#photos are by melodie mcdaniel

[twinsfawn]

very dead wife montage of him

[lyssahumana]

[teenagedirtstache]

Deotur March 1996 photos Melodie McDaniel

[pale-opaque]

Miki Berenyi ❀ Lush

photos by Melodie McDaniel

[sinceileftyoublog]

Avey Tare Interview: Making Sound And Putting It Together

Photo by Amy Grace

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When you’re listening to Avey Tare solo or even his work with Animal Collective, you’re waiting for that moment: a scream, a jittery melody, chaotic percussion that pans throughout the speakers like ping-pong balls. His latest album, 7s (Domino), has almost none of that. A subdued, reflective affair, 7s was born out of a desire to collaborate. In 2020, Animal Collective had just finished making Time Skiffs remotely, and Dave Portner wanted to channel his creative energy into in-person collaboration. Of course, during the early stages of the pandemic, the inability to (wisely) be in the same room as many others disrupted just about every facet of life, let alone every line of work. Portner, ironically situated in the musical mecca of Asheville, where he’d have a murderer’s row of collaborative choices any other time, felt depressed, and a bit lost. Luckily, he did have Adam McDaniel and Drop of Sun.

Unlike on his past records, Portner went into 7s with very little ideas of how his songs, casually written during 2020, would take shape. During the first week of 2021, he and McDaniel spent three days with achievable goals--a guitar part here, percussion there--and emerged happy even if they only got half done what they set out to do. It’s these initial sketches that inform the aesthetic and ultimate vibe of 7s. The first song Portner had for it was the 9-and-a-half-minute centerpiece “Hey Bog”, originally written to play on his 2019 tour for Cows on Hourglass Pond. Ambient and rubbery, it’s easy to get lost in before strumming and thumping percussion enter, his ethereal, yet outwardly emotive singing combining with the instrumentation to make a sort of New Age acid house. The rest of the songs were sculpted around “Hey Bog”, from the trilling tribute to essential workers and good deeds, “Invisible Darlings”, to the ever-anxious shuffle “Sweeper’s Grin”. Though Portner’s words are devotional and grateful, they’re also extremely uncertain. On “The Musical”, he converses with himself, questioning how he came to be as a musician. The woozy closer “Cloud Stop Rest Start” seems to be one of many moments where he questions humanity’s motives, referring to the impersonal nature of COVID data and inherent, yet unavoidable selfishness of living during a pandemic. “Oh American stranger, is it always like this? Losing things to spikes and the ups and downs?” he sings. 

Those ups and downs, albeit of a different type, have continued ever since for Portner. Of course, live music would return about a year and a half later thanks to an unprecedented, life-saving vaccine, but the still volatile nature of COVID would mean Animal Collective had to cancel their EU/UK tour as recently as last October. Time Skiffs and 7s were released last year and this February to critical acclaim, and Portner still finds time to work with McDaniel. “We’ll...just get together and make something and record,” he told me over the phone from his home last month. “He’s always down.” Portner knows that there will be trials and tribulations, but just like his and Animal Collective’s approach to playing live, it seems as though he’s starting to look at everything--studio albums, careers, life, and everything in between--with a sense of wondrous improvisation and honesty, no matter how messy.

Read my conversation with Portner below, edited for length and clarity. Catch Avey Tare at Sleeping Village tomorrow night. Lipsticism, the solo project of local musician and producer Alana Schachtel, opens.

Since I Left You: Animal Collective finished Time Skiffs remotely, and it led to a creative streak for you at a time when people were working by themselves. What specifically for you led to this period of being prolific?

Dave Portner: When I have time around the house or time off from touring, I try to write songs. It’s a big part of my day, my time in the studio, my work. During the transition from 2020 to 2021 in particular, I was getting more and more depressed about being cut off from collaborating musically with people. It’s such a big part of my life. We had planned to record Time Skiffs together in the studio, and that couldn’t happen. [It] isn’t a bad thing in terms of process, but quarantine and 2020 and the pandemic, having me shut in so much and not able to do anything beyond going outside of my studio, led to a lot of cabin fever. I was craving musical collaboration with somebody.

It worked out that Adam McDaniel, my friend, had this studio called Drop of Sun. We just decided to be really relaxed about it. I had a lot of time around the house, so I started writing these songs. [We blocked] off three days at the beginning of January [2021], because I had to get out of my house and into another musical environment. At that time, Drop of Sun was one nice studio room in his basement, and the whole Drop of Sun team was working on building this new studio, which was done by the time we started the mixing stage. But even starting in his basement, it was nice and crucial to be able to bounce ideas off somebody. I didn’t have a huge game plan, just basic structures of songs I wanted to start working on and see where they would go.

SILY: After this time period of less collaboration or remote collaboration, it seems like the journey from the demos to the finished product was pretty seamless. It that true, or were there bumps in the road?

DP: No, it felt really good. We started with three days, and when they ended, we wished we had more time. We had to do other things here and there. Allowing myself to step away from things and go in every day with a goal of, [for instance, “ finish] this guitar part” or a few ideas I wanted to accomplish, [felt] really good. We started wanting to do more and more. 

