Max's Music Mondays // 10.26.20
New platform, same ol' Max.
Happy Monday everybody,
Shoutout to each of you, with all my lungs and all my heart. Thanks for signing up and witnessing (and trusting me with) the first ever, non-text Max’s Music Mondays. It was incredibly inspiring to see your names adding to the subscriber list - names from all parts of my life. It’s a friendly reminder of how music connects, and that’s corny as could be lol so it’s probably time to get on with the tunes. In a normal week this intro would be about trick or treating but the trick is I don’t have candy just music, or something like that. Anyways, I hope you enjoy how high tech this is, because I am giddy!!
Zucchini Dreams (Aubergine Memories) - Saya Gray. There isn’t a more fitting song to carry us from text to substack. Let’s not just overlook that it has taught me how to spell ‘zucchini’ which I am very grateful for. But it’s so much more. The song itself splits in two wild and distinct pieces matching the title: a dream, a memory. The dream section is dramatic, emotional, and yearning. Its structure mimics a dream, flowing perfectly but with an unfamiliar feel that makes me unsure of where we came from and where we’re going. Gray’s vocals open in that lower register, gruff and direct. That gnarly little riff pulls us up to Gray’s insane melody - a melody I haven’t been able to shake, even before I learned the lyrics. Just walking around town singing “I pull up….”. Another riff, another shift, as stunning vocal layers carry Gray through a stretching, extending chorus. Back to the top, but this time around the gruffness has faded, settling into a more comfortable tone. We pass to that magical melody with “I show up”, and folks, it gets me every time. That second of silence at 1:08 begs for a massive drop but the control to only allow the guitar soothes me in a different way, staying true to the dream vibes. Our good buddy The Riff returns to change the scene once more, its bold heaviness cutting through the entire production. One last chorus gives way to section two: the memory. The production, complete with angelic ooo’s feels much more reliable. Gray delivering a subtle inner monologue, both a beautiful meditation and some self-assurance. Special moments from the bass, standing out amidst the calm. As the outro washes us out, I can’t help but be in awe. It’s wonderfully unique and I can’t get it out of my head.
Simple Life - Maybe Babs. *Sad song warning* please BYO tissues. You can instantly feel the heaviness in that first guitar line, the kick drum like footsteps in the distance. Those first bends from the pedal steel… a performance you can feel weeping alongside of us. Maybe Babs’ recasts these personal interactions, each brief but visceral, and I find it mesmerizing. Simple and gripping stories, doubling down on each last line, the pedal steel bending away and then back again, a moment of relief and reflection. Reflection that pushes us forward. I’m grateful for the drum's consistency when MB drops lines like “I felt her reaching out to me to get to you”. There’s a sense that without it, this could all fall apart as MB revisits hard memories. The song charts the story of people reckoning with an emptiness created by a lost friend and people trying to find that soul through others. We see the friend for the first time in the next two verses, pair that with these airy gentle vocals and I can’t help but smh at just how beautiful this all is. So generous to explore such a clearly personal emptiness with your audience, “You were already gone, even way back then” a dagger. On a lighter note, we get a needed steel x piano moment to soothe the soul. That final verse a continuation on the theme, Maybe Babs still looking for, reaching out for this presence. The whole song gets a little spooky here at the end, wind whirling as you can feel the singer’s reach come up empty. This one feels more powerful and wise with every listen. I’m excited for more from Maybe Babs, a Montreal-based, self-proclaimed “appalachian emo” artist.
In Case You Missed It
New and improved!!! We got new songs + brief thoughts, and other collected links.
New tune from lavender feels like the sun peeking through on a fall day. Another cozy one from Arlo Parks. Jean Dawson breaking out the A$AP feature, my goodness. A stunning return for Buzzy Lee. An utterly inventive and kind of scary(?!?) single from Terrell Hines. And of course the new Adrianne Lenker releases, which gave us this profile which I am obsessed with and blown away by and can’t stop thinking about.
As always, you can find a lot of these and a whole lot more over on the playlists. Max’s Music Mondays and Max’s Music All The Other Days.
Have a nice Halloween, your friend,
Max