A Tour of Germantown with Nashville Architect Nick Dryden
Here’s the best thing I’ve read all morning, courtesy of the fine folks over at Imogene+Willie.
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untitled by troystains.com on Flickr.
My good friend Troy Stains took this.
“Touch,” from Holy Other’s debut EP, has been on repeat all morning. And With U as a whole is slowly inching its way into my favorite albums of the year pool.
Critics’ Pick: Cass McCombs + Lower Dens
On loneliness, Cass McCombs and Lower Dens for the Scene.
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Sequoia by Marta Czosnowski on Flickr.
R. Stevie Moore / X
On the D.I.Y. legend R. Stevie Moore for the Scene and Yacht’s cover of X’s “Nausea” for MAGNET.
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Art/photography for Southern’s 11 Years EP, executed by the inimitable Michael Muller.
11 Years is out July 6th via digital retailers and hopefully too long after that on vinyl.
On Junior Boys
Unfortunately, I won’t be in attendance for Junior Boys’ Nashville appearance tomorrow evening, but I love the band so much that I Picked them in this week’s Scene anyway. These guys are seriously so good live — don’t miss this if you’re in town. Here’s my Pick:
“When most people ascribe the phrase “thinking man’s music” to a genre, they’re likely invoking some variation on folk or classical — certainly not synth pop. Aside from IDM and the growing number of modern compositions that undergird organic strings and woodwinds with synthetic beats, electronic music has historically been made to free its fans from thought. That, of course, is part of its appeal. Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan doesn’t believe it has to be an either/or proposition, however. Starting with 2009’s vastly underrated Begone Dull Care, an homage to the mid-century animator Norman McLaren, and continuing with It’s All True, the Canadian duo’s new album named for the unfinished Orson Welles documentary/propaganda piece that perpetuated the divide between the iconic director and Hollywood in the early ‘40s, Junior Boys have successfully married an academic thoughtfulness to a sound that’s typically reserved for venues brimming over with neon, booze and sweat. That’s not to suggest Junior Boys are immune to a good time — there has never been a shortage of svelte, stomp-inducing grooves on their albums or remixes for other artists — but the grand historical figures and inspirations Greenspan draws from should not be overlooked. For once, intellectual pursuit and fun aren’t mutually exclusive.”
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Southern
—Cahaba
I’ve been getting together sporadically to play music with two of my closest friends, Ryan Parrish (Hopesfall, Celebrity) and Patrick Copeland (Everett, The Glorious Unseen), since moving back to Nashville early last year. Though it’s been slow going, we finally put a name to our collective entity — Southern — and are about to self-release an EP via Bandcamp. “Cahaba” (streaming above) is the first we’ve shared of this material. “Cahaba” also features our great friend Aaron Ford (The Sincerity Guild, … Trail of Dead) on drums. Enjoy.
[Photo by Ethan Luck]
The Scene on the Sale of WRVU
The Nashville Scene’s coverage of the sale of student- and community-run 91.1 to WPLN is all must-read material. Part hard news, part editorial, part memory-sharing, it’s all extremely informative, heartwarming and, perhaps as a surprise to some, even-handed. Very proud of my colleagues over there today.
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