At the beginning, I didn’t know what 7s was. It was just me recording some songs. As we got towards the end, I was still working on “Invisible Darlings” and wanted to get that in the fold. I had “Hey Bog” already, which I wrote in 2019 when I had solo shows and wanted to put new songs into the set. I wanted to record that one for a while. Since I knew it would be a centerpiece, or at least on the record, it was a matter of fitting other songs around it. I think that’s why 7s feels like it has one foot in the past and one foot in the present and future. I wanted everything to feel cohesive and not too random; it was just a matter of building it from the bottom up in Drop of Sun. That’s not usually how I do my solo records. Typically, I’m planning them beforehand when I’m off from Animal Collective, and I know what I want to do. This one was created as we went, even though the songs were kind of written.

SILY: Do you think the casual vibe of the recording made its way into the quality of the songs? “Hey Bog” and “Sweeper’s Grin” are relaxed, reflective, melancholy songs. In other words, did the anomaly in process allow the songs to breathe more?

DP: Definitely. Having a lot of time at home to work on stuff and play them, it was a very introspective time. There were melancholy thoughts that went along with that, and there were happy thoughts, joyous thoughts, anger. Music and making and recording music is often a very cathartic process, especially when I’m doing stuff at my home studio. I’m working through a lot. The same is the case with 7s. I [was] working through the emotions when recording and doing the vocal parts. Some of the vocal parts were written and created as I was recording them. It’s really relaxed working with Adam, because we’re good friends, and at the time, there was nobody else around, so we set our own limits and time and let it feel good. “The Musical” and “Invisible Darlings” had a couple different versions we tried, and having the time to not feel rushed about it helped them because we took the time to really find the place for them.

SILY: This all reminds me of when you sing on “Sweeper’s Grin”, “Happy to be carefree / Do tell.” 

DP: It’s kind of a cynical question. Some interpret that as me saying I’m happy to be carefree, but it’s really somebody else saying they’re happy to be carefree, and I’m like, “Oh, really? Do tell.” What’s there to be happy about? The world is crumbling. That’s not my typical worldview or outlook on life, but it comes into my mind sometimes. That side is there, so I want it to be there.

SILY: Is that also why you decided to end the record with “Cloud Stop Rest Start”, a bit more of an uneasy track?

DP: For sure. I also didn’t see that song going anywhere else.

SILY: On “The Musical”, you sing, “I wonder, how is it explained that a person comes into the field of making sound and putting it together.” Was that something you were wondering especially when making 7s? Is that a question you get asked a lot?

DP: I feel like I’ve [lately] been a lot more interested in conversational songwriting. That’s me starting to mess around with that, which isn’t something I’ve done before. I haven’t been so personal about my process of making music and my place in music. Asheville is a musical place. I’m around a lot of musicians, and there’s a lot of history of music with Appalachia, people doing all kinds of stuff. Being in this environment, I have friends that play music for the joy of making music, and they’re not so interested in a record contract. 

There are a lot of people in the music industry frustrated or trying to figure it out for themselves. It’s been a transitional period, which I was feeling at the time. I had a lot of thoughts about Animal Collective and 2020 and the pandemic. It was a big shift for us. This wasn’t an attempt to answer those questions, just saying what’s on my mind.

SILY: Last October, Animal Collective cancelled their European tour. It seemed like a reality check for people not in the music industry, to see this very successful band unable to tour for financial reasons. Do you still sort of feel like you’re in that transitional phase?

DP: There were a lot of factors that went into cancelling that tour. In some ways, the band is always in a transitional phase because there are so many things we want to do alone and together. It gets complicated to map out. There’s a need these days to really map out your future in the music industry, and probably in a lot of other fields of work and life. People need to plan far in advance, which is difficult for us, being so spread apart. There’s a lot of complicated things that go into setting up a tour and getting together to practice. There were a lot more hurdles, the fact that COVID was still peaking pretty hard during the tour, and having gone through cancelling shows because two of the band members got COVID, myself being one of them. The risks were just too high. It wasn’t fully because we were in transition, but beyond that, the music industry is in transition. Musicians need to get on the same plane and same field and work together a bit more. I think we can work through the transition to make tours happen and not have these kind of worries, and make everyone who wants to tour able to tour. There are so many musicians and bands out there that want to tour, and because we’re such a name already and people know us, it’s fairly easy for us to get shows. I feel like stepping back and letting newer musicians [step up] is the right thing to do, to let people have their chance. It’s tough these days.

SILY: Do you think something like the Union of Musicians & Allied Workers is a step in achieving more equitable touring?

DP: I think so. There’s a certain state of being and frame of mind. A lot of musicians have different goals. For some, it’s not all about making money. There are many different reasons to do it. That kind of thing is helpful, but I don’t think you’re going to get everybody on the same page. It’s a little bit more than just getting everybody in the same union.

SILY: You just mentioned that you feel like other industries are also in flux, which reminds me to ask: On “Invisible Darlings”, are you singing about essential workers during the pandemic?

DP: I am, yeah. I’m trying to sing about anybody that would go unnoticed in your regular day. It could be an essential worker. There are people in the music industry that do a lot for a band that take a lot of crap, too, or are overlooked when they make the night go as smoothly as the music does. It’s also about people that do simple, good deeds, like holding the door open for someone else or pick up a fallen bag of groceries.

