Take That Step #58

Kerry James Marshall

Beloved readers,

I'm on vacation :) Phew! Today’s newsletter talks about music.

1) I'm part of a group that dicusses music on WhatsApp and, the other day, a reporter who is there asked us: how do you discover new music?

I answered: constant Shazams while watching TV shows, movies, on the street, in restaurants, as well as Fresh Remix and Release Radar on Spotify, radio shows such as WFUV, music newsletters like David Byrne's and podcasts (I love Song Exploder, All Songs Considered, Do Vinil ao Streaming [hello, Daniel Setti!], Desert Island Discs, NPR Music, etc), Track Star (on YouTube or Instagram) and research bands that participate in festivals (like Coachella).

Most people responded similarly, with some adding radio shows like SiriusXM and others more specific like KUTX in Austin.

How do you discover new music?

2) Some songs that entered my life recently, I discovered through my friend DJ Renata do Vale.

And, in a restaurant, I recently chatted with a waiter from Puerto Rico who said: if you like Bad Bunny you will love this band (and they just released an album):

3) I’m reading a book about Björk — more specifically about the album Homogenic, my favorite! When I lived in Amsterdam back in 2002, I walked around the city listening to it on a discman. At that time, I listened to Björk on repeat and I was starting to love Radiohead (Kid A). To this day, when I hear these records, the feeling of exploring the Netherlands as a young dance student comes back. Ah, the power of music...!

4) And speaking of "good old" records, I listened to Los Hermanos and Alanis Morisette this week and also had this feeling of texture, as if a phase of my life came back to visit me.

5) One of my greatest musical pleasures (in the online world) has been to follow Track Star. I confess that I would love to be interviewed by the host to test my musical knowledge, hahaha! I love the impeccable curation he does to fit into each guest's repertoire. Questlove is in da house!:

6) Have you heard about this Instagram of a young man listening to the albums he inherited from his grandfather?

7) Now, let’s face it!, nothing is better than going to a concert of a band or singer we love. It's the closest I get to a religious experience:

8) The way we consume music has changed radically. I remember the CD cases in my car when I started driving in 1998, my tapes and CDs recorded by and to friends, the recordings made while the songs were playing on the radio!

I remember going to the movies pre-Shazam, taking a little pad to write down the lyrics of songs that played on the soundtrack and then humming it to my older brother to see if he would help me identify the mysterious track (he is a record collector). Today is all playlists, EP,s songs released loose — with no friends, hehe.

I don't consider myself very nostalgic, I love the present moment very much, but one thing I do miss is the concept of the album — the cover, the insert, the attention paid to the order of the songs, etc. That's why I still appreciate listening to an entire album. I feel that the record is an experience and I enjoy listening to an LP from beginning to end, when I can.

I've been in love with Feist and I've loved listening to this album, Metals, which is one of my favorites in life:

9) How do we escape the bubble and the algorithm? It is so cool to fight the algorithm! When I meet younger people (children and nephews of friends), I love to ask: what have you been listening to? That way, I don't get stuck in that idea that good music is that of "my time" (we tend to think the music that was fashionable when we were young is the ultimate best). It was in one of these conversations, a few years ago, that I discovered Childish Gambino:

And, in terms of covers, one of the masterpieces of the 21st century for me is this one, Frank Ocean by Wolfgang Tillmans:

10) I made an Italian playlist, to get into the mood of European summer: