Fresh Track + Video: The Coasts “No One’s Listening”
The Coasts are back! I had my doubts as to the staying power of this long distance affair, but it appears that theirs is a love worth saving. Little Rock, AR singer and guitarist Ike Peters collaborated with college pal, drummer and Ohio native Eric Mount to create one of my favorite records of 2011. The Coasts’ self-titled debut touched upon Americana, blues and indie rock to intersect at the sweet spot of my musical tastes. Despite the distance, Mount and Peters are poised to release a follow-up. The five-track Santa Fe EP should see daylight sometime in December.
We find The Coasts picking up where they left off on the EP’s first single. “No One‘s Listening” is a rollicking, toe-tapper with a Johnny Cash backbone that, on the surface, meditates on the nihilist notion that music has no intrinsic meaning. In Peters’ view, “It’s all subjective” and as such any meaning is derived from the listener. In other words, if a song falls in the woods, is it really a song? This is a relevant debate in an era where independent artists’ success or failure is determined, in large part, by word of mouth.
Peters isn’t all doom and gloom. He still believes in a song’s potential to impact a listener. But he knows all too well that such a scenario requires the audience to take a chance. “No One’s Listening” arrives with a terrific visual complement from WreckRoom Records. Keep your eyes peeled for more on Santa Fe EP as the release date approaches. In the meantime, watch and listen below.
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Written by Rob Peoni
Live Video: Woods “Bend Beyond”
Brooklyn’s Woods released a helluvan album last week that fellow ToT contributor Brett has been championing among our circle of friends. Below, you’ll find a live clip of Woods performing the lead-off, title track “Bend Beyond” at Storm King Art Center earlier this summer. The band takes the song to a jammier, spaced out frontier that is held in check on the album version. The footage was captured by the talented folks at Windows Have Eyes. Those viewers lacking the patience for dissonant, atmospheric layering may wish to jump to the 3-minute mark, but I strongly deter you from doing so. Pick up your copy of Bend Beyond from InSound.
Connect with Woods via Facebook | Twitter
Written by Rob Peoni
Live Video: Zap Mama “Abadou”
Zap Mama is a musical group that was founded in 1989 by Belgian and Congolese singer Marie Daulne. The group has released seven albums that span a vast array of genres, touching upon West African vocal arrangements and Western European and American R&B, jazz and hip hop. Daulne’s Zap Mama has taken on several forms since its inception, but none has achieved the critical acclaim of the original A Capella quintet featured on her 1993 debut Adventures in Afropea 1.
The record was initially released in Europe as a self-titled LP, before being reissued stateside as Adventures in Afropea 1 on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop Records. By the end of 1993, the album was Billboard’s top-seller in the “world music” genre. Adventures in Afropea 1 and follow-up Sabsylma draw most directly from the pygmy harmonies found in Daulne’s West-African roots. Though Zap Mama’s fame is relatively limited in terms of mass audience, the project’s influence continues to be felt in the vocal stylings of artists like Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs and Kristin Newborn of KO.
The video clip found below is taken from Zap Mama’s 1997 appearance on the short-lived PBS musical variety show Sessions at West 54th. The song “Abadou” is featured on Adventures in Afropea 1.
Connect with Zap Mama via Facebook | Twitter
Written by Rob Peoni
Thought on Tracks 