The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of an upcoming or recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. We’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely underheard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.
At the risk of courting controversy, it’s nice when talented people get together and make good music.
That may be a pants-wettingly obvious statement, but fruitful, pleasant collaborations are still far less common than they should be. It’s part of what makes projects like Shady Pines Retirement Home’s new debut album, Death Jokes,1 feel like an exceptional treat when they come together.
Shady Pines Retirement Home is a musical Megazord based in Anchorage, Alaska, that’s made up of people involved in other awesome musical endeavors likely familiar to Last Frontier ears.2 The roster includes Emi Williams and Dawson Gentleman of The Jangle Bees, Abi Sparkman of SunDog, Derek Haukaas of Brother Buffalo/Ya Tseen and Meg Mainor.3
That assembled talent worked together in service of a tight, not slight, collection of what the band describes as singer-songwriter rock, with Williams serving as the project’s primary singer and songwriter. They achieve a polished sound that’s tough to pin down but extremely easy to listen to.
Shady Pines Retirement Home’s music is too bass-forward and rocks a little too hard — especially in the closing moments of “Power Outage” — to really qualify as adult contemporary, but its musical language shares a lot with the deliberate, full and emotionally resonant power ballads that make up the best of that genre.
Death Jokes’ songs often start small and soft before picking up steam, bringing the full band into the fray and growing to a size suitable for the feelings they hold. It’s an effective technique, but Shady Pines Retirement Home often sounds best when operating at peak intensity, which can make the quieter, calmer moments feel sparse in comparison.
Americana-adjacent twang is another frequent feature across the nine-song long-player. However, while both fiddle and pet death are present on Death Jokes, Shady Pines Retirement Home never veers into full-on roots music. It’s more Jenny Lewis, Angel Olsen circa 2016 or Jason Isbell at his liveliest heartland rock than a total alt-country LP.4 Its warm sounds wind up contrasting with and complementing thenting the album’s woolier sounds in interesting ways. “Nobody” is the most extreme example. The song first sounds like the album’s most country-flavored tune, but by the time kaleidoscope synths and a pulsing beat set up a short instrumental break, it’s basically become a late-‘70s Styx song.
Ultimately, the genre specifics are far less important than whether a band has the skill and songs to navigate ambiguous waters. Death Jokes firmly established that Shady Pines Retirement Home has both, as evidenced by the signs of care and attention to detail that pop out throughout the album.
The appropriately sweet harmony the band finds while singing the word “lullaby” on album-closer, “Revelation,” the guitar squeal that evokes running through hell on “Power Outage,” and the fun dissonance created by voices soaring while singing the word “down” while “Snow Globe” really takes off, all point to a band that’s put in the effort and time to make an album worth hearing.
And, at the risk of being inflammatory, it’s good when there’s good music to listen to.
About the writer
Ben Hohenstatt
Ben Hohenstatt is an Alaska-based dog owner who moonlights as a music writer and photographer.
For more information, consult your local library or with parental permission visit his website.
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The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Superstore, Season Two, Episode Eleven, “Lost and Found”
“Who would get depressed here?”
“Cloud 9 really does care.”
“They did send a letter.”
“So are you just planning to avoid me until one of us quits.”
“But as a child of divorce–”
“Okay, I won’t be weird, lady who has multiple birds.”
The guy digging with what turns out to be a protest sign made me laugh.”
“I’m a pharmacist. Doctor to the doctors.”
“I always thought depression was a thing housewives invented so they could take extra naps.”
“Now I can’t give you names, but it’s most of the uggos. Doesn’t really narrow it down.”
“What’s your favourite animal?”
“A clownfish.”
“Okay.”
“Riding a bicycle.”
“Might I borrow these this weekend? I’m attending the opera.”
“Forgot it was gonna do that.”
Mateo’s look of contempt made this so much better.
“Well now you ruined it, so now you’re never gonna know what you want.”
“For nine hundred bucks, they treat you like a brisket.”
“You have to tell me if you’re smiling.”
“I’m not.”
“Most monkeys die without having even seen a banana. Their lives are short, violent, and horrifying.”
“I get a new bucket!”
“Bucket?!”
“Yeah, a new one!”
