When the best of late ’60s music is discussed, it’s hard not to name Fame Recording Studios and Muscle Shoal Sound Studio and its collective soul artists and session musicians that created a longstanding sound and revered groove that still permeates today.
NYC artist Boris Pelekh (NME, Brooklyn Vegan, Consequence) is getting ready to release his debut EP I See It Now (out June 24), a collection of gentle indie-folk meditations with psychedelic undertones, soul-baring vocals and intimate incantations of love restored. A seasoned veteran of the New York music scene and ace guitarist for Gogol Bordello, Pelekh has toured around the world, sharing stages with iconic artists spanning from Aretha Franklin to Philip Glass to Wu-Tang Clan.
Katelyn Weisbrod interviews Dr. James Kahn as part of her article, Warming Trends: Forests Are the Best Big-City Water Filters, Plus Veggie Burgers by Default, Sea Songs by ET’s Doctor and a Reminder to Eat Fresh Food in the Fridge
KW: Why did you choose to have each song on the album be a sea shanty?
JK: I decided to write a whole album of shanties about various contemporary dilemmas, primarily climate dilemmas, but environmental crises in various ways. So there’s a couple songs specifically about climate change, some about habitat loss and species die offs and Covid-19. Shanties were originally written as work songs by the sailors of the 17th and 18th centuries facing stormy seas and the elements and I felt like we’re going, metaphorically, and in some cases, specifically, physically going through the same things. We have our own storms that we’re trying to weather and face, and it seemed like the shanty was a good genre to talk about those things that we’re facing, those elemental crises.
In just a few weeks, Portland-based melodic punk outfit theWorst is set to return with their sophomore record Yes Regrets. The new record is both the band’s most energetic and personal effort yet, exploring guitarist and vocalist Brooke Binion’s experience with addiction and recovery amidst explosive punk songwriting. READ MORE…
Hailing from Philly, Suzanne Sheer is an R&B powerhouse who has an interesting take on her song “Girls on the Internet.” Starting from a place of bitter resentment and jealousy for said girls’ flawlessness, Sheer turns it around into transcendence that leads to admiration and affirmation.
After nearly a decade in New York City, alt-country rocker Whitney Lockert finds refuge and renewal in Los Angeles and classic country/rock songcraft on his sophomore LP, Long Way to California (out July 15). The record plays like a series of musical postcards from pasts and futures, both real and imagined, and draws on Lockert’s varied work with artists like Nigerian reggae star Majek Fashek, and former lead guitarist of The Black Crowes, Marc Ford.