Of Note 012: On Doug Shaw, Macie Stewart Interview, Wisconsin Indie Media Roundtable, and Neko Case on Neko Case
Howdy folks,
Community is a vital party of music. Recorded music, the music industry, and the ways we engage with music are, in sum, a very small and recent part of music history. For much longer, music has been made by people in the room for people in the room.
This month, officially the 12th Of Note, many of the featured stories recognize this. Andy Cush writes about his relationship with Doug Shaw, a hidden gem of the NYC underground with little recorded music. Tone Glow’a great interview with soon-to-be superstar Macie Stewart touches on her communal music experiences growing up. Finally, Tone Madison discusses the current state of Wisconsin punk commentary and how that community is changing.
This month’s featured book: Neko Case’s beautiful memoir The Harder I Fight The More I Love You and I’ll leave you with a few bonus links.
Friends Making Music
Andy Cush has a phenomenal and personal feature on his and Geologist’s relationship with Doug Shaw, a little known musician who doesn’t have much recorded music, for Hearing Things. The newsworthy item is that Geologist has a new album out, A Shaw Deal, that samples music Shaw posted on Instagram during the Pandemic, but Cush has a longer personal history with Shaw and this new album gave him a chance to reconnect and try to explain “The Doug Shaw Experience” to those of us outside NYC.
In his lyrics, slangy street-level imagery of cigarette lighters and sparked roaches might open into a meditation on the nature of sunlight. Ask him about his influences and he’s as likely to mention grime MCs as guitarists. His singing cadence is sometimes talky, sometimes high and lonesome, and his guitar parts unspool in iridescent threads, aided as often as not by dubby delay effects. He comes across both like a classic Dylanesque troubadour and like a guy who moonlights as a footwork producer.
Getting to Know Macie Stewart
For Tone Glow, Joshua Minsoo Kim interviews rising composer and multi-instrumentalist Macie Stewart(previously best known as part of Chicago indie-rock duo Finom), whose new album, When The Distance Is Blue, is, in my opinion, incredible (I recently saw her perform at the Big Ears festival).
While the interview immediately reveals some exciting news (She’s working with the Tweedy’s on a new album), it’s the thoughtful questions about her past experiences, rather than typical questions like “what are you listening to?”, that allow Stewart to explore her past and the communities that shaped her.
I really love the moments on your new album when you’re singing. I wanted to start by asking about the early memories you have of singing, of being enamored with the act of using your voice in this way.
Later in the interview, I love how their discussion frames the “new” record as a snapshot of the past and gives Stewart the space to reflect on it.
I can see that I was longing for something but I didn’t know what it was. I’m not sure I know what that is now either, but I can tell that I was searching.
Music Writers Talking to Music Writers (Cheesehead Edition)
At the risk of navel gazing all the way down (a newsletter about music writing linking to music writers talking about music writing?), I recommend this conversation between Steven Spoerl (Tone Madison), Evan Minsker (see/saw), and Kelsie Herzog (Yellow Button), all three music journalists living in Wisconsin and building their own independent outlets.
They discuss the shifting and impermanent nature of music media. While some things change, some things are seeing a return (we’re nearing a return to the Blog Era with all these newsletters, for example).
Herzog’s growing preference for Twitch and it’s ephemeral nature also really stood out to me. Like music itself, conversations about music are often better live.
Spoerl uses these interviews to build into some observations about how community sustains independent writers and, as members of that community, I think this is an important discussion to read and consider.
Book of the Month: The Harder I Fight The More I Love You by Neko Case
If you are a fan of Neko Case, I think her new memoir, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You, is a must-read.
If you’re indifferent or not a fan, I also think it’s worth your time. The introduction alone feels so full of life advice that anyone could use.
If you’re a horse girl, I promise you it’s definitely worth your time.
One thing immediately apparent: A good writer is a good writer is a good writer, regardless of whether their main form is poetry, lyrics, fiction, whatever. Case’s prose is immediately recognizable as her voice, full of metaphor and humor, but direct and keenly observed.
While many tragic details of her story are tough to read, she generally focuses on exploring her emotional reactions and holds back the most graphic details. Her story of growing up in poverty is a great reminder that talent and intelligence have little to do with your class standing.
The moments that she transitions from telling stories about her past to explaining something musically I found especially interesting. You can feel her shift into expert mode, her deep knowledge of her craft on display and a confidence that only comes from knowing. This gives her observations on life and her advice to others extra weight.
I don’t read too many memoirs in general. I often find they use way too many words to describe uninteresting things, but Case focuses on what we don’t know: the thoughts and feelings inside of her at these key moments and that made this one feel incredibly personal, revealing, and insightful.
Bonus Links
You don’t need me to tell you to read Amanda Petrusich profiles, but her latest on Lucy Dacus is definitive.
Laura Snapes has a well-argued, and sure to be polarizing, review of Dacus’s new album in Pitchfork.
Philip Sherburne’s review of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s Gift Songs is nearly as beautiful as the record itself.
Thank you for reading! See you next month!
Justin Anderson-Weber