SILY: Is the album title simply a reference to the number of songs on the album?

DP: It is, but 7 is an important number for me. I wanted to have that energy be part of the record once it seemed like 7 songs is the way to go. I usually run with stuff like that on my solo records and Animal Collective records. 

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

DP: I’m really into collage and trying to take my own visual art in different directions. It’s some sort of landscape, for me, the psychological landscape of the record. You could call it dreamlike, and I’ve referred to it as surreal, even though that’s pretty vague. I’m influenced by the surrealists and [André] Breton’s work.

SILY: Do you think the music on this record is equally influenced by surreal visual artists?

DP: I’m very influenced by visual mediums, film, art that I see that affects me. During the writing and recording of Time Skiffs, I had been reading a lot of surrealist essays, diving deep into the short stories and essays of surrealist writers.

SILY: During recording, do you ever have images projected or displayed to inspire you?

DP: I do. We’ve done that with Animal Collective since Feels. Projections, visual accompaniments. In my own studio, maybe not when recording, but when writing or jamming, I’ll put something from my computer on and let it play. Old cartoons--I was in a real Rocky and Bullwinkle phase. He-Man. Any 50′s/60′s abstract avant-garde stuff. It’s all over the place for me.

SILY: How are you adapting these tracks to a live show as compared to how you’ve adapted past material?

DP: I’m trying to keep the set pretty diverse. I’m playing from all my records. In terms of playing live, I’m never trying to recreate the record. That’s not very interesting to me. A live experience, as a performer, and I hope for the audience, too, should be something different. If you want to listen to the record, you can stay home and listen to the record. There are strengths to [7s], though, that I can’t look past. [I want to keep] pretty true to the vibe of the record. It’s just gonna be me on stage, using sequencers and playing guitar, mostly. I’ll do some acoustic songs. I want it to also feel organic and like a live experience. It’s a balance between finding the strength of the record and feeling like I’m making something as I go.

SILY: What else is next for you and the band?

DP: We’re finishing up a new Animal Collective record. We hope we can put it out this year, but that will depend on our label. I’m finishing the artwork now.

SILY: How did you find the experience scoring The Inspection? Would you do it again in the future?

DP: Definitely. That’s something else we’re trying to wade into more and more and get deep into, being able to do scores and have a reputation  as musicians who would like to do that. The Inspection was a positive step in that direction. It got some good attention. It was tough work. It was a challenge to step out of our Animal Collective comfort zone, which is how doing scores is gonna be. It’s a driving factor in our creative communications: We look for challenges, for things outside of ourselves to instigate a change for us. Having a cool film to score is just what we need in that regard. It’s an added creative outlet for us. [We made] a long format video, ODDSAC, with our friend Danny Perez. We’ve always loved psychedelic, horror, and sci-fi films, which is why The Inspection, [a drama based on a true story,] was [even more of] a challenge.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

DP: Right now, I’m reading a collection of short stories called Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki. I’m a big sci-fi fan. Music-wise, it’s all over the place. I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff from my vinyl collection, a lot of older stuff, since I’ve been working on artwork and [that’s] where my turntable is. I listen to a lot of jazz, Chico Hamilton, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra. When I’m making visual art, I listen to less cohesive, more improvised stuff to get in that zone. I like the record that Eric Copeland and Josh Diamond made last year, Riders on the Storm. Good electronic grooves. I like a record called Felicita by Anadol. It’s a little more out-there, [an] experimental record. A lot of the bands that I have opening for me on tour, Paradot and Anastasia Coope, have music they’ve just put out or [that’s] coming out that I’ve been listening to a lot. That’s why they’re opening up for me.

[black-arcana]

Reese Witherspoon -  The Hollywood Reporter magazine 2019 Photographed by Melodie McDaniel

[twixnmix]

Madonna and Dennis Rodman photographed by Melodie McDaniel for Vibe magazine, 1994.

Dennis Rodman:

In April, one of her people called and asked me to come to Miami because Madonna was going to interview me for Vibe, the hip-hop magazine. They told me the magazine had assigned her to do an interview of me, and it was supposed to be the cover story—with photos and the interview—for the June 1994 issue....

I didn’t like her work at all. I didn’t like her music. I told her that too. I thought she was a brilliant entertainer, but her music wasn’t my style. She changed with the album called Bedtime Stories. It was pretty cool, but a lot of people didn’t accept it.  After we went through the introductions at her house, she did the interview. She sat there and took notes and everything. She had questions ready, all written down. After we did some of the interview, they started doing the photo shoot and We were gust all over each other. From the first photo we were covering each other. I didn’t care if it was Madonna or not, to me it was just another girl and we were on each other. They ended the photo shoot before we got too carried away. We ended up going out to the gay bar—that was an experience.... 

Eventually we went back to her house. I got in the house and headed for the spare bedroom. I was all set to just go in there and crash, but Bryne was already asleep in there.  Before I could ask where I should go, Madonna looked at me all sexy and said, “YOU’RE STAYING WITH ME, IN MY ROOM.” There was no doubt that she wasn’t going to let me go in the other room, whether Bryne was in there or not. Then she shut the door and told her manager, “He’ll be with me.” So I laid my head where all the other mongrels had. First thing you know—boom!—we're messing around. We sort of picked up where we left off during the photo shoot, except this time there was nobody watching....

