An Indie Scene that Comes with a Texas Twang in Denton

I like the idea of music destination travel (notice that’s the whole theme of this week’s nytimes travel section). I mean, I’ve traveled to go to particular concerts, I took off last month to hear the Santa Fe Opera, and have even traveled to hit a couple of festivals. But hitting the road to drop in on interesting local music sounds is something I’ve not yet done. The blues highway would probably be my first choice, but mostly because of otherwise general ignorance. Starting my file, though. Someday.

But I was surprised to see that some of the amateur political stuff is getting awfully good. Check out this ad. It’s not professional production, but it’s better than the pro ads at making a point without appealing to side issues*:

(* The ominous music (which I like as just music) might count as an emotional side appeal. Something serious but less end-of-world might be less manipulative)

Shows that the alternative to soft-sell doesn’t have to be sarcasm and silliness.

On Hicks’ second independent release, “Under the Radar”, there’s some very nice saxophone* work, like here -

The Deal

But there’s no sax credit on the album. The shoe-string effort may explain the omission. But as someone who values good liner notes and the skill of a good musician, i find it really regrettable when someone doesn’t get credit for their work. I’d heard from a couple of sources that the saxman here was Jeff Lopez, Hicks long-standing collaborator, but I didn’t hear it first hand from anyone actually involved on the album, so I was interested in seeing it finally confirmed.

But no such luck. I haven’t seen the actual album, but liner notes posted at a fan board (the “boogie” board) show no sax credit for the UTR songs. I’m assuming maybe what I saw isn’t all there is. There’s certainly no obvious excuse for leaving it out a second time, is there?

So. Someone who has the album, please tell me who the Radar saxman is, tell me he didn’t get stiffed again.

Because that would, well, just really blow.

(* if I’m whacked, and that’s just Brian Less doing trickery on the organ, then enlighten me. I’ll then be pissed for other reasons, but I could let the sax question go. But I don’t believe for a second it’s organ, it’s just my old academic style kicking in. Acknowledge possible counter arguments up front so they don’t get you on the flip side. Basically the same strategy as dealing with closet monsters).

Soulsville

Esperanza Spalding, Cantora de Yala

Esperanza Spalding is another of my “heard it on the radio” discoveries from this past spring. Though she also plays bass guitar from time to time, there’s nothing like the sound of that wood. Much of her stuff has a more dense instrumental mix, but I like the simple mix the best. Like a musical creme brulee.

Usually called “asides” or “miniposts”, these are small posts, usually just a link to some article elsewhere. I often run across something interesting, but don’t have much (or, really, anything) I want to add, so I don’t bother to post on it at all. Now, I’ll just toss them to the side, instead of tossing them to the curb.

Trying to be more clever than calling them asides, I started to call them bsides. Maybe I should have stuck with that, but I didn’t. I called them “elsewhat” (I’ve still got that “what” thing going, for some reason). Something tells me I won’t stick with that, but who knows.

EtA: yeah, the “elsewhat” had to go. It’s back to “bsides”. Maybe still too cute. Good thing about blogs: you can change just about anything.