Jeremy Tuplin – Dancing (On Your Own)
Similar artists: Alex Cameron, Julia Jacklin, Father John Misty, Cass McCombs, Kevin Morby, Pulp, The National
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
A song is never just a song. Poetry doesn’t need to be made by a poet. Guitar solos can be entirely out of tune. And even dance songs aren’t required to include any of the elements featured in tunes blasting out of most discos.
We’re taught to look for patterns. They keep us safe. The ones that are the best at recognizing patterns and noticing trends are the folks to which we award the greatest riches. That’s a mighty great reward.
But can those people dance? Can you? I see you nodding your head, engaged in self-disparaging disbelief. But I’m sure you can do it. Remember that a dance song doesn’t have to make people dance, and a dancer doesn’t need to know fancy moves either.
Jeremy Tuplin’s Dancing (On Your Own) could well be a funk song where the producer accidentally erased most of the tracks and had to go back and record vocals themselves. It’s as entertaining and foreboding as many nights out. It’s a melancholy tune for people shaking away the gloom.
Gut – Carrissa
Genre: Indie-rock, Post-punk
The original host of punk-rock bands was championed, by the press, as groups representing common people. That was the reason for the directness and lack of sophistication of their music. They needed to get their message out quickly.
But people eventually picked up on the fact that this wasn’t true. Working people didn’t dress up like they just walked out of Malcolm McLaren’s clothes boutique. Nor did they spend their evenings reading up on Marxist politics.
The bands that followed them, however, the post-punk groups, did find a way to talk about regular people and their problems. Best of all, they found a dramatic, intense sound to do it and words through which they never talked down to their audience.
Gut’s Carrissa is a song built on booming bass lines, shouted vocals, and general distrust of the world that characterize post-punk. It’s a song that describes a personal tragedy almost as an inevitability, with bitterness as well as humor.