As it turned out, the Vibe magazine story was real, but it never appeared in the magazine. I found out later they didn't like the way it turned out, so they scrapped it.

Source: Bad As I Wanna Be (1996)

[joeinct]

Morganne with Ebony, Photo by Melodie McDaniel, 2017

[peterbuckmichaelstiperem4ever]

Poster from the 1993 fanclub Christmas package. Photo by Melody McDaniel.

[fashiongonerogue-blog]

Photo: Melodie McDaniel

[what-if-rpg]

Welcome to the family, NATALIE! Your application to HARMONY PEARCE was accepted. I am really happy to give you your second character! Make sure to read the beginners checklist, and remember, have fun! I can’t wait to roleplay with you! Have fun!

IN CHARACTER

CHARACTER NAME: Harmony Rose Pearce CHARACTER AGE & DATE OF BIRTH: 25 ;; August 3rd, 1993 OCCUPATION: No official job. Does help out a drug dealer when needed. FACE CLAIM: Lindsay Pearce HOMETOWN & CITY WHERE LIVES NOW: Defiance, Ohio ;; currently travels between Lima, Ohio and New York SEXUAL ORIENTATION & GENDER: Pansexual & Female RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single POSITIVE TRAITS: Ambitious, Brave, Honest NEGATIVE TRAITS: Obsessive, Impatient, Hot-Tempered CHARACTER QUOTE/LYRIC: “The stars we’re seeing have already been dead for millions of years. They’re all… lies.” SECONDARY CHARACTER CHOICE: N/A

HEADCANONS

When Harmony Pearce was in school, was the perfect student and daughter: she had a 4.0 GPA, talents that excelled many, and a wit that won over everyone’s heart. She dipped her toes in anything she could, from science to art, to sports to drama. Harmony was not afraid to try anything new. Of course, everybody knew that her dream was the Broadway stage. She worked her tail off– for the lack of a better term– to make sure she would be accepted into NYADA. All her free time went to polishing her skills and making sure that she was the best of the best. It worked, she was accepted and was ready to set sails to New York.

Graduation, Harmony began to pack her things. Her room was ready and all in boxes, all she needed were the important documents, like her birth certificate. She didn’t think that she would have needed her parents’ permission to seek out her own files, so they didn’t know that she had been digging through the office. Maybe if they had, they would have approached the situation differently. What she found in her file, yes, was her birth certificate, but it wasn’t her mom’s name that was listed under ‘mother’s name’. A woman named Sandra Bowers took that spot. Harmony waited for her parents to arrive home, and when they did she confronted her parents straight away. They were not compliant at first and attempted to turn the tables on her first ‘why were you going through the files?’, ‘calm down’. There was no calming down and Harmony knew that she had every right to go through her own documents. Finally, they gave up the fight and admitted to her that while her father was her biological father, the stranger named Sandra Bowers was her biological mother. According to her parents, Sandra had abandoned Harmony and her father when she was still a baby, though they didn’t share why.

As planned, she moved to New York. She left many of her things behind when she did. She attended NYADA, but she didn’t have the best reputation. Her silly wit soon became harsh sarcasm, if she didn’t get what she wanted, she would throw tantrums to the point of being kicked out of class. It was safe to say that soon enough, she was dropped from all her classes; maybe the old Harmony would have cared, but the new one just found it to be a sign to find Sandra and confront her about the abandonment. Harmony became obsessed with the woman named Sandra Bowers. She took jobs in towns where a woman under that name lived, only to leave when she discovered that she had the wrong person. No one from her past knows where Harmony is, and a large part of her wishes to keep it that way.

She crashed on other’s people’s couches and worked a waitress position and even found an apartment with an open room, though the apartment itself was filled with numerous people who she did not get along with. She kept to herself and focused on researching different archives to find information on where her mother was. Unfortunately, the time in the apartment was cut short once more people moved into the apartment and were going to be bunked in her room. After a breakdown, Harmony took her things and left, leaving her homeless. She, again, would crash on people’s couches but when she was fired due to her attitude and tardiness, she was unable to pay those who would let her sleep in their homes. She spent almost four months on the streets, picking up odd jobs and sometimes even sneaking into gyms or using beach showers to keep up her hygiene.

One day, Harmony stepped into a pawn shop to sell some of her jewelry to earn some food money. The man in front of her was trying to sell off some coins, and the shop keep would not take them for a fair price. Taking the opportunity, Harmony harped on about how the coins were actually worth far more than he wanted to take them for and made up a story on how her father would buy them for a “pretty penny”. Taking the bait, the man upped the price and took the coins. When Harmony sold her jewelry afterwards and stepped out, the stranger stepped up to her and offered to buy her dinner. Seeing how she wasa starving, she accepted and was taken to a diner. He paid for her food, allowing her to order anything she wanted. He opened up, stating that he needed someone like her, someone who can sell. At first, Harmony didn’t understand, but she slowly realized what exactly he was selling: pills and weed. She didn’t want to take the offer, but he told her that she could live with him in his RV, have a safe place until she could pick herself back up. With that, she accepted.