Amazing how Jonah can make “trying to make someone else happy” into something insane.
“Hey. Don’t get up.”
“This is the best day of my life.”
“You just had a baby.”
“No, he’s just bending his knees!”
“And threatening a pharmacist, by the way? That’s a felony. Probably.”
“I use dip.”
“That checks out.”
“If anybody needs me, I’ll be in my car listening to yacht rock and eating two Take Fives to calm myself down! Woo!”
The show’s reaching that confident point where it’s not bothering to really end stories because it knows it can let them play out over time now.
House of Dracula – decided that I need to fill in more Universal Monsters sequel blind spots. Turns out I should have watched House of Frankenstein before this one really but it doesn’t really matter (I started watching it last night, but fell asleep). The plot here is that a world-renowned scientist gets approached by Dracula, who claims he wants a cure for his “condition”. The Wolf Man then also approaches with a similar plea, except more genuine, because he’s not an evil liar like Dracula. Also they find “The Frankenstein Monster” washed up in the sewers. It’s a bit slow-moving for a 68-minute film but there’s some fun stuff here, the scientist ends up getting infected with vampirism via a blood transfusion rather than a bite, which is a new angle – and his Dracula-infused brain becomes obsessed with bringing Frankenstein back to full power, which the depowered Wolf Man is powerless to prevent. There’s some cool shadowy cinematography, some angry mobs and a decent closing rampage – solid entertainment even if it’s not one of the best from this era of monster mashing.
It’s funny that Van Helsing was in essence a crappy, big-budget version of this kind of old horror mash-up.
I remember the opening sequence of Van Helsing, where they’re fully homaging the old movies, being pretty great. And then it turns to absolute shit.
Rewatching some Superstore myself, still funny though I have to agree that will they won’t they’s in sitcoms are largely annoying (two big exceptions: Sam/Diane and Nick/Jess, both pairs having a violent screwball energy). I don’t know any adults who act like this because it’s not only emotionally immature, it’s kind of baffling.*
*Cece in New Girl in fact points this out. “Oh, I’m a single adult who likes another single adult! What’s gonna happen?!”
Elementary, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” – An auditor reviewing a merger between two tobacco firms is murdered, and soon we learn that an ATF agent was working undercover in one of the companies to fight cigarette smuggling. And it gets interestingly messy as the agent and his partner were skimming off the top of the money impounded by the ATF, that the AFT was using the money as a slush fund to fund operations it could not afford, and that Big Tobacco was also up to no good. The cynicism here is wonderful. Meanwhile Sherlock works to track down Moriarty, and while his dad wants her dead, our hero works out a deal that will keep Morland alive for now, and that will ultimately lead to the confrontation between Sherlock and Moriarty he longs for. Roger Bart is a tobacco company exec, but despite being a known actor is not the killer.
The Twilight Zone, “The Big Tall Wish” – Both a groundbreaking episode of TV and a heartfelt story with two amazing performances. More to come.
Barney Miller, “Sexual Surrogate” – Is a psychologist whose therapy includes sleeping with her patients a sex worker? The question is raised by not answered, and is only in the background when a jealous wife tries to shoot her husband, who truly believes he is working to improve their marriage. Doris Roberts is the wife. Meanwhile, Billy Barty is arrested as a thief. They don’t really do much with him, but at least he’s good in the part.
What did we listen to?
Hardwired… To Self Destruct, Metallica
I can see why this basically split the fanbase – winning over those annoyed by St Anger and Lulu, but also frustrating people who dislike them getting as far as possible from any experimentation. This is so conventional that at points it stops sounding like Metallica entirely. I did enjoy it a lot though, the way I enjoy late-era Thomas Pynchon. Just straight to the point and no further.
Landing on Water, Neil Young
I suppose the Eighties had to come for everybody eventually. There’s some good songwriting here, though.
Significant Other, Limp Bizkit
More of the same, though the sound is a bit more interesting and complicated. One of the weird things about coming to a trashy work like this is that, you know, this was still the product of human beings.
Magnetic East: The Deer Tick Sessions, Ben Vaughn
Some good old-fashioned rock. Vaughn has a very emotionally open voice, and I like the laidback attitude of his lyrics.
