Ball of Wax 62 Songs: secret monkey – “time unties itself”

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Levi Fuller

With this woozy dreamscape of a track from secret monkey, we have, for a time, pivoted from topical/literal to abstract interpretations of our current moment – or, to be more precise, the current moment of six weeks ago, which it feels like we are still trapped in, although today’s Electoral College vote should do something to pull us a bit out of the much of November 2020.

Which, now that I think about it, is a perfect example of the way in which time has become untied, loosened, wrapped around itself in this combination-pandemic-and-fascist-coup we’ve all been living through together for the past several weeks/months/(years?). Whether it’s on the personal level, with each week working from home and parenting a five-year-old feeling somehow like one day and six months, or on the global level, with enough (mostly terrible) news for a lifetime packed into each day, time has certainly been doing some weird things to me, and us all. And somehow the layered voice, viola, and melodica of Rae Diamond both evoke and assuage this bizarre, unmoored feeling, making things just a bit better, for just a little while. Feel free to play it a few more times to extend the effect.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Jeremy Summer – “Black”

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Jeremy Summer’s “Black” is not a song filled with light and joy. Musically it is quietly gorgeous – slow, simple, and hushed. Lyrically it is harrowing and disturbing, a list of – if my interpretation is correct – some of the all-too-common crimes against Black Americans that have recently had more light shed on them, but that go back centuries. “Black” reminds us that no matter who is president when the entitled old white guys stop yelling at each other, there is an unbelievable amount of work to be done to make this country more just. “Gasping for breath,” Jeremy begins, and he ends with “without warning / shot for nothing.” He offers no redemption, no silver lining, just a list of our crimes to do with as we will. So, what are we doing?

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Levi Fuller – “I Need You”

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Shannon García, Esq.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am biased. I love the music of Levi Fuller. I think he is one of the most talented musicians I have ever laid my ears on. He is a treasure. I cherish his music and I think you should, too. What I love most about his music is his ability to evoke and emulate emotion in his songs. This song is no exception.

The song begins with 20 seconds of breathing before the guitar comes in. After the breathing and guitar come the words “I need you.” These words gradually build up to “I need you to help me remember to breathe.” The buildup to this poignant sentence hearkens to the building anticipation felt and the breath held during those days between election night and the day the results were finally called. A time when we all needed help remembering to breathe amid the anxiety, nerves, and anticipatory disappointment we feared we’d feel with our fellow countrymen.

The song itself contains some Nick Drake-esque elements in the guitar picking and vocal delivery. It feels like a subtle, reverent homage. This song, like many that pour out of the heart and soul of Levi Fuller, contains curated notes that are plucked with mindful intention. Each note plucked layers onto the notes that came before to create richness and depth.

To listen to music so beautiful, might cause one to be ashamed by the ugliness of the world. However, this song inspires me to remember to cherish those fleeting glimpses of beauty as I find them and, regardless of the outcomes of those contentious moments in life, to always remember to breathe.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Tekla Waterfield – “America!”

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Among other things, there’s been a lot of talk about hope and love around here. And those are important and necessary things! But, if you’re paying attention at all, there’s a lot of grief wrapped up in this moment, and a lot of reckoning. Over the past four or so years, many people – particularly white people – have been experiencing an unfolding series of realizations about just how much work we have to do as a country, just how deeply racist and damaged this nation is. Many of us hoped for a strong, clear rebuttal of the current administration in this election, and instead we found out many millions of our fellow Americans are still just fine with it, and would have loved four more years. (Indeed, an appalling number are still clinging to the idea that there should or will be four more years.) Put simply, a lot of scales have been falling from a lot of eyes – even for those of us who thought they’d fallen as far as they could.

In “America!,” Tekla Waterfield wrestles with this mess in blunt, unvarnished terms. The country we thought this was, or were raised to believe it was, and the country as it has revealed itself. The hope for some kind of reconciliation, and the knowledge that it’s unlikely to come any time soon. The song is beautiful because when Tekla picks up a guitar and starts singing the result can’t help beautiful, but it is also uncomfortable and awkward and doesn’t leave you feeling great about anything, which is, now that I think about it, exactly what a musical representation of this moment should be.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: The Northenders – “Anyhow”

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Hot on the heels of Peter Spencer’s “Beyond the Demon Lover,” Scott Wetzel of the Northenders – also a new face to Ball of Wax – brings us yet another finger-picked folk song, which works beautifully as a follow-up to the Peter’s tune, both musically and thematically.  Where that song looks away from the horror of our current world and toward a better place, “Anyhow” gazes unflinchingly upon the many woes plaguing us all, ending each verse of all-too-familiar horrors large and small with “I’m gonna love you anyhow.” The chorus goes as far as imagining the very end of the world, with no beyond in site, and yet still that love persists. “Anyhow” serves as an important reminder to those of us with love in our lives that this is the world we’ve got, and we’re lucky to have each other in it.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Peter Spencer – “Beyond the Demon Lover”