During their travels, the two found themselves in Ohio. Harmony didn’t want to “cave in” but she figured that enough years have passed to have closure. So, she stepped out one night and went to her father’s house. She walked in and saw that all her photos were taken down and they were happy without her. Since then, Harmony began to spiral, nearly forgetting why she left her father’s home in the first place.

CONNECTIONS

Mr. & Mrs Pearce: The Pearce family has tried to move on from Harmony’s disappearance, unknowingly seeming as though they want nothing to do with the awol daughter. Sandra Bowers (Birth mother): Harmony’s birth mother, Sandra Bowers, “abandoned” Harmony when she was about two years old. Her location is currently unknown. Un-named cousin: Harmony lived with a distant cousin when she first moved away from home, but after she was kicked out of NYADA, she packed up her things and left. Their relationship was strained due to her personality change. Lucas McDaniels: A drug dealer who took Harmony off the streets and is having her help him deliver and sell drugs. The two seem to have a friends with benefits relationship. Capella Lamb (Aunt): Harmony does not know anything about her aunt, or that she exist. Capella lived with Sandra and their mother, who had changed her last name to Lamb after leaving her husband– Capella and Sandra’s (her sister’s) father. She currently lives with her niece, Melody. Melody Lamb (Sister):  Harmony does not know anything about her sister, or that she exist.  Melody Lamb was born in New Jersey on November of 1995. For a long time, it was her, her mother, grandmother, and aunt. They moved between Philadelphia and New York for the first ten years of her life before settling down in upstate New York. When Melody was nineteen when she ended up alone with her aunt. Melody does not know who her father is or that she has a sister.

[madonnahistoryoriginalpage]

“ GIRLIE SHOW TOUR BOOK ” – 1993 Photos by Wayne Maser, Melodie McDaniel, Steven Meisel, Herb Ritts, Alan Silfen, Ellen von Unwerth & Siung Fat Tjia.💓💓#madonnafamily #madonnafans #blondambition #madonnahistory #madge #M #fashionblogger #fashion #music #diva #mdnaskin #madonna #queenofpop #queen #magic #M14 https://www.instagram.com/p/BpGtq0lCKPK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1fe9jrrjthbm5

[hillbillyhippiemusicreview]

OVERTONES LIVE CEMENTS ITS REPUTATION AS A VALUABLE ASSET TO THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE WITH 100th SHOW

By: Lyssa Culbertson

Renee Collins Cobb & Rachel Crowe; Photo by Arden Barnes

Music is a labor of love, whether you’re writing it, playing it, listening to it, promoting it, or involved in any facet in the industry. Anyone who knows anything knows that it’s not a profession—or hobby—you embark on to get rich: it’s heart work. It’s the soul of the matter. It’s the spirit of the passion. It’s a labor of love that takes a village to keep alive. Renee Collins Cobb, host of Overtones Live, is a force who embodies all of those qualities in her devotion to the Appalachian music scene. Along with her co-host Rachel Crowe, they showcase regional acts live from the historic and world-famous Austin City Saloon in Lexington, KY on Overtones LIVE. Not only is the show special because of the music it bestows upon the world from its grassroots framework, but it’s unique because it’s solely female ran—an impressive feat in today’s typically male-dominated industry.

Now entering its 100th show on March 10th, Overtones LIVE has provided a stage for countless artists to shine and share their gifts with audiences over the years. With its humble beginnings as a radio show recorded for Lexington Community Radio set at The Lyric Theater in Lexington for its first 75 episodes from January 2018-2020, the show has now grown to its current home at Austin City Saloon and is broadcasting on air at Radiolex WLXU, Forward KY Radio, WFMP, Pickup Country WSKV, and Trendkill Radio. Overtones’ format was unique due to its efforts to focus on the multicultural and multigenerational melting pot of genres and sounds found within the Appalachian region, with hour long shows showcasing four diverse acts and their unique sounds. In addition to live music played by some of the area’s finest, the show featured regular segments such as the inspirational “Talking About My Generation,” where according to Renee, “parent-child musical dream teams congregated in the studio to talk about what being a musician looked like and behaved like in their own generation and also opened a forum of productive discussion on what each generation feels they have and can learn from the other generation,” as well as the quarterly “Faculty Meeting” that brought together music faculty from across Kentucky from private studios to public universities, who also had ties into the local music scene. Throughout the duration of the show in its initial years, the music was flowing and listeners were sonically hungry for all the new artists that Overtones LIVE put on their paths. Renee, Rachel, and their team exemplified the notion of service throughout their devotion to artists and live music in the area.

Especially amidst a pandemic. Despite changing times brimming with uncertainty, Renee didn’t lose her vision or drive to serve the music world and found innovative ways to stay on the airwaves to bring the tunes to listeners once The Lyric shutdown due to COVID-related struggles. From March to June, the melodies continued to play out amongst the airwaves by reformulating and repurposing the shows to reflect Tributes to The Men of The Bluegrass, The Women of The Bluegrass, The Bands of the Bluegrass and Tributes to Harlan, Morehead, Eastern Kentucky and Louisville. Additionally, there was a Tributes to Teachers show, featuring Kentucky musicians who also serve as educators within the state, such as David and Teresa Prince—Appalachian royalty also known by their stage names Laid Back Country Picker and Honey. With easing restrictions came a traveling roadshow, as the Overtones LIVE crew traveled to the homes of musicians with home studios to record in, including frequent guests Mama Said String Band at Wave Garden Studio in Indiana.

