LOTW 03: Tasha & more Being Dead
Two more listens of the week for you! Keep scrolling to see what’s been popping.
“Kind of Love” & “Something About This Girl,” Alone at Last, Tasha (2018)
The debut album from Chicago-based artist Tasha, Alone at Last is described as a celebration of “the radical political act of being exquisitely gentle with yourself.” An activist as well as a musician, Tasha’s résumé includes work with organizations like the Black Youth Project 100, which aims to provide “political education through a Black queer feminist lens.” The 25-minute record is an entrancing neo-soul composition on which Tasha takes cross-genre influences (jazz, R&B, indie rock, etc.) to present the idea of building up her own joy and confidence despite the day-to-day hate and oppression she may face as a Black queer woman.
In this line of thinking, “Kind of Love” and “Something About This Girl” are the record’s truest celebration points: the tracks show the ways falling in love can be a self-actualizing, liberating act by taking everything you love about yourself and confidently sharing it not only with another person, but the rest of the world. “Kind of Love” includes a sweet and twinkling looped guitar riff and muted snaps that evoke Corinne Bailey Rae, doubling down on the joy new love can bring, even when the world around you is uncertain. On “Something About This Girl,” Tasha uses swirling psychedelic guitars and synths to speak on the ways a romantic partnership can provide support and solace from outside hate. An overall soul-bearing and emotional record, Alone at Last is a humble debut definitely worth a listen.
Listen if you like: radical self-love, chilled-out guitars, an evening j combined with incense and journaling, lamps (NO overhead light), quiet confidence, everything showers
“The Great American Picnic,” “Daydream” & “Treeland,” When Horses Would Run, Being Dead (2023)
Yup, it’s these guys again. Apoligies for the déjà vu. Being Dead (of the Fame Money Death by Drive By EP, and the month’s first LOTW) released their debut full-length record When Horses Would Run on Beach Fossils’ Bayonet Records on July 14. As mentioned previously, I’d kept up with the April-June monthly single releases (“Muriel’s Big Day Off,” “Daydream,” and “Last Living Buffalo”) in preparation for the album’s release, so this record had been on my radar for a minute. I usually try not to double up on artists in a single month, but here we are, they deserve it.
After listening to the group’s EP, I knew to have no expectations. The lighthearted, boppy tune of “Muriel’s Big Day Off” seemed to show the group taking a slight step away from their grating, distorted moments of Fame Money Death by Drive By (think about the doo-wap “oohs” vs. the guitar/scream combination breakdown in “Hot Car.” “Muriel’s Day Off” only has the doo-wap). This assumption was only confirmed when listening to the record’s opening track “The Great American Picnic,” which sees the group take a lesson out of Dick Dale’s book on surf-rock that returns on tracks like “Daydream” and “Treeland.” While these classic techniques are utilized, they’re also updated, refined, and made to fit the group. It doesn’t sound like Being Dead trying to be Link Wray, it sounds like Being Dead being Being Dead. The somewhat strident, at-times-statement-like vocals, the occasional acapella breaks, and the quirky production and instrumentation (reverse guitar tracks on “Treeland,” futuristic synth moments on “Holy Team”) make Being Dead the group they are. The band emphasizes this point on the cutesy “We Are Being Dead” which shows up about three-quarters of the way through the record. What could be interpreted almost as a theme song for the band, this track shows that the group doesn’t take itself too seriously, with members making jokes and laughing with each other between the sole repeated vocal “We are Being Dead, we’re having a good time, we hope you’re having a good time, too.” They’re just in the business of having fun.
Listen if you like: The Beach Boys, the excitement of a 4-year-old who sees an ice cream truck, having a good time, rolling around in the grass, horses
That’s all folks! Refer to the handy dandy playlist for more of my newest favs.
