Garretson & Gorodetsky, "Change Things" (Catasonic)
A voice from the other room calls out as the recording, based on a twisty-funky guitar-sax riddim riff, slams to a stop with the vocalist's ecstatic shrieks. "Who is that?!" the remote voice wants to know. "Weba!" "I loves it! Best thing she's ever done!"
We're talkin' 'bout the concluding title track from Garretson & Gorodetsky's new "Change Things." And the group's fourth album surely does bust out with fresh energy. The platform remains: Weba Garretson on voice and keys, Ralph Gorodetsky pluckin' jazzy guitar and harmonizing vocals, Brian Christopherson on drums, Laura Grissom on bass. This time producer Mark Wheaton has punched up the dynamics at Gold Diggers Soundstage, and the band has unleashed Vince Meghrouni (Atomic Sherpas, Mike Watt, Fatso Jetson) to spray his formidable arsenal of woodwinds, harmonica and vocals all over the place.
So we hear the reliable G&G aesthetic of bent poetic eclecticism -- just hotter, crazier, more colorful. The record launches with the ambitious "Weight of the World," a schizophrenic mini-opera whose nervous coffee gets a break via Meghrouni's floating flute. Meghrouni's harp then blows our eyeballs out on the socko blues of "Marriage," as Garretson digs down into her bad white self to find new ways to bark. Christopherson & Grissom saddle up a caravan hump ride for an abstractly wailing Garretson on "No Name," trailed by Meghrouni's playful flute. Don't miss "Tide," a sunny tourist snapbook alternating with moody introspection and spooky harmonies.
Gorodetsky is always around to blend those harmonies, often three-way; his rhythm guitar and single-string conjunctions with Meghrouni form the backbone of the sound -- G&G have often performed as a duo. This is a five-piece band, though, sounding like a unit and making the most of it. Catch 'em live.
Listen/buy here.
Garretson & Gorodetsky play the Redwood Bar & Grill, 316 W. Second St., downtown, Sun. March 2. Mecolodiacs 4:30pm; G&G 5:30pm; Carnage Asada 6:30pm.
The Nextdoors, "Nothing Compares To You"
First, posthumous kudos to Prince for correct use of the objective case of the relative pronoun in the lyric "I can see whomever I choose." Second, thanks to the community-minded Pasadena duo the Nextdoors for raising a few bux on behalf of neighboring Altadena fire victims via donations linked here. Third, this is an excellent cover of a modern standard. Russell Nextdoor delivers the words with a grainy, believable earnestness, while his acoustic guitar brings out the song's harmonic possibilities in ways Sinéad O'Connor's and Prince's recordings didn't attempt. (His arrangement leans toward Sinéad's plaint rather than Prince's R&B soar.) The soulful cello of Nextdoor Mika pulls Prince's background riff to the fore, balancing the duo nicely. A ballad of loss can spur layers of memories and meanings; of the hundred or so versions of "Nothing Compares 2 U" available on your streaming service, this one does super multiple duty. Listen/contribute here.
"Creative Underground Los Angeles: Experimental Music Photos 2010 to 2021" by Eron Rauch.
If abstract music inspires alternate universes in your head, you will appreciate the photo book Eron Rauch put together as a document of L.A.'s outscene. Where most photographers restrict themselves to portraits of musicians posing with their instruments or backdropped by sunsets or leaning on brick walls, Rauch taps the visual synesthesia his brain experiences when Dan Rosenboom forces a tone cluster out of his trumpet, or Jeff Parker overlaps waves of electric-guitar effects, or Cathlene Pineda (above) melts into a sensitive piano flow. The results are the most sympathetic visual representations of improvisational artists you are likely to discover: as colorful, complex and imaginative as their subjects. (Published as a part of Orenda Records' 10th-anniversary celebration.) Available here.