Cody Lee Meece; Photo by Jim Cundiff, Off the Trail Photography

The “aha moment” of figuring out how to continue recording the show by adapting the way it was recorded led to its current home at Austin City Saloon, where bands who had not played live in quite a while finally got the chance to do what they do best again. The reopening of restaurants, bars, and venues took Overtones LIVE from the studio to the stage, broadening the realm of possibilities. After a one month trial surrounding a combined vision with a theme referencing the origins of Austin City Saloon and its namesake Greg Austin, months later the show is in its six month of recording the LIVE format at the venue. Having the platform to record live at the saloon reshaped and redesigned the trajectory of the show, as it allowed magic to occur that previously had not. Now, a full band could perform, whereas the studio could only host a small group. Additionally, full concert video could now be recorded by Renee’s husband, Warren Cobb, further increasing the potential of the material shared on the show and successfully supporting artists in a myriad of ways by providing them not only a platform to have their voices and music heard, but also viable footage to share of their essence in live performances, which is pertinent to EPKs and booking. Since its debut at Austin City Saloon, Kevin Dalton and The Tuesday Blooms, Rifletown, Cody Lee Meece, Jenn Marie McDaniel & The Bruce, Eight Daze Sober, Bedford Band and Trippin Roots were a few of the acts featured early out of the gate. Presented by Whitney Adams, Overtones LIVE also brought a Nashville flair to Kentucky by hosted songwriters Blue Foley and Russell Sutton to start to present a Master Class to local singer/songwriters in the area. Despite another shutdown in the fall of 2020, Renee and Rachel were able to continue recording without interruption within the bounds of state rules and regulations, furthering the reach of their content. Nowadays, the show thrives in a socially distanced and mask-required environment, allowing audiences to be captivated by the talent on stage each time, providing a sense of normalcy to a once deprived artistic outlet.

Overtones LIVE continues to be an asset to the local music community in Kentucky and surrounding areas. The work that Renee and Rachel do, as well as Renee’s work with her and Warren’s business Listen Locally, is vital to not only artists but fans alike. Members of the listenership, attendees, and performers echo my sentiments:

Overtones Live is such a great experience for musicians, bands, fans and music lovers.This is because it is hosted and managed by musicians, music lovers and simply put, great people. To have the honor of sharing music to a live recording audience, to have the outlet to detail the stories behind the songs and the creative process is an opportunity that many musicians and bands never get. The Overtones Live staff is top tier when it comes to creating a comfortable and an art conducive environment, with great hospitality for the live audience, a wonderful space to perform, magical sound engineering, professional delivery of the programing and the kindest and warmest of hosts. Rifletown thanks the entire Overtones Live team for making us feel welcomed and special enough to take the stage and for also allowing our family and fans the chance to be part of the show! Thank you: Renee Collins Cobb, Rachel Crowe, Warren Cobb, Garrick Howell, Chris Slater, Austin Brashear and David Howard. --Jason Howard, Lead vocalist of Rifletown

I’ve been fortunate to have appeared on overtones several times in the past 3 years. I am so Grateful for Renee and all involved for what they do to support regional musicians. It’s helped get my music out to he heard by new listeners and also has lead me to meet some other amazing musicians and songwriters. Overtones has become somewhat of a home place that has brought together a family of artists. Thank you so much for building an amazing community and connection between artists and listeners. --Kevin Dalton, of Kevin Dalton & The Tuesday Blooms

It is amazing to hear 100 unique episodes of pure musical talent and the stories behind the songs through Overtones. Many congrats on reaching a milestone to help spread the love of music and people who create it! May there be even more episodes that celebrate the musicians. --Jessica Blankenship, Kentucky Country Music

It was clear from the day that Renee walked into Lexington Community Radio - now RadioLex - that she had a deep care for local music and was thoroughly dedicated to the idea of Overtones and the planning it would take to pull it off, an idea that has now grown beyond her initial pitch and has extended into social media and live performances as well. The fact that the show has made it to such a huge milestone is a testament to her commitment! I’ve enjoyed seeing so many wonderful musicians and collaborators on the program and am looking forward to what the next 100 episodes will bring to the local and regional music community. --Mary Clark, Station manager at WLXU

We were very excited to work with people who’s goal has always been to support the local music scene. Our experience with Overtones has been nothing but good vibes and mutual love for the local music scene. We were very honored to be a small part of something great and would always choose to do so in the future. We are excited for what Overtones and Renee has in store for the music community in the future! --Justin Riley, Eight Daze Sober

I am super thankful for the folks behind Overtones Live! The support, dedication and time put into recording, editing and promoting local music and musicians goes above and beyond. They not only promote your music across multiple media outlets regularly, but they truly care about your well-being as friends who treat you like family, lending a helping hand or word of advice in time of need! Thank you for all that you do!! --Jenn Marie McDaniel

Overtones LIVE is recorded live at Austin City Saloon, Kentucky’s home for live, local music, and brought to you by Listen Locally, produced by Warren Cobb. Sound is engineered by Chris Slater and Garrick Howell and mixed at Jobu’s Rum Recording Studio. Below are some examples of live shows recorded at ACS:

[junker-town]

Christian McCaffery’s GQ photoshoot is the stuff of your football fantasies

These photos are a MOOD.

