♡ LOVE SONGS ♡
♡ LOVE SONGS ♡
PLUS: An interview with a kid who appeared in The Smile's new video directed by contemporary auteur Paul Thomas Anderson. I also talk to the kid's mom.
The paid-subscriber version of this mixtape delivery service has been unusually active in 2024. Starting with a delicate New Year’s Day mix, then a list of my most listened to records of 2023, then an introduction to Brassland (my long-running music imprint). Anyone can view these posts by clicking those links. I did not trouble you, more casual recipients, with the emailed versions.
# of Tracks: about 40 tracks
Length: less than 3 hours
Themes: about human entanglement ~ in honor of Valentine’s Day but not particularly sappy or romantic ~ multi-genre but emotionally consistent ~ songs that convey intimacy rather than than ardent expressions of desire ~ a block of tunes by artists I got to know through Brooklyn’s indie music scene but who now live elsewhere (Helado Negro > Big Thief) ~ plenty of all-time giants (Bill Withers, Willie Nelson, Joan Armatrading, Lucinda Williams, Caetano Veloso, Björk) ~ a handful of deep cuts by underground musicians which deserve to be more widely heard
Link: spoti.fi (Spotify) — apple.co (Apple Music) — youtube.com (YouTube)
If mixtapes have a purpose it is to spread love. The mixtape maker is simultaneously sharing their appreciation for the songs they picked and for the recipient of the tape.
Does that love also spread back to the sender? Why yes. For me at least, sharing music is an act of loving kindness. And G*d knows the world needs all the loving and kindness it can get right now.
Which is to say: don’t expect a lot of songs about seduction, lust, or erotic love on this playlist.1 For the most part, these recordings are not about persuasion, possession, or carnality but rather the feelings that arise in any cozy, two-person interaction.2 (A few of these songs might even portray familial- or friend-love.) These are songs about navigating attraction, affection and familiarity. About the ups and downs, and all the ways such intimate relations get twisted. Sure the mood set by some of these recordings could lead to sex, but they’re less about pheromones than that swelling feeling of getting to know someone better, of being truly tangled in the gravitational pull of someone else.
Spotify version
Apple version
YouTube version
The playlist includes songs such as…
^ Bill Withers: “Use Me”
^ My Brightest Diamond: “I Have Never Loved Someone”
^ Caetano Veloso: “O Seu Amor” (Ao Vivo)
^ Lucinda Williams: “Right In Time”
^ Joan Armatrading: “Love & Affection”
Extra credit: An interview with a kid from The Smile’s new video
While DM’ing a London-based expat friend, I got some bombshell news. (At least by the newsworthiness standard of one dude in Brooklyn’s Substack.) Her child had appeared in the new music video by The Smile3 directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, creator of some of the turn of the century’s most prestigious high(ish) budget films: There Will Be Blood (2007), Boogie Nights (1997), and Magnolia (1999) among them.
While I won’t claim this mixtape delivery service exists to get scoops, I thought it deserved further investigation: Was the kid into it?
What follows is a brief conversation with mother and child, their identities anonymized because, well, the kid is five-years old, and what if he grows up and gets really into existential, highly listenable, turn of the century alt-rock like me and most of my friends?
How did your kid end up in the audience for The Smile's new video?
Mum: His school sent an email about “an opportunity to be in a music video with Thom Yorke’s band The Smile” which was to be taped at our sister school. (Our primary school is in a “federation” with another educational institution a 20-minute walk away.)
The production company said the day would include: an “entertainer” (a magician?), a Disney movie, and the band playing a song once or twice. Our kid hasn’t ever been to a live performance so why not start with two members of Radiohead? Also it was the school break. I was kinda desperate to find nearby things to do.
Did he come away impressed by the experience?
Mum: [Turning to her child.] What did you think of it?
Kid: Nothing. I don't know. I can't remember!
Well, ok, specifically what did you think of the music then?
Kid: Nice.
Mum: Do you want to listen to the song again?
Kid: No. Not now please.
This one’s for the adult. At the risk of violating NDAs, did you come away with any Paul Thomas Anderson or Thom Yorke anecdotes?
Mum: PT Anderson came into the classroom where the producers had corralled both parents and children. He scanned the children quickly and seemed to approve. Initially I didn’t clock it was him, then it dawned on me. They didn’t tell us who was directing it before we got there. He was wearing a North Face puffer, Adidas trainers, or maybe New Balance? He seemed relaxed.
Parents were asked to stay in a third grade classroom while the kids filmed in the gym so I didn’t see the band in person. There was a TV monitor on a stand that live-streamed all the camera shots, b-roll, et. cetera. I heard some music when I went to the bathroom which was near the gym. Sounded great.
Also great: They wrapped a lot sooner than expected. The energy on set was friendly, under control, chill.
Once filming wrapped, I did see Johnny Greenwood walking through the hallways. He and Tom Skinner wear necklaces that look like baby teething necklaces and that’s still a pretty familiar sight in our household.4 Afterwards, Tom Skinner joined his family at the nearby playground, and he seemed to genuinely like them. Some school families from the shoot were at the same park. They minded their business, or maybe didn't care he was there?
As the saying goes “Pics or it didn’t happen.” Any behind the scenes photos from the set?
Mum: I don’t have any! I was a good momager/NDA signer, and production was on it. Also they told off parents if they saw cell phones out.
Can we hear more from your kid directly!
Mum: [Turning to child.] What do you remember from that day?
Kid: The guitar. [Kid starts drawing.] This is the man playing it. He smiled. Sometimes.
Mum: I remember he was pleased to leave with a party bag from the entertainer. There was a wand and fake money He still has it! [Party bag pictured below.]
[Turning back toward the child.] Would you want to do something like that again?
Kid: It's BORING.
Mum: For what it’s worth, we haven't watched the video with him yet. Probably won't any time soon? We have played the album for him but he's not that into it.
I’m not sure we’d do it again. I don't think our kid enjoyed sitting with children he didn’t know for one or two hours. I was hoping he might meet some of his schoolmates there, but he was the only one from his class. I’m not sure that’s a surprise. I hear more Lil Uzi Vert and jungle around school drop off/pick up than The Smile lol.
People Who Died: Wayne Kramer ~ Phil Niblock ~ Annie Nightingale ~ Ruth Seymour ~ Damo Suzuki
Wayne Kramer was a founder and primary visionary behind the MC5, Detroit’s original power rock’n’roll band, one of the clearest influences on what would evolve into the punk genre. Ironically, Wayne passed the same week as this year’s Grammy awards. Ironic because, though his image flashed during the “in memoriam” segment of the broadcast, I suspect he didn’t think much of an event which celebrates “winning” at music as a central tenant.
During his 75 years, Kramer was not only a guitarist and producer but also a carpenter and, by his own admission, a drug addict and petty criminal who turned those dark experiences on their head.5 In his later years, he devoted a lot of time to helping people impacted by the criminal-justice system, supplying instruments, workshops, and prison concerts.6
Maybe that’s why I found this excerpt Wayne’s 2014 interview for Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast so resonant—his view of what music could do was definitely bolder and more inspiring than any prize.
Wayne: “I have come to believe that art is the only defense we have against the industrial nature of the state on our bodies, state power, and corporate power.”
Marc: “It’s the only portal to freedom?”Wayne: “Yes it’s a powerful one. It’s not the most powerful. But it’s the most powerful one we have.”
An inspiring exchange. I even memeified it:
I’ll leave you with this clip of kids breakdancing to “Vitamin C”—one of many undeniable tracks created during Damo Suzuki’s brief but influential tenure in the uncategorizable German band Can.
I specifically left off this great song by Low which is literally called “Lust.” It’s a slow-burning musical storm that makes me feel all the things that word entails: a liminal headspace, a swell in the chest, a sense of impending regret.
…or, sure, let’s be fashionable and include a three-person interaction, a throuple’s therapy session, or even a polycule’s dinner party. I am happy to accept that these songs might be relevant to whatever relationship-arrangement prestigious, New York-based periodicals next want to turn into a trend piece.
If you want to save a click over to Wikipedia: “The Smile are an English rock band comprising the Radiohead members Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, bass, keys) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar, bass, keys) with Tom Skinner (drums). Critics likened them to Radiohead, with more jazz, krautrock and progressive rock influences and a looser, wilder sound.”
Here’s proof of the necklaces from one of the band’s new press pics. Left to right: Jonny Greenwood (with white necklace), Tom Skinner (with brown necklace), and Thom Yorke (who is not smiling this time).
Kramer’s encounters with the criminal justice system are covered in his 2018 autobiography The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities.
Kramer’s activities related to helping those impacted by the criminal justice system were numerous. Among them was Jail Guitar Doors U.S.A., a nonprofit he helped set up in 2009 with British musician Billy Bragg. The organization donates musical instruments to inmates and offers songwriting workshops in prisons. It’s named after a song by The Clash which namechecks Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green, the Rolling Stones Keith Richards and, of course, Wayne Kramer: "Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine."
IF you’re a fan of “The Wire”, perhaps you know this but actor Clark Peters (Lester Freemon) sings back up of Joan Armatrading’s “Love and Affection”. How great is that!!! You can totally hear him!!
AHB: my Valentine's day playlist soft-pedals erotic love
THE THIRD SONG ON THE PLAYLIST: "and I'll fuck you / like nothing matters"
I love it!