Bob Dylan, concisely

plus new Brassland projects by Carriers, Buke & Gase and LANZ & a pair of deaths that hit home

The number of people reading, sharing & subscribing to this mixtape delivery service keeps going up up up: 📈 — The number of folks paying for it is more or less flat: 😑 — I’ll keep at it regardless, but if you find joy or inspiration in what’s shared here, I’d be delighted by a tip or subscription (currently $25 annually).

• # of Tracks: almost 50 recordings

• Length: approximately 3 and a half hours

• Themes: one of the 20th century’s greatest artists, across all disciplines ~ yeah, I think he deserved that Nobel Prize for Literature ~ no, I don’t think prizes are that big a deal to him ~ 30 recordings by Dylan, 15 cover versions of his songs & 1 sick burn by Joan Baez

• Links: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

• Also: I also assembled an Ultimate & Exhaustive Best Of version of the playlist since this is Bob Dylan and he deserves it. It’s 12 hours long, includes about 150 songs, and is sequenced chronologically — Spotify only

What can you say about Bob Dylan?

I’m so awed by his work, I’d rather not venture too many thoughts about it. Suffice it to say his music is deep in there ❤️‍🔥 — It’s more like one of my organs than something I just listen to for fun. It’s a guide to making it through life—how to be protean and changeable; to understand humanity is funny and cruel and sharp in equal measure; to know that the world is unjust but we should bend our own lives towards justice; to live boldly yet realize that has consequences.

I wish there was an emoji of a brain on fire so I could better explain in emoji what it feels like to listen to him: 🤯 (Ok, close enough.)

If the 21st century will be, in part, defined by Andy Warhol’s maxim that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,¹ Dylan explodes that supposition. Born in 1941, amidst World War and Holocaust, some random Jewish kid from the midwest became a canonical historical figure using just words and music. “I think of myself more as a song and dance man” as he joked at a 1965 press conference.²

Dylan is emblematic of a particular white male artistic tradition, but his songs draw on themes fundamental to the wider American experience: war, Biblical religion, empire, injustice, and the persistent blood stains that manifest destiny has left on our land(s). That’s why the playlist previews feature Dylan cover versions by Black artists from his breakout era in the 1960s. These musicians—the Staple Singers, Jimi Hendrix, and Nina Simone—were not just peers; they are giants in their own right. All of them recognized that Dylan was tapping into the same painful well that fed their own work. They drank from it too. All of them saw the American flag was burning—and pissed on it³ with the same righteous feeling he inscribed in his songs.

Bob Dylan is the kind of musician who makes America great. The most significant American artists understand our country is not a finished product, and that any strands of greatness which exist need to be constantly rewoven into something new. G*d bless Bob and all of us who love the America he embodies. It’s a hopeful vision of a brutal country that aspires to make things right and only does so by pushing forward into the new. Dont Look Back, indeed. Because, right now, America (and the world) needs all the help it can get.

Find the playlist on… Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

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Others single-artist focused posts on AHB’s Goodies

Left to right: Steve Albini, Sinéad O'Conner

Steve Albini started fires, 1962–2024

Sinéad O' Conner's last playlist

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Three new recordings released on Brassland

I’ve operated a small record label for 25 years. Last month we put out three things I’d encourage you to give a spin. I’ve embedded Bandcamp links but you can click on LISTEN to find the music on streaming services.

Carriers: Every Time I Feel Afraid — LISTEN — Vibey, plainspoken indie Americana from Curt Kiser, a musician quickly becoming a favorite son of his Cincinnati, Ohio hometown. This is the second Carriers’ LP, and one of the most listenable albums we’ve ever released. It hits you like a late-night chat with a friend: honest, warm, and full of heart.

Buke & Gase: live soundtrack to the documentary & concert film — WATCH or LISTEN — Angular, hyper-melodic, rhythmically complex, kinda loud music so specific only this duo of Aron(e)s could make it. (So they invented their own bespoke instruments and systems to make it even more what they want it to be.)

• LANZ: Treasures — LISTEN — Everyone who meets Ben LANZ likes him. Which is maybe why, under the project name LANZ, his music has evolved from expressions of a solo vision into highly collaborative affairs. The most recent EP Treasures features Haitian-Canadian singer Mélissa Laveaux and Black American artist Blake Fusilier. Also great: LANZ’s previous release, an instrumental album Ballard, made with a childhood friend Kris Allen.

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The Bob Dylan playlist includes cover versions of his songs by…

^ The Staple Singers: “Masters of War” (1964)

^ Jimi Hendrix: “All Along The Watchtower” (1968)

^ Nina Simone: “I Shall Be Released” (1969)

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Extra credit:

• Song of the Earth: I wrote for Artforum about a new recording by David Longstreth, Dirty Projectors, and the ensemble s t a r g a z e. I found out the article had been published when Stewart Brand, a personal hero of mine, Tweeted about it.⁴ That was cool. I may have more to say about Longstreth’s project in a future post.

• Chappell Roan at Primavera Festival: There are some incredible clips circulating online from her festival performance in Spain last weekend. I believe it was webcast by Amazon Music in some countries—but for now, you can also download it, find highlights on Twitter, or even watch full streams of her set on YouTube. I think Roan is the best artist working at a megastar level⁵ right now, and I can’t wait to hear (and see!) what’s next.

• Sometimes you fall in love with a Tweet: In this case, it was from Yancey Strickler, best known for co-founding Kickstarter. Nowadays he is exploring new ideas about how creativity can function in a post-influencer era through his Metalabel project. The platform bills itself as “where creative people release work together” and encourages “creativity in multiplayer mode.” He’s onto something and I’m proud my latest crew of collaborators gets to experiment in the sandbox he’s building.

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People Who Died: Billy Jones • Brian Wilson • Chris Penn • Dave Allen • David Thomas • Sly Stone

Imagine the year is 1961. Robert Zimmerman has renamed himself Bob Dylan and moved to New York City. What kind of person would he turn to, to help put on his first show?

Let me introduce you to two people who fit that mold, a pair of behind-the-scenes legends. Both Chris Penn and Billy Jones died since the last edition of my mixtape delivery service. I want to pay my respects.

Chris Penn is the adult in this picture who is not Alice Cooper.

I met Chris 20 years ago in Dallas, Texas while reporting on a band he managed, the Polyphonic Spree. At the time, the Brassland label was barely three years old, still a side hustle for me. Chris also ran his city’s best indie music shop, Good Records, and somehow already knew about our tiny catalog of releases. Which was insane.⁶ He was the kind of devoted listener who made it his business to stay tuned in to what was bubbling up from the underground. Penn’s obituaries called him a “local music champion” and “scene legend” and “beloved fixture” of Dallas music. Whenever I’ve talked to others who knew him, the conversation always followed the same script: There are good people out there—but that guy? He’s the best.

How are we supposed to feel when the good ones die young? There is a GoFundMe to help support Chris’s family. I’ve dropped some money in the bucket. If you’ve bumped into folks like Chris, maybe you will to.

Billy Jones died of cancer last weekend, and I knew him more elliptically. I’ve never been a nightlife guy, so we never properly met. (It’s possible a friend will remind me we were at a backstage hang together at some point?) Still, as a person active in New York’s music scene, of course I knew who he was—the creator/curator/entrepreneur behind some of the most interesting small venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan over the last twenty years: Sin-é, Pianos, Baby’s All Right, Elvis Guesthouse, the Dance, and Nightclub 101. These were essential spaces—places where artists could connect with audiences in the most immediate and intimate way, including many that I’ve worked with: Buke & Gase, Barr Brothers, Rusty Santos, People Get Ready, This Is The Kit.

If you’ve ever loved watching artists grow, please pour one out for both of these people for doing the early, unseen work that makes music possible. They’re the ones who get the fire started…

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How does Charli XCX stack up against Bob Dylan? Here’s her very wise reflection on the “cultural brain rot of our times” via the Ivor Academy’s IG account.

1. If you’re interested in thinking about fame in this latter-day social media era, may I recommend this Garbage Day post called “What Is Instagram Now”:

But Instagram is not just one app, so it’s effectively become three different Twitters: Instagram Stories for the people you know, the grid for people you used to know (and their weddings and babies), and Reels for probing the profoundly upsetting psychic void at the heart of our country…

For anyone stuck working with these platforms professionally, the piece will inspire some dread, some laughs, and maybe some insight.

2. I’m not sure if Bob Dylan’s dancing has ever been documented.

3. Jimi Hendrix performing our national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner” live at Woodstock in 1969.

4. I feel weird that I’m admitting twice in a single post that a Tweet blew my mind a little but here we are…

5. Daniel Nigro, Roan’s producer, also deserves special praise. Nigro’s collaborative work with Olivia Rodrigo is equally compelling, even if Roan’s more transgressive persona speaks more to my tastes.

6. The National’s second album, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, was less than a year old; its initial impact was negligible; and the members were still trying to hold down day jobs. Our improvising classical quartet Clogs were three records in and had made a slightly bigger stir in circles devoted to instrumental music and post-rock. It was shocking to find a tastemaker in Texas who knew about both of them…and cared enough to talk about it.