Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Annastasia Workman and Colin Ernst – “Cosmic Bees”

Posted on September 9, 2019 by Levi Fuller

This sweet and groovy little number was written by Cafe Nordo music director Annastasia Workman, and produced and performed by our old friend Colin Ernst. According to Colin, Annastasia wrote it for Nordo’s adaptation of Tom Robbins’s Jitterbug Perfume. It’s been ages since I read that book, but “Cosmic Bees” does seem to capture, both musically and lyrically, some of the hedonistic glee of Robbins’s work. The shaker-backed groove and bees-and-flowers imagery has me picturing a colony of bees floating from bud to bud, nodding their heads and buzzing along with the kazoo line, catching the buzz.

One question I have about the lyrics pertains to the opening, which includes the phrase “whatcha doing here, with your shady deals and your orange-faced lies?” Between this and the political nature of much of Colin’s recent work, I kind of assumed this was another tune about our Dear Leader. But then we pivot to singin’ and lovin’ and joyful abandon and our brief reminder of The Real World is forgotten. Of course the original Jitterbug Perfume was written decades before our orange-faced liar rose to power, but maybe Robbins anticipated him and included his own orange-faced liar in the book? Or maybe Annastasia’s interpretation included room for present-day reference. Further research is recommended, starting with another spin of “Cosmic Bees.”

Colin will open up our Ball of Wax 57 release show this Saturday with a set including this and other BoW favorites from over the years. Make sure to get there on time!

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Virgin of the Birds – “Saint Ursula”

Posted on September 6, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Our dear friend Jon Rooney is back after his longest BoW hiatus in quite some time (has it really been a year?), and he’s brought us a perfect, less-than-two-minute nugget of Virgin-of-the-Birds-iness. Eighth-note chords chugged out on acoustic and reverbed-out electric guitar? Check! Titled for an obscure historical figure (who was apparently massacred along with a slew of other virgins [were they all sainted, or just Ursula?])? Check! Highly specific name-checks? Check! An encyclopedia of references that sail over my head? Double-check! And after all that, a second-person turn to intimacy and emotion that comes out of nowhere and leaves you just a bit woozy? All that, my friends, and a sweet little synth stinger at the end. Virgin of the Birds is back, baby!

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: KPH & The Canary Collective – “Dam Dam”

Posted on September 5, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm (KPH) is a young community organizer/social justice advocate who has spent the last several years mostly bedridden (read her story here). I bring this up not to garner sympathy for KPH’s plight—although much of her recent work has been a twin effort of creative expression and self-sustainment due to her circumstances, she is not an artist defined by her condition—but rather to give context to the stomping declaration that is “Dam Dam.”

Over steady bass, a descending funk guitar riff, a nice organ drone, ghostly backing voices playing hide-and-seek with the panning knobs, thigh-slapping (seriously, she told me herself!), kinetic high-hat, and a kick drum that sets up the chorus (and primary groove) of the song from the start, KPH infuses every lyric—from alternately frustrated and ruminative verses to a joyous metaphor-packed chorus—with real-life experience. You can’t hear “Dam Dam” and not know intuitively that it comes from a place of pain, near-resignation, and breakthrough.

Finally—and I may be stretching interpretation, but I almost fell out of my chair when this occurred to me—in a feat of tonal mastery, KPH & The Canary Collective keep the whole thing moving along on an A minor chord as extant within the confines of the key of E minor. And what’s so special about that? A minor is the subdominant in this key. Sub = below or under, dominant = powerful, influential. It never moves to the dominant and never resolves to the tonic—that’s how important the chord is to this song. “Dam Dam”’s very harmonic structure can be seen as a sequential metacommentary on the experience it relates.

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Drew Danburry – “1996, For Luke Graham, Ryan Hibler and Aaron Mickelson”

Posted on September 4, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Everyone’s favorite singer-songwriter/barber/fraudulent teen Drew Danburry is back after what feels like a long hiatus (or at least a long hiatus from my inbox). It’s been a couple years since Drew brought us “Mediocrity, for Denis Villeneuve (who is amazing and not mediocre),” and he’s back with another song whose title includes a highly specific dedication. (This one not involving any famous film directors, as far as I can tell.) The similarities between the two songs end there, though. Where “Mediocrity” was a slow, contemplative piano ballad, “1996” is a breezy slice of folk-pop. It starts with four chords on an acoustic guitar, then over 2-plus minutes ever-so-gradually morphs into a marvelous melange of multi-tracking, with more guitars, keys, and layers of vocals. The song just keeps growing, but never in a way that feels excessive or ornamental. Drew’s vocal style throughout most of the song is in his usual amiable, low-key mode, but there’s one intense moment at the halfway point where he breaks out and almost shrieks, and it’s spine-tinglingly effective; all the more so for the way it contrasts with the rest of the song. I still haven’t figured exactly what the song is about (never my strong suit), but there a lot of little lyrical gems in here, leading up to the closer: “I could use your help, so stop blaming your failures on somebody else.” Words we could all stand to hear from time to time.

