Sour Magic – En Camino (On My Way)
If you were to take a peek at a list of the greatest rock bands and artists of all time, you’d swear that the Anglo-American alliance has, by far, nurtured the greatest number of innovators. Are all great bands born out of London or Los Angeles?
Nah, but the record labels sure are. And just like it’s harder to apply to be president of France if you’re living in Poland, for legal reasons as much as anything, great Latin sounds are not represented in the history of rock because of the distance to the labels and their music business. Sour Magic want to change this.
African-inspired Latin beats are slowly capturing the world’s imagination. Whether through breakout rock acts like Santana or through the latest pop or rap stars to enter the charts, those sounds are becoming familiar to the general public and show no signs of going away.
Sour Magic has a very clear mission on “En Camino (On My Way),” – write road music set to a cumbia beat. It’s a beat that has travelled all the way from Africa to the North of South America and is now exported to the rest of the world. It’s a song fitting of the start of a road movie. But it’s also a testament to the way that art travels, and the way that people can shape the world and do it for the better.
Luke Sweeney – Subsidize Our Rent
Hollywood seems interested, once again, in telling the story of young rock stars. You’ll buy tickets to that Bruce Springsteen bio that’s coming out the same way that you spent some cash on the Dylan movie, and you’ll every time that a Disney movie ends with a scene of the main character climbing on stage with a faux-rock band before the closing credits.
But the story of nearly every young rocker, except those born in London’s Kensington, can be summed up simply – the struggle to find cheap accommodation. It provides endless anxiety, makes some people want to leap off of tall buildings, and has forced musicians to make even more desperate choices, such as moving to Portland or Berlin back in the day.
As melodically pleasing as the late Brian Wilson, as clever as Jarvis Cocker and as pissed off as everyone protesting across the U.S.A., Luke Sweeney delivers the dream-pop sloganeering of “Subsidize Our Rent.” In a Summer where it feels increasingly likely that they’ll be charging Elon and Jeff’s house like they did the Bastille, Sweeney might have the best suggestion to appease the masses.
He argues that the heartless billionaires donate to the true creative spirits of the world. He’s not wrong, but he’s, you know… wrong to think it’ll happen. It’s back to scouting the map and packing up the van, I guess!
