Welcome to Range and Basin new subscribers. I’m still getting the hang of Notes but I’m glad it exists. Hope the spring energy suits you like it suits me—here’s to fresh ideas. And here’s to five songs I’m playing a lot this week.
Hayden Pedigo, “Elsewhere”
A decade ago, a young Texan named Hayden Pedigo began sending me his tunes, proffering a deft grab bag of Takoma School acoustic guitar and electric avant-atmospherics. Watching his art and comedic persona evolve in the years since has been deeply inspiring. Following the 2021 documentary Kid Candidate, about Pedigo’s Harmony Korine-inspired run for city council in Amarillo, Texas, he returns with"Elsewhere,” the first taste from his upcoming album The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored. It’s a key modulating epic, focused on Pedigo’s gorgeous finger-picked acoustic but rounded out by Luke Schneider’s cosmic pedal steel swells. Matt Muir’s visuals go behind mere “music video” trappings. In collaboration with Hayden, a genuine American Weirdo, they’ve crafted an affecting Tim & Eric meet The Straight Story narrative—with a dash of The Big Lebowski for good measure.
Depeche Mode, “People Are Good”
On their 15th album Memento Mori, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan sound simultaneously haunted and possessed. Recorded in the wake of band “spokesman” Andy Fletcher’s passing, Memento Mori proves Depeche Mode still has something to say. Whereas their notable early post-punk peers devoted a recent album to sprucing up familiar classics, DM continue on with new material that ranks up there with past high water marks. Propelled by blingy Kraftwerk-isms and an overdriven beat, “People Are Good” is particularly shocking in its potency. “People are good/Whisper it under your breath/People are good/Keep fooling yourself,” Gahan intones over a menacing rumble, imbuing Gore’s weary lyrics with a holy longing. Together, they once asked what makes a man hate another man— the busted idealism of “People Are Good” suggests unsettling answers to that question. “Heaven help us” is right.
Doug Wieselman, “Train”
Though I’ve heard reedist Doug Wieselman on records by Wayne Horvitz, Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, Yo La Tengo, Anohni, Elvis Costello, Bill Frisell, Yoko Ono, and many others, the arrival of his forthcoming collection of birdsong field recordings, banjo, flute, piano, and clarinet in my inbox that sent me down the rabbit hole of the NYC vanguardist and John Zorn associate’s solo discography. While that album, WA-Zoh, is out next month on Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records, “Train” is the opening song of his 2019 album From Water. A gorgeous loop of clarinet melodies, it conjures into the mind’s eye a lonesome train horn blowing in the far off, mythic distance, its echo swinging back around in the night.
Prariewolf, “Roadside Bandit Type”
Not only does my Aquarium Drunkard brother
helm —an essential Substack subscription—he’s also also one-third Colorado kosmische trio Prairiewolf, playing bass alongside guitarist Stefan Beck (Golden Brown) and keyboardist Jeremy Erwin. I've had "Roadside Bandit Type” on repeat all week—a drift of languid country guitars, ticking drum machine, and ominous synths. Part ambient country lunar mirage, part John Carpenter sequence, all Prairiewolf.Libson Raincoat Mojo (John Oswald), “brazillionaires theme”
The Discogs entry for Libson Raincoat Mojo reads: “One-shot fake musician anagram used by composer John Oswald for a plunderphonic ‘electroquoting’ Antonio Carlos Jobim recordings.” Featured on the Canadian media artist 69 Plunderphonics 96 box set, “brazillionaires theme” plays like a cut-collage minimalist bossa nova symphony. It suggests pockets of time outside of time and its abrupt end comes far too soon.
Random notes: JPW released a pedal steel (Rick Heins) and electric guitar (Michael Krassner)-powered version of “Halfway to Eloy,” recorded live at Phoenix’s The Dirty Drummer last September. Listen at Fort Lowell Records’ Bandcamp page, where you’ll also find my debut album Something Happening/Always Happening.
We had future soul singer Eddie Chacon on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions this week. A supremely interesting talk, featuring stories about Eddie’s time with everyone from Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew to Cliff Burton of Metallica and Funkadelic associate Amp Fiddler—the Obi-Wan to Dilla’s Luke Skywalker. It’s a really great hang, and Eddie’s new album Sundown is fantastic. Also recommended is
's AD review of Wadada Leo Smith's Fire Illuminations, a ‘70s Miles-style romp with Orange Wave Electric, an ensemble that featuring Bill Laswell, Melvin Gibbs, Pheeroan akLaff, Hardedge, Mauro Refosco, and three guitarists, Nels Cline, Brandon Ross, and Lamar Smith.Over at WASTOIDS, we launched Hotline, a digital animation call-in show. The debut episode features Quasi. We’ve also got an all-new episode of my show with Sam Means of The Format, Click Vortex, and a new episode of Argentinian werewolf Salvador Cresta’s Midnight Music Review in the Attic, featuring a look at music video animator Mickey Miles psychedelic cartoons.
Reading: Wayward, Vashti Bunyan; The Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan; Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks―and What It Can Teach Us, Kim Haines-Eitzen; Is Space the Place-Yes/No; Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan, Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay