Alligator Ladies – Crazy Magician Man
Around 36,000 people travelled to Peru specifically for ayahuasca retreats in 2019, and a significant portion of these tourists were from the United States. That’s the last stat that I could pick up. But walking around breathlessly recently down the streets of Cusco, I can tell you that the number is growing. And everyone is hoping for some guidance in this life or the next.
It’s not a novel obsession. Back in the 1960s, college professor and brilliant scam artist Carlos Castaneda wrote a book about the wisdom shared with him by a Mexican shaman. The book was an enormous success. It prompted Castaneda and his associates to write many other books like this. And, eventually, it made the writer’s click have to fake his death for fear that he would suffer a great indignity in the eyes of the public.
Scams or not, the topic is fascinating. Who isn’t looking for a bit of mystical guidance wherever we can find it? Alligator Ladies’ quirky, retro psychedelia of “Crazy Magician Man” is the soundtrack to such a trip. It’s music meant to accompany a trip through the Amazon jungle or the unforgiving desert. It’s a love song for someone not of this world yet able to control it. It’s a song about someone who will likely charge $500/night in their remote bungalows, ayahuasca and travel expenses not included. At least Alligator Ladies provide an awesome soundtrack.
Auris Delan and The Pepper Shop – Honest Mention
Look, I, like you, probably can’t help but make a face every time that I hear the word “jazz.” It’s not that I’m a jerk. It’s entirely involuntary, just like being stuck with a needle at the doctor’s office or taking a bite of a piece of cheese that’s been waiting outside of the fridge for too long.
And while I have to fight really hard against that instinct, I blame all of the jazz people with which I’ve come into contact. Literature college professors all have exactly one unfinished novel in their drawer, but love to talk about other people’s work and the techniques that were employed in writing them.
That’s what jazz people are usually like. They put in the work and study diligently to avoid the frightening spectre that whispers chillingly that, in fact, they’ve nothing to write music about. But what if they did? What if all of the techniques were married to wonderful ideas, a childlike sense of exploration, and purely memorable melodies that even the guy at the pub could understand?
Auris Delan and The Pepper Shop’s “Honest Mention” is a beautiful, mysterious and often surprising piece of music. What it does have in common with jazz is the technique involved in playing the composition and the fact that dedicated clubs would have them play there on a Friday night. But, in earnest, this fits far better as a psychedelic-pop song with uncharacteristically complex playing. The music transports you to a different world, takes you out of it and does the same trick a few more times before the ride is over. There’s nothing boring about it, and the aforementioned inner voice would scour away in fear when finding out just how many original ideas Auris Delan and The Pepper Shop have.
