See also: Vinyl Fantasy's Nathan Johnson on Sunn O))), Carly Rae Jepsen
See also: Dennis Gonzalez on Ramón Ayala
We've started poking around in locals' iTunes, iPods, Spotify playlists, CD players, cassette decks, turntables and brains with one question in mind: What are you listening to? We don't even care if it's good, we just want to know what the music community has been obsessing over, playing on repeat, picking apart, hating or turning people on to. Sometimes, these things even all happen at once.
Ryan Taylor and Dugan Connors of Dallas' Oil Boom relayed what they're listening to right now. See them August 4 at the Double Wide, when they celebrate the release of their new six-song EP, Gold Yeller.
Ryan Taylor "Lately, I've spent a lot of time with Dreamin' Wild, an obscure 1979 blue-eyed soul album recorded by a pair of 17- and 19 year-old brothers, Donnie and Joe Emerson. It was just reissued by Light in the Attic last month. Donnie and Joe's dad, who had little interest in or knowledge about music himself, built his sons a home studio on the family farm in rural Washington and even a stage to play shows on. They recorded and released a limited run of the record themselves, it more or less went nowhere and the family farm almost went under as a result.
"Once I got past snickering at the hilarious cover, the music totally had me hooked. The songs were pretty much recorded in a musical vacuum, since the brothers didn't really have access to a lot of radio or record stores living out in the country.The song "Baby" floored me when I first heard it. Donnie's voice has a real ethereal and soulful quality to it, which is strange to hear coming out of a 17-year-old. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti recently did a cover version, which is also worth checking out. Not all of the tunes are great, but considering their ages when they made it and the fact they did it without anyone's help, it's a masterpiece. I liked the album so much, I even bought a Team Emerson t-shirt, which makes me some sort of superfan and/or superdork."
Dugan Connors "For the last month I haven't been able to stop listening to Steeple, a rather unknown 2010 record by British rockers Wolf People. This record reminds me of what I love about British '70s blues-psych rock via Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. Never at any point does it seem like they are trying to refresh or reboot these qualities, but dwell on the spirit that makes this rock seems timeless."