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Finger-picker extraordinaire Peter Spencer makes his Ball of Wax debut with “Beyond the Demon Lover,” a simple, yearning folk tune that acts as a showcase for his beautiful guitar work and rich baritone voice. This song fits neatly in the folk tradition of songs about the afterlife – or at least another world beyond this one – such as “No Depression” or “Get Happy.” (Whether the Great Depression or 2020, it seems such songs are more often prompted by hard times on a national scale.) The singer describes a world beyond, where “a new home waits for me.” Whether it’s on the other side of the mortal plane, a widespread vaccine, or the Canadian border, I think the idea of yearning for something or somewhere else should resonate with us all in the present moment. In less than two minutes, Peter paints a beautiful picture that makes me wish I believed in an afterlife. If nothing else, here’s to a time with less lying and less grief in the not-too-distant future.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Ken Cormier – “Not in the Way You Mean”

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Shannon García, Esq.

Dulcet sounds of a chipper ukulele overlay this short sweet ditty of a song. The lyrics are endearingly nonsensical and feel especially apropos coming off of the hangover that has been the last four years. As if to say, “I’m not quite sure what happened to us or how we got here, but I’m shaking off the delirium and moving forward the best I can.”

The tempo of the song is zippy and upbeat. It has the feel of an old-timey rendition of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” Like ice cream truck music for the modern-day misanthrope.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Caroline Keys – “Auld Lang Syne Language”

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Isaac Person

Caroline Keys‘s “Auld Lang Syne Language” is a lilting trance chant set atop a looping set of loping guitar chords. A repeating lyric form of “X don’t Y themselves” yields a list of combinations that weave between mundane, whimsical, and absurd: Quacks don’t duck themselves, Shirts don’t tuck themselves; Wounds don’t heal themselves, Drugs don’t deal themselves. Metaphors about action and responsibility, about cause and effect feel especially potent in the moment and demonstrate the organizing principle of this edition of Ball of Wax: each song to be written between election night and the following weekend. This song feels light while wading directly into the murkiness and wonder of human existence. The writing is subtle enough to keep it universal; there’s not a direct reference to voting or anything that would really nail it to the zeitgeist. Tasteful minimalist post-Americana that manages to find celebration in the face of anxious times with clean guitar and banjo, chiming chords and keyboards, and sweet vocal harmonies.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Chris Poage – “Collecting Stars”

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Levi Fuller

I woke up with this song in my head the other morning, and was wracking my brain trying to figure out which classic pop tune had wedged itself into my inner ear with the refrain “let’s not die for it . . . the battle ain’t worth the blood” and that sweet, sweet sax and flute line. Well, it turns out it was this brand-new ditty by our friend Chris Poage, written (as was every track on this compilation) in the immediate aftermath of Election 2020. Musically – from a composition, arrangement, and production standpoint – this song is pretty much untouchable, in my opinion. I am in awe of Chris’s ability to combine melodies, voices, and instruments into such an immediately enjoyable and memorable whole.

The lyrics, too, while simple, are straightforward and memorable – earnest without being cloying. I interpret the overall thrust as something along the lines of we have more in common than we do differences, let’s not let our disagreements destroy us. This is, of course, an important and laudable sentiment,  which in the current fraught historical moment runs the risk of being interpreted as diminishing the important battles and struggles that do need to be fought. Of course, not all differences are created equal; some battles are, in fact, worth the blood. Not to speak for Chris – the thing about songs, is once they’re out of the songwriter’s brain, they’re all ours for the interpreting – but my read is more along the lines of “hey, maybe don’t beat someone up for asking you to wear a mask, or threaten to kill officials in your own party for attesting to the validity of an election, or burn every bridge at the first sign of disagreement” as opposed to any comment on the important protests for social justice and civil rights we saw this year. Coming as it does after Eric’s opening track, “Collecting Stars” feels like a much-needed antidote the absolute freaking insanity that has been this year.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Eric Padget – “BBQ Beer Freedom”

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Kelly Minnis

25 seconds is all it takes for Eric Padget to sum up the entire 24 month election cycle. Anyone who has seen even a smidgen of news since Election Day has heard either this exact quote used in “BBQ Beer Freedom” from a “stop the steal” protester or one similar to it. With a peppy synthesizer and drum machine backdrop, the found-sound quote no longer sounds as dangerously paranoid as it once did, just kind of whacky. The upbeat filter sweeps and breezy melodies helps to wash away the filth of conspiracy with joy and vibrancy. Here’s to hoping that tide stays longer than 24 seconds.

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