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: The Foghorns – “Night of the Comet”

Posted on September 4, 2019 by Jon Rooney
Mary and Lou

“Siri, show my the coolest fucking picture ever” – Mary Woronov and Lou Reed

“It’s the last arcade on the street / it’s the end of the 1980s / and somehow you’re alive” is one hell of a lyric from a band that’s had more than their fair share. As a latchkey kid from the ’80s lucky enough to have cable, the title “Night of the Comet” means something to me. Night of the Comet was a seminal ’80s b-movie mixing sci-fi, horror, and teen romance about a mass extinction event starring, among other actors, Mary Woronov of Warhol Factory (she danced with whips while Velvet Underground played gigs!) and Eating Raoul semi-fame. Night of the Comet was on heavy rotation when I was a kid, alongside the likes of The Last Starfighter, Cherry 2000, and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I feel like the below trailer really underplays the creepy, anxious tone of the movie but I guess more of a “girls just wanna have fun” vibe helped sell tickets to kids in 1984:

Culture has certainly preserved and exalted the likes of The Terminator, Back to the Future, and Aliens – big tent blockbusters teed up by the success of Star Wars and Spielberg’s run of hits that linger in the visual and textual landmarks of today (see: Stranger Things). So those were the hits – what about the misses? What about the knock-offs, flops and left-field castoffs likely funded to be huge blockbusters but that instead ended up filling out the afternoon time slots on HBO and long-forgotten channels like PRISM. I’m not sure where lead Foghorn Bart Cameron first came across Night of the Comet (some local video store in Racine,Wisconsin? an edited-for-TV version?), but I imagine that the garish, moody red sky in the film works as much as a Proustian Madeleine for him as it does for me.

Getting back to the song, “Night of the Comet” is another entry in Cameron’s emerging song cycle about the end of the world. The Omega Man from “And Omega Man / has a drunkard’s conviction” is likely Charlton Heston from 1971’s The Omega Man, reinforcing the desperate, apocalyptic backdrop. Musically, like much of the Foghorns’ catalog, “Night of the Comet” draws from traditional folk and blues changes and form – simple, but confidently played. The lyrics and the singing contain the whole weird world of the song – forming a sort of snow globe of nostalgia, dread, and the kind of generous fatalism we’ve come to love from the Foghorns. Are you listening to it yet? Why are you still reading this?

The Foghorns will play this song and more at the Ball of Wax 57 release show on Saturday the 14th – and who knows, maybe Night of the Comet will be playing on the TV over the bar

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Cowboy Cold – “Roadkill”

Posted on September 3, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

I am pleased to report that American(a) music is alive and well. I am also pleased to tell you that it won’t be found on popular radio. Not that I’m happy it isn’t getting that type of exposure, but because of the company it would be forced to keep. No, the music I’m talking about is rare. The type of stuff you could spend your life looking for but never find. What you hear on most radio stations is shiny, sure. But it’s all iron pyrite—fool’s gold, as the oldtimers called it, and the most common of the sulfide minerals. Its worth is nothing next to the rarity that is actual gold.

One such rarity is Will Felty from Lubbock, Texas. One listen to anything he has recorded as Cowboy Cold and you know immediately that this is no sulfide material. Cowboy Cold presents, in a way that uses low fidelity (arguably one of the hallmarks of independent American music) as an instrument itself (listen to Death Blues, Cowboy Cold’s 2018 release, and then try to imagine its tracks without the beautiful hiss and hum of the tape machine), stripped-down country music as a precious metal, and “Roadkill” is a perfect example.

From the wandering finger-picked intro to the subtle addition of pedal steel and, throughout, its primary subject matter, Felty delivers “the truth” in his half-whispered, unadorned drawl. It’s within this truth that a rare nugget is to be found: a sardonic understanding of human nature as influenced by technology in general and social media in particular. While the first verse is used to describe a “mown down” animal, the wording and delivery suggest an observer emotionally moved by the sight; the second verse involves the video-captured loss of a human life and offhandedly remarks that it was “like anything else on the news that night,” comparing it specifically to roadkill—a word not used in the previous verse. In both occurrences of the chorus, this detachment from our fellow humans is subtly reiterated, marking “Roadkill” as a confessional as well as deep observation.

Cowboy Cold will be traveling all the way from Lubbock to present his splendid version of country music in person at the Ball of Wax 57 release show, September 14th at the Blue Moon!

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Goodmorning Valentine – “My Little Valentine”

Posted on September 3, 2019 by Patrick J Gibbs

Joey Beltram returns to Ball of Wax after contributions to Quarterlies 35, 36, and 39. Beltram, performing as Goodmorning Valentine, delivers a pared down perfect duet in “My Little Valentine.”