There’s a new profile of Christian McCaffery in GQ this month, and the photos. The photos. My goodness, the photos. Instead of just telling you what these are, I’m going to show you — so you can enjoy while I’m picking my jaw up off the floor.

Christian McCaffrey photographed by Melodie McDaniel for the October issue of GQ https://t.co/IMjnCUp6nV pic.twitter.com/zsTVCO1m0G

— Luke Leifeste (@lukeleifeste) September 17, 2020

Okay, so obviously the Panthers’ running back is a very attractive man. That’s not why I’m struggling to articulate my feelings on this. McCaffery looks like a gigolo working for a high-class escort service and posing for their brochure. No, maybe it’s more like a prince from an obscure 1950s European country, destined to marry a movie starlet.

There are also levels to each photo, which I just love — so let’s give these some quick captions so you can get back to your day.

I’m going to wager that McCaffery’s Calvin Klein briefs cost more than this Target chair.

I’m 90% sure this is the cover of a romance novel about a British cabbie called “Destination Love.”

The cowboy hat is the obvious focal point, but don’t overlook a neckerchief which has no purpose. Also saggy 1920s prison pants.

I’m not going to tell anyone how to live their life, but balancing scalding hot tea on your genitals seems like a bad idea. Even with a sheet as a barrier.

Here’s McCaffery, pensively wondering why he still has a rotary telephone.

These photos are the only thing I care about today.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Indigo De Souza Interview: Compassion for Different Modalities

Photo by Charlie Boss

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Calling from her home near Asheville, North Carolina earlier this month, singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza is getting ready to go on tour behind her terrific sophomore album Any Shape You Take (Saddle Creek). Like everyone, she’s anxious about navigating the current COVID-19 landscape, but how she and her band adapt to a live performance and play the multi-dimensional songs that make up the record seems to be of little concern. I guess if I was as talented as De Souza, I wouldn’t be worried, either. Released last month, Any Shape You Take is a stunning series of ruminations on love and relationships, platonic and romantic, that span a number of years in De Souza’s life. Raised in a conservative small town in North Carolina by a mom who was an artist, De Souza doesn’t shy away from the fact that her family did not fit in. At the encouragement of her mother, she leaned into her artistic visions, making music as early as 9 years old, releasing her first EP in 2016.

After self-releasing her (very appropriately titled) first album I Love My Mom in 2018, De Souza signed to indie stalwarts Saddle Creek, who rereleased her debut and supplied her with the means to craft a much larger-sounding follow-up. Working with prolific secret weapon co-producer Brad Cook, her first proper label release occupies an incredible amount of genre territory. “This is the way I’m going to bend,” announces De Souza on auto-tuned synth pop opener “17″ before, well, bending in a number of different directions. “Darker Than Death” and “Die/Cry”, nervous songs that were written years ago, sport fitting build-ups, the former’s slow hi hats and cymbals giving way to jolts of guitar noise, the latter’s jangly rock taking a back seat to yelped harmonies. Songs like “Pretty Pictures” and “Hold U” reenter the dance world, the latter an especially catchy neo soul and funk highlight, a simple earworm of a love song. In the end, whether playing scraped, slow-burning guitar or rubbery keyboard, De Souza’s thoughtful and honest meditations center the emotionally charged album, one of the very best of the year.

De Souza takes her live show to the Beat Kitchen tonight and tomorrow night (both sold out) with Dan Wriggins of Friendship opening. Read our interview with De Souza about the making of Any Shape You Take and her songwriting process.

Since I Left You: On Any Shape You Take, there seems to be a good mix of folks you’ve worked with before and folks you’re working with for the first time. What did each group bring to the table?

Indigo De Souza: Brad Cook was co-producing. It was my first time working with a producer on something. That was crazy. He was very supportive of everything and very encouraging. It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of who wanted to encourage my vision. I also worked with Alex [Farrar] and Adam [McDaniel] from drop of sun studios in Asheville. They’re both just so sweet and talented. They were engineering but also helped with production as well. I ended up getting really close with Alex, and me and Alex finished out the album together doing vocal overdubs and random overdubs. It feels like he did a lot of production on the album and was a star for me in the process. They were all great to work with. It was interesting to me to have so many people working on the album.

What I realized after the fact, [though], was that it was kind of distracting for me to have so many brains working on it. It taught me I actually feel very confidently about my vision for songs, and I can trust myself to have ideas for my own songs. I think I was scared going in that I was going to come up blank in that scenario because it was such a high-pressure thing, getting on a label and making a high-production album. But I definitely thrived in the space. It was really fun.

SILY: It shows in the finished product. There are so many different styles and subgenres within the record. Do you listen to all the types of music that show up on this record?

IDS: Yeah, for sure. Mostly, I listen to pop music and dance music. That’s probably my most daily genre. I don’t listen to a lot of music daily, though. I listen to music probably a couple times a week when I’m in the car, but it’s so random, and the genres I listen to are pretty random. It depends on my mood. I think when I’m writing, it’s the same way, whether I’m writing a poppier or rock-based song. They’re different moods for me.

SILY: How do you generally approach juxtaposing lyrics with instrumentation?

IDS: With writing, it’s different every time the way they fall into place together. I do notice that one of the more common ways it happens is I’ll be going about my day and hear a melody in my head and start humming it and realize I’m making it up, that I have no record of it before. I’ll start attaching feeling to the melody, depending on what I’m feeling, and at first I’ll be singing gibberish with the melody, but I’ll usually get some headphones on and plug into the computer so I can sing into a microphone. I’ll mess around with the melody and sing random words until something true to me kind of sticks. That’s usually how it goes. Sometimes, I [do] sit down and it comes out in one breath, like the song is already written in my mind.

Honestly, it’s so normalized how songwriting is. It’s such a strange, magical thing that people can write songs that have never been written before. [laughs]

SILY: Thematically, there are a lot of songs on Any Shape You Take where you’re feeling doubts about a relationship, like on “Darker Than Death”. Someone’s feeling bad, and you’re wondering whether it’s you making them feel bad. And on “Die, Cry”, you sing, “I’d rather die than see you cry.” On the other hand, there are some songs like “Pretty Pictures” where you know your place more within the relationship, and you know what’s eventually gonna happen to it. How do you balance those feelings of doubt with knowing what’s gonna happen?

IDS: It’s funny, because the first two songs you mention were written a very long time ago when I was in the only very long-term relationship I’ve ever been in. I was very confused in that time and was having a hard time in general with my mental health. “Pretty Pictures” is the newest song on the album, a last minute addition because another song we had on there didn’t really fit. We looked through my demos folder and chose “Pretty Pictures”, the most recent song I had written at the time, and recorded it for the album. They’re totally different times in my life, and how you said it is definitely how I was. There’s a time I was more confused, and now, love is more simple in my life, and I can process things and see how they are, have compassion for different modalities.

SILY: I love the line on “Way Out”, “There are no monsters underneath your bed, and I’ll never be the only thing you love.” It’s a very logical statement in the face of unbridled emotion that can make you think illogically. Is that contrast something you think shows up throughout the record?

IDS: Within love, over time, I’ve realized that there’s not one person for anybody. There’s a lot of fluidity in the ways people can feel towards other people. That line is definitely a nod to allowing people to love many other people and not taking it personally.

SILY: From a singing perspective, you have a lot of different vocal stylings on the record. I found it interesting you led it off with a track where you’re super auto-tuned. Can you tell me about that decision?

IDS: “17” originally was this demo I made in 2016 or 2017. It was a very old demo. In 2018 or so, I brought the demo to my band at the time, and we created a live version of that song that was nothing like the recording that you hear. The recording was so weird and had a lot of auto-tune and higher-pitched and lower-pitched vocals. We had a live version we played for a while that’s on Audiotree. Whenever we were recording Any Shape You Take, we started to record it the live way and realized it wasn’t feeling right. We listened to the old demo, and it gave this wake up kick to everyone. We got excited by how the demo sounded because we hadn’t heard it in so long. We realized we wanted to record it based on the demo. So that song sounds very similar to the way the demo originally sounded.

SILY: What’s the story behind the album title?

IDS: There are so many layers to the album title. [laughs] It came to me mostly because the album takes so many musical shapes but also so many emotional shapes. It feels like a lot of the themes in the album are about change and acceptance of change and acceptance of a full spectrum of feelings of pain and grief and allowing people to take many forms. It was mainly inspired by the fact that I’ve taken so many forms in my life and am witness to the way changing forms yourself can either push people away or pull them in closer. I’ve always been so appreciative of the people in my life who allow me to take so many different forms and are still there to witness and care about me, whether we’re close to each other or far away. That’s the main reason I wanted to call the album Any Shape You Take. The most beautiful kind of love you can have is allowing someone to be themselves and shift in and out of things freely.

SILY: Is your live show faithful to the studio versions of the songs, or did you have to learn how to adapt the songs to the stage?

IDS: A lot of them sound very similar to the recording. We’ve been having so much fun practicing them and playing them live.

SILY: Is there one in particular you’re most looking forward to playing?

IDS: I love playing “Bad Dream”. That’s just a crazy song to play live because it’s so loud and rowdy. [laughs]

SILY: You have that falsetto in the middle of it, too.

IDS: Yeah. It’s so fun.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, reading, or watching lately that’s caught your attention?

IDS: I’m excited that one of my favorite authors, Tao Lin, just put out a book I haven’t been able to get fully into. It’s called Leave Society. I just got it in the mail last week. Other than that, I’ve just been so, so busy with interviews and work on the computer and with my manager, staying on top of this crazy shift happening on top of my life. I haven’t taken in a lot of media. I was just watching Love Island recently because I wanted to shut my brain down. Somebody was telling me about Sexy Beasts last night, which sounds insane. I’m excited to watch that.

[waiting4somebody]

Lana Del Rey

photo by Melodie McDaniel, for Billboard, 2019