Songs of May 2020

Don't Let the Kids Win

Strange Cacti

Some things Cosmic

ladybird

New single from Lowpines. Released to coincide with a UK wide tour with Benjamin Francis Leftwich. Lowpines (Oli Deakin) has been writing and producing with Benjamin and others for the past few years and has performed with him live all over the world. This single was recorded in Brooklyn during a break between tours, self-produced by Lowpines.

Lyrics:

Full of distraction
Troubles untold
Wearing that sadness 
In the folds of My clothes  
You didn’t see it 
Or maybe you did 
It’s not like I tried all that hard 
To keep it hid
  
You ask me to build  
While the world stands still  
I am willing but I don’t know how 
Let cold winds blow 
Til the snow blocks the road 
I will follow in the  Path of the plough  

Pressed to the window 
Face to the glass 
Trying to listen for the trains 
As they pass 
They sing through the branches
Whales in the night 
And shots in the distance keep 
Trying to change my mind  
You ask me to build  
While the world stands still  
I am willing but I don’t know how 
Let cold winds blow 
Til the snow blocks the road 
I will follow in the 
Path of the plough

Path Of The Plough

Love In Mine

You know when you have a really solid and strong plan and a dream you believe in, and suddenly you wake up one day with loads of doubts and asking yourself if it’s a good plan anymore?? Listen to my latest track Not Anymore if you want some #relatablecontent !

Listen: heistorh.it/notanymore

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Not Anymore

S.O.S

Pressure

Amanda Tenfjord - Pressure

30 miles west of El Paso, surrounded by 3,000 acres of pecan orchards and only a stone’s throw from the Mexican border, the band Big Thief (a.k.a. Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik, and James Krivchenia) set up their instruments as close together as possible to capture their most important collection of songs yet. The band had only just finished work on their 3rd album, U.F.O.F. -“the celestial twin”- days before in a cabin studio in the woods of Washington State. Now it was time to birth U.F.O.F.’s sister album -“the earth twin”- Two Hands. 

In sharp contrast to the wet environment of the U.F.O.F. session, the southwestern Sonic Ranch studio was chosen for its vast desert location. The 105-degree weather boiled away any clinging memories of the green trees and wet air of the previous session. Two Hands had to be completely different— an album about the Earth and the bones beneath it. The songs were recorded live with almost no overdubs. All but two songs feature entirely live vocal takes, leaving Adrianne’s voice suspended above the mix in dry air, raw and vulnerable as ever. Where U.F.O.F. layered mysterious sounds and effects for levitation, Two Hands grounds itself on dried-out, cracked desert dirt. 

Anybody who has borne witness to Big Thief in the wild will find songs they recognize here. Much of the album’s tracks (“The Toy”, “Those Girls”, “Shoulders”, “Not”, “Cut My Hair”) have been live staples for years. “Two Hands has the songs that I’m the most proud of; I can imagine myself singing them when I’m old,” says Adrianne. “Musically and lyrically, you can’t break it down much further than this. It’s already bare-bones.” 

Lyrically this can be felt in the poetic blur of the internal and external. These are political songs without political language. They explore the collective wounds of our Earth. Abstractions of the personal hint at war, environmental destruction, and the traumas that fuel it. Lyrics like “And the blood of the man who killed my mother with his hands is in me/ it’s in me/ in my veins” are genuine attempts to point the listener towards the very real dangers that face our mother planet. When Adrianne sings “Please wake up,” she’s talking directly to the audience. “Attention is power,” she says. “I believe you can manifest something on the other side of the world just by using your power well.” 

Engineer Dom Monks and producer Andrew Sarlo, who were both behind U.F.O.F., capture the live energy as instinctually and honestly as possible. Sarlo teamed up with James Krivchenia to mix the album, where they sought to emphasize raw power and direct energy inherent in the takes. The journey of a song from the stage to the record is often a difficult one. Big Thief’s advantage is their bond and loving center as a chosen family. They spend almost 100% of their lives together working towards a sound that they all agree upon. A band with this level of togetherness is increasingly uncommon. If you ask drummer James Krivchenia, bassist Max Oleartchik or guitarist Buck Meek how they write their parts, they will describe—passionately—the experience of hearing Adrianne present a new song, listening intently for hints of parts that already exist in the ether and the undertones to draw out with their respective instruments. It is an honor to give life to these intricacies. 

With raw power and intimacy, Two Hands folds itself gracefully into Big Thief’s impressive discography. This body of work grows deeper and more inspiring with each new album. While you listen, let your own two hands rest in front of your body with palms facing inward and see what power grows between them.

We are not music snobs. We prefer music connoisseurs.

Love In Mine

Big Thief

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