. My hope is that Biden knows that the 'kumbaya' stuff is a pipe-dream, but that he will position himself as 'healer in chief' while letting his younger, more assertive surrogates go on the attack for him. 

Biden's approach just might work, and might even be necesary in the unthinkable-yet-not-improbable event that the Republicans maintain control of the Senate. At any rate, it's good to hear someone in a position of authority who can speak in complete sentences, cogent ones even. I'm actually willing to forgive the man an occasional gaffe and a snipe at the press.