A gentle walking folk melody played on acoustic guitar sets the tone of the song across its opening bars. Beltram’s Cotten picking is joined by his warm, evocative baritone. There is a gravel to his voice which suggests a quiet strength of experience while at the same time
hinting towards a deep vulnerability. My, my how the song develops over a few short turns of the guitar’s melody. Beltram’s vocals are soon coupled mid-sentence with those of a female companion. He sings, “You came out of blank space saying that a good change is what I need.” They sing, “I knew you’d find your way through.” Here the fragility of character that had been implied in Beltram’s voice is exposed. His phrases diminish as they near completion, and his words fall unfinished. The singer is a broken man. With such tenderness his partner is there to lift him up and support him. Her voice rises as
his falls. She gently and lovingly completes his words. As his voice falters, hers increases in confidence and strength.

The interplay of the two voices is beautiful and central to “My Little Valentine.” They complement each other in every way. I am reminded of Gram Parsons and Crystal Gayle, or perhaps Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush in “Don’t Give Up.” Without her voice, the singer is lost. With her they can find her way through. With her the song is perfect.

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Tekla Waterfield – “Morpheus”

Posted on August 30, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

It’s always a thrill to hear the unconventional employed in the service of an otherwise-gentle arrangement. I’m not referring to the samples of children at play on Tekla Waterfield’s “Morpheus,” (although, as found sounds go, they are a delight—who can deny the sonorous beauty in the voice of a happy child?), but the buzz that pops up now and again, running through parts of verse, chorus, and break. It’s somewhere between studio hum and slowed sitar, between a guitar string vibrating against a fingernail and the sounds of the spheres with a ton of gain, and it’s used to wonderful effect—never overpowering, never overstaying its welcome, and used to enhance Ms. Waterfield’s gorgeous voice and guitar in a subtractive way by being dropped from the mix at key moments.

Without the audio color of the buzz, this would still be a stunning song. Lilting along on a barely-there strum, strings fingerpicked fully conscious of the others still asleep in the house, finger-bongo and heartbeat percussion, and the softest bass I’ve heard, “Morpheus” does everything in its power to seduce the listener into a drifting, drowsy state—even Waterfield’s lyrics suggest a slow-motion fall into the ether of dreamtime or a bottomless cloud. So sure is she of her abilities that she coyly dares to place a few crescendos in the arrangement, one following the song’s sparest moment, knowing that once the listener has been entranced, they won’t be waking until she’s ready for them to do so.

I’m a bit of a word nerd, so I would be failing myself and my likeminded readers if I didn’t point out the beauty of the connection between title and composition: Morpheus is the son of the personification of sleep (“Hypnos” to the Greeks, “Somnus” to the Romans, “Exhaustion” to the rest of us) who, along with his thousand brothers, make up the characters, flora and fauna, objects and structures, and landscapes—the very fabric—of our dreams. From his name was derived that of the opiate/wonder-drug morphine. Let that sink in as you listen and let Tekla Waterfield guide you into a peaceful place.

Don’t miss your chance to experience this and other Tekla tunes live in person at the Ball of Wax 57 release show, September 14th at the Blue Moon!

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Holly and the Dead Saints – “Journey into Death”

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Grumpy Bear side project Holly and the Dead Saints – which I believe is primarily, if not entirely, our old pal Lattney B – returns with the uplifting pop-dirge “Journey into Death.” Lattney makes good use of the classic lo-fi tools of simple percussion and layers of acoustic guitars and vocals on this short and surprisingly sweet tune, which starts with a quick summary of the listener’s current status (beginning your journey into death). Within 40 seconds most of the lyrics have been sung, and for the remainder, Lattney repeatedly enjoins us to “remember” in straightforward, somewhat ominous bass tones, while continually adding layers of falsetto harmonies, creating a rich and soothing musical blanket from what started as a rather stern and foreboding shroud of a song. I’m not sure what it is I’m supposed to remember – especially once I’ve died – but I will certainly do my best. If nothing else, I know I’ll remember this song.

As a side note, I happen to be currently reading the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, by the brilliant George Saunders, and I find this song to have a lot of resonances with it. Of course, when you’re immersed in a novel, everything resonates with it a bit, but Lincoln in the Bardo is very much about death and memory (and the memories of the dead), to the extent that I almost wonder if Lattney was also reading it when he wrote this song. Probably not, but he should. And so should you, for that matter.

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Medejin – “World’s Fair”

Posted on August 28, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Our new friends Medejin are back with their new single “World’s Fair,” which they’ve graciously allowed us to include on Ball of Wax 57. Where their previous contribution, “Untitled 4,” was slow and contemplative, with lots of empty space and an intimate, bedroom-produced feel, “World’s Fair” starts off with a propulsive beat, and the full band (two guitars, bass, and drums) keeps the energy up through the whole song. The key elements of Medejin’s sound – Jenn Taranto’s clear, shining voice and sparkling guitar work – remain, with more and more layers of vocals swirling around each other as the song builds to a powerful close. It’s a beautiful thing to witness the evolution of this band’s sound in such a short stretch of time. I can’t wait to hear where they go next – but for now I’ll just hit play on “World’s Fair” one more time.

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