Weekly Music Roundup: Modest Mouse, Cocanha, and Punch Brothers
Prince’s Estate Releases One From The Archives
Tuesday was the 10th anniversary of Prince’s death, and his NPG Record label has on occasion been doling out some of the material that was in the singer’s legendary vaults. Tuesday’s release was Prince’s original version of “With This Tear,” a song he wrote in 1991 and offered to Celine Dion. Her version is a deep cut from her 1992 self-titled album. Contrary to what you might read online, Prince did not write the song for Dion; he wrote it for Jevetta Steele, who had a hit with “Calling You” a couple of years earlier. Curiously, Celine Dion’s version was a late addition to her album, replacing a cover of… “Calling You.” Prince’s recording has a slightly fuller sound, but the big difference is the vocals: Dion’s high notes reach for the rafters, whereas Prince, when he moves up into his falsetto voice, keeps the sound intimate and the listener close.
The song may be best for diehard Prince fans and completists, but the song’s accompanying video is a montage of Prince over the years, including some affecting images of him as a kid.
Modest Mouse Release Leadoff Track From A New Album
Veteran rockers Modest Mouse have announced they’ll be releasing their first new LP in five years on June 5. An Eraser And A Maze will begin with the song that accompanied the announcement, a song called “Picking Dragon’s Pockets.” Rolling back the years to their hit “Float On,” lead singer Isaac Brook offers edgy, sardonic lyrics – “Facts aren’t facts on screens that glow/but we’re a pretty tricky little animal” – that lead into an anthemic, singalong chorus that recalls the what-are-ya-gonna-do feeling of that earlier song. “I’m not crazy ‘bout what they’re so crazy ‘bout now,” Brock sings, and you just know he won’t be singing that line alone when Modest Mouse begins touring in May. (New York gig: Rooftop at Pier 17 on October 8.)
Cocanha Reclaims Occitan Folk With Feminist View
The duo known as Cocanha takes the folk songs and dances of Occitania, a region in southern France that also spills over into bits of Italy and Spain, and uses that as the basis for their own original work. Singing in Occitan, Caroline Dufau and Lila Fraysse accompany themselves with the instrument variously known as the Pyrenean string drum or tambourine de Bearn – essentially a kind of zither that is played like a drum, and produces a raw, buzzy drone in addition to whatever rhythm you play on it. Their new single is “Remenanuèch,” which uses bits of two different Occitan folk songs to support a story about a miraculous horse whose back gets longer, accommodating more riders, in this case female riders, as he runs. The lyrics turn this old tale into a modern salute to the French women who marched against sexism and sexual violence in the 1970s. Cocanha was a trio for quite a while and I miss the third voice; but the sound, the rhythm, the intensity, and the intention are all true to Cocanha’s ongoing mission to lift up their often marginalized culture.
Cocanha’s new album Flame Folclore, is due on May 15.
Punch Brothers Ride A “New Bike”
The progressive bluegrass band Punch Brothers have just released a track from their next album, The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers. “New Bike” is a typically playful piece that zigs when it should zag, and features the group’s new fiddler, Brittany Haas (So, Punch Siblings then?). The rest of the band remains the same, with banjo player Noam Pikelny and everyone’s favorite mandolinist Chris Thile stepping forward as well during the song. The level of virtuosity in this band has always been high – what has given their music the ability to cross over to people who don’t normally listen to instrumentals or jammy improvs or bluegrass is the sense of fun the players bring to their interactions. In “New Bike” this is most audible in the later section of the piece which bursts into a catchy melody, only to interrupt itself with hesitant, quiet moments. Like a kid doubtfully trying a new bike, before eventually riding off.
The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers comes out July 24.
Bach Artillerie Conjures Memories of “Switched-On Bach”
Bach Artillerie is the duo of composer/keyboardist Curt Sydnor and drummer Greg Saunier of Deerhoof. Their self-titled album, out today, reinvents some of Bach’s famous Goldberg Variations for synthesizers and drums. Drawing on groundbreaking artists like Wendy Carlos, whose Switched-On Bach LP in 1968 remains a watershed moment in electronic music, Bach Artillerie take the canon movements from the Goldberg Variations and play them in a way that is somehow both straightforward and recognizably Bach while also sounding like they’re riffing on Bach’s intricate structures. The “Canon à l'unisson” or canon in unison is a good example of what Sydnor says was his hope for this project: “that the uninitiated listener will be turned on to the infinite possibilities of music that is formally controlled to this almost absurd degree.”