1001 Albums, etc.
Morrissey – Vauxhall and I: yet more Morrissey on the list, another solid album but why did the curators of this book think it was necessary to hear SO much of him? It’s not like his sound really changes all that much.
TLC – Crazysexycool: Creep and Waterfalls are cool songs but I can’t say I got a massive amount out of the rest of the album. A distinct R&B sound / production that I remember being everywhere in the 90s so I guess they were trendsetters, but I think it’s a singles genre for me.
Oasis – Definitely Maybe: probably the first album on the list I remember hearing actually at the time when it came out? They were never one of MY Britpop bands but there’s some solid stuff here, albeit slightly tainted by their general lasting vibe.
Soundgarden – Superunknown: not my least favourite grunge act – I will take this over Pearl Jam anytime – but this album is 73 minutes long and I liked maybe two or three songs, so still not a very enjoyable experience. I do think Chris Cornell has a very strong voice though.
Offspring – Smash: I heard this one in my teens too. It’s not great, but there’s a certain abrasive appeal to it and it’s certainly more appealing than their novelty songs that would follow.
Drive Like Jehu – Yank Crime: really dug this. I’m familiar with some of the other related bands (mainly just Rocket from the Crypt tbh) but don’t think I’d heard these at all. Excellently sharp, edgy punk rock that isn’t a million miles away from Fugazi etc. but has plenty of its own ideas.
Blur – Parklife: I think most of my favourite Blur songs are on this one (the big epic, romantic ones for the most part) but the title track and some of the other more cheeky “eyyy we’re a bunch of British lads!” stuff is a little annoying. But only a little, I think this is probably peak Blur for me.
G. Love and Special Sauce – G. Love and Special Sauce: never heard these before. Quite enjoyed the mix of lo-fi blues and hip-hop, somewhere between Fun Loving Criminals and Tom Waits which is a weird combo (although they predate FLC of course). I liked the production, the style got a bit samey, but not bad at all.
Ali Farka Touré With Ry Cooder – Talking Timbuktu: just finishing this off now, it’s enjoyable African blues with some tasteful contributions from Ry on lead guitar.
—
Screen Drafts, “The Twilight Zone” – really fun hearing them draft TV episodes for once. Only a few here that I’ve seen, since I’m still working through season one for the first time, so hopefully I’ll forget the various spoilers before I reach those episodes. Also fun to hear a plug for the upcoming Lauren-sponsored episode, will be checking that out once I’ve finished the Blank Check episode on Age of Innocence, which I’m enjoying very much thanks to the high level of British content.
I was surprised there were comparatively few S1 episodes! I think that’s the season I have the most favorites from, although S2 and S3 are also incredibly strong. But those weird November hot streaks are absolutely real, and I’m glad someone else noticed them.
Not sure what the plans for Anthologized are but I’ve now invested in the full series box set and will definitely be continuing to watch through the later seasons!
I do think I’ll keep going with TZ for the rest of the series, and then look at either doing some AHP/AHH hours or switching to something like Thriller or The Outer Limits, so there will be TZ discussion each week for many, many weeks to come!
Screen Drafts, “Women-Directed Noir”
This is the episode I sponsored! It dropped last night, so I listened to all the parts of it that I was not in immediately. (You could not pay me enough to listen to my own voice.) I had actually just watched one of the lesser-known picks–more on that for Wednesday’s article–and I got a few other things to add to the watchlist, aside from basking in the entirely correct praise for the films I was already familiar with. Really fascinating discussion, including a lot of these movies tackling women as voyeurs (and often making male viewers uncomfortable on that front) and the coining of “blackout noir.”
Congratulations
Blue by Joni Mitchell as bit by bit I rehab my image of her as mildly annoying (well, really her voice). Beautiful songs though they make me teary so I’m trying to go slow. Like many female artists, she is great at character studies of men.
Negro Religious Field Recordings From Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Volume 1 1934-1942. Revelatory music that is evoking punk, post-punk, funk, and rap before these genres ever exist while sometimes seeming downright uncanny, haunted and haunting (in the Mark Fischer sense).
Highway to Hell by Star Moles – Good but didn’t do it for me the way single “Born Again” does. I’ll give it another shot soon.