Something New (This Week)

New music, old music newly available, 100 year old comedy shorts, and Michelle Yeoh kicks ass.

Mar 03, 2023

I’ve been slacking on my “new music Friday” activity, both listening, sharing, and soliciting from others. Time to get back on that horse.

Yazmin Lacey

One of my favorite Spotify finds of all time was Yazmin Lacey’s Black Moon EP, a soulful, jazzy, rich, fun as hell work that debuted Lacey’s remarkable vocal talents. I’ve been following her ever since, and today she’s released her first LP. I’m digging into it as soon as I stop re-listening to Black Moon on repeat.

Tanukichan

I listened to Tanukichan for the first time a couple of weeks ago, after browsing some local music venue’s schedules, and saw a snippet of a description of their wound, and saw that they were playing here in Portland in a couple of months. Her second LP GIZMO, out today, is a step-forward in the development of their shoegaze-centric sound, and I can’t wait to (hopefully) experience it live.

De La Soul

This is a mountain of a task to tackle, but De La Soul’s catalog is finally available on streaming. After the passing of group member David Jude Jolicoeur, aka Trugoy, last month, I’ve been dying to get into this discography, because I’ve read and heard so much love for Trugoy and this music. I’m so glad to have it infinitely available to me now, and I can’t wait to form my own relationship with the work, and to hopefully add some of it to my physical collection.

Criterion Channel

Every month, like clockwork, the Criterion Channel — the streaming outlet of the Criterion Collection, a company that reissues and “canonizes” older, typically lesser-seen movies — publishes their monthly collection of streaming options, and I lose my damn mind over the wealth of wonderful watches. This month is no different, as they have two absolute gems of collections on their site: a collection of basically every Buster Keaton short, and many of his features; and a “Michelle Yeoh Kicks Ass” collection.

“Starring Buster Keaton” is timely for me, because Dana Stevens, a writer for Slate and many other publications, published a wonderful book last year called Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century, which chronicles the tandem of Keaton’s life and work alongside the evolution of Hollywood and the filmmaking industry. Detalied and lovingly written, the book made me long to see the depth of creativity and burgeoning technology of Keaton’s shorts and features, and I have my best opportunity yet to do so. Much like the work of Jacques Tati, I find Keaton’s films still marvelous and joyful, despite being over 100 years old. Please check them out!

“Michelle Yeoh Kicks Ass” is the perfect pairing to her work in Everything Everywhere All At Once, which plays on her long and ass-kicking career, and also might earn her a Best Actress Academy Award next week. But I don’t need a modern tie-in reasoning to go watch all of these action movies showcasing her incredible talents, and neither should you.

I mean, come on!

I hope your weeks were better than mine, as my partner contracted the novel coronavirus, which I then also tested positive for yesterday. More time for reading, listening, and watching, I guess.

See you next week.

TTFN,