
The Tremolo Beer Gut – Hey Hello feat. Cristina Martinez, Jon Spencer and The Mikkeller Choir
If you’ve ever been in bands that have argued for months on end about what subject matter to approach with their lyrics, you’ve been playing in the wrong outfits. These sort of things either happen easily, or they don’t happen at all.
I once played in a band where the bass player threatened to quit unless I wrote songs that dealt with the real pressings issues in his life. When I further enquired what these might be, he told me he’s really upset about his leaking roof.
We wrote exactly no songs about his leaky roof, but next we’ll speak. I may indicate The Tremolo Beer Gut (brilliant name) and their tune Hey Hello. It’s a song built on a cool, repetitive retro, great surf-rock riff and the minimalistic conversation between Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer, friends of the band. No-fuss, no arguments, just folks being resourceful.
Pale Moon – Dusty Road
If popular music has really been able to do anything right and thus gain the upper hand over genres like classical or jazz, it is to package our fantasies and desires. This is why the idea of the rockstar is not unique to one culture.
In a time when people, more than ever, have been forced to disconnect from each other and forge new networks, this sort of musical fantasy has proven more important than ever. Music communities exist on dusty websites and forums, not just in concert halls, high schools, or parking lots.
I mention this because Pale Moon’s charming Dusty Road sounds like the kind of piece of Americana that 1970s rockers might embrace in a bid to reconnect with their roots. It’s beautiful, gentle, deeply rooted in American tradition, and made in Iceland, best known for cold, experimental music. The result is convincing, though, and Dusty Road goes on to prove just how democratic making and sharing music remains.