the ugly hug

Love the Stranger

February 15th, 2023

Friendship

GENRE: folk/country LABLE: MERGE Records

Oliver Wasow, Palo Alto, California, 1998

I live on the fourth floor of a brownstone in the middle of Madison, Wisconsin. This particular apartment, with its aged wood trim and random nail heads protruding from the floorboards, gets unbearably hot in the midst of the summer days. I have resorted to a system of carrying a box fan around with me room to room, powered with a humorously long extension cord. I would spend these days sitting on my soup stained, thrifted plaid couch and patiently wait for the day to end. Whatever problems I had in my life at that time were further provoked with the heat. The tools of successfully navigating a healthy lifestyle are weakened and I can’t help but watch the world around me as I sweat into it.

Philly based alt-country group, Friendship, released their album Love the Stranger in late July of 2022. I first listened to this album on a two-hour drive from a cabin where I shared an entire week with extended family. The week was spent reading Pearl S. Buck’s, The Good Earth, and the danger of always having a beer within arm’s length. Coming off this uneventful week, the car ride was endured by listening to Love the Stranger fully in two rotations and it just made sense.

Dan Wriggins and company began Friendship in 2015 with their debut album, Shock out of Season, from Chicago’s Orindal Records. The group was built around Wriggins and members from another Philly-based band, 2nd Grade. Their songwriting was consistent through two albums of subtle instrumentations and loosely constructed melodies. Since then, they have signed to Merge Records and now have the pressure to prove themselves as a potential indie powerhouse, alongside other Merge artists such as the Mountain Goats, Destroyer, and The New Pornographers. Instead of putting out something like the next Arcade Fire album, Dan stuck to what he knows best, sitting still.

There is a loose misconception that the most powerful and meaningful songs are thunderous music festival anthems that inspire thousands of people. But in retrospect, the majority of life is spent waiting in traffic, melting into your couch watching the History Channel, staring at articles about deconstructed churches on your phone, or doing the dishes. “Waiting on the fan with a slow rotation” from the song “Hank” was the first phrase that intrigued me on Love the Stranger. This line in and of itself sums up Dan’s writing as looking around and taking inspiration from everything and nothing at all. What Dan accomplishes in this single line is an illustration of someone who finds themselves caught in the in-betweens of life. Someone who is broiling in their home and counting the time for the rotating fan to come back to them with its blessings. This fixation on the mundane is relatable to anything, which makes Dan’s writing that much more endearing.

Love the Stranger is filled with frustration as well as a particular fixation on sitting still. Dan sings about the struggles of cleaning the grape-jelly remnants from a ramekin and being humored to a metaphor of the struggles of a relationship in turmoil. Jess Shoman from Chicago’s Tenci, makes an appearance on “What’s the Move”, singing about a faceless relationship. Even regional highway stops are given a nod of attention in the handful of minute long instrumentals spread throughout the album. “Kum & Go”, “QuickChek”, “Love’s”, and “UDF” are all regional convenience stores crossing the US, creating distance in the album and offering distinction to places that can blend together.

The Americana sound that the group emits has developed over time since their debut album. Approaching territory beyond the simple instrumentations, the group has embraced a larger sound that still holds true to rotating behind steel guitar drones and folk guitars. Dan’s voice, with its subtle grit, helps add frustration and emotion to the prosaic observations he’s singing about. Embracing the alt-country Americana sound is both charming as well as a callback to the classics where songs tell stories about the working man and the troubles of simple life.

I have had my fair share of dirty and laborious jobs growing up, enough to understand how disingenuous people can be. Learning how far the developing psyche of a teenager can be pushed. Being harassed by strangers because their table is too wobbly or their French dip isn’t warm enough for the complex palate can stain a world view. There comes a point when you get numb to the fact that people could care less about you, so you are given the opportunity to experience your surroundings undetected. You develop different meanings to the feelings you get from drinking alone as opposed to drinking with a friend. “I can tell you’re stuck. I can’t tell anyone else, cause you don’t threaten to help” is how Dan finishes “Mr. Chill”, a song about finding the right drinking buddy that won’t pity you for a bumpy existence. On the second to last track, Ugly Little Victory, Dan sings “it sucks when it ends and it sucks when it has no end”. An exhausting thought, but Friendship’s driving drums and dueling guitars approach make this the most inspiring (music festival anthem) line from Love the Stranger. “Only a nose hair away from inner peace today”, Dan sings on the album’s closer, “Smooth Pursuit”. An image of personal success of finding pleasure in your own place.

What Love the Stranger accomplishes is the ability to be okay with the idea of not seizing the day. Carpe diem, a cheap slogan branded into our personal motifs from movies and crappy kitchen signs, places a lot of pressure on an individual who is tired of their surroundings and the world around them. It’s not that Dan is singing about running away, altering his life or anything serious like that, but rather gives comfort in the thoughts that come to you when you take a moment to sit still.

On those hot summer days in my Madison apartment, I don’t panic anymore when I’m stuck on my couch with my box fan. I let it drown out the city noise and my shitty neighbors. Finding inspiration in an old couch, an unusable fireplace, or a rickety box fan can be just as inspiring as telling someone to be “Brave” or to “Shake It Off”. Love the Stranger offers new perspectives and a bit of hope in a place that I often find cruel and aging.

By: Shea Roney

Friendship information:

https://friendshipphl.bandcamp.com/album/love-the-stranger

https://www.mergerecords.com/artist/friendship
I Just Want to be Wild For You

February 7th, 2023

Tristan Paiige

MAITA

GENRE: rock/folk LABEL: Kill Rock Stars

Dear Portland, Oregon… you are no stranger to lyrically cutting and icon allotted artists at your disposal. But as of 2017, you have a new artist making a name for herself while keeping the dream of Portland music trapped within her big comforting hug. MAITA, with core member and songwriter Maria Maita-Keppeler, first released an EP in 2017 titled, Waterbearer. After that, she was quickly picked up by Portland profit makers, Kill Rock Stars. Her first full length album, Best Wishes, was one of my personal favorite albums from 2020. As an artist who started in indie folk roots, she was used to playing as a solo artist. But the more she wrote, MAITA morphed into a high dynamic and cathartic sounding group, adding Mathew Zeltzer, Cooper Trail, and Nevada Sowle. I Just Want To Be Wild For You, MAITA’s second full length release from Kill Rock Stars, continues on the path of personal storytelling of regretful disappointments and unmatched love in the eyes of someone who feels lonely.

The opening track “Loneliness” starts the album on a self-reflective and exhausted story of time spent in Kyoto, Japan. Having Japanese roots, Maria finished college with a degree in traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking. In 2013, she spent 6 weeks alone in Kyoto receiving private woodblock printmaking classes. In that time of solitude, Maria learned first hand what it means to be lonely in another country (only depicted up to this point by Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray). “Loneliness” perfectly describes the feeling of catching your reflection in a shop window and seeing how pissed you look at the fact that you feel lonely in such a beautiful city. As the closest thing that MAITA has released that could be considered dream pop, “Loneliness” starts the album with an atmospheric daydream sound that strays from the normal sound of the group.

“Pastel Concrete” showcases what makes MAITA’s songwriting so absorbing. With her long winded and melodic phrases leading to short, catchy choruses bathed in 90’s crunch guitar style chords, poignant and rhythmic drumming, and fingerpicking electric guitar, MAITA can sing a song about a broken heart caused by a distant romance and make you want to dance to it.

There are a lot more tracks that use thrashing guitars than the previous album; asking the question who does MAITA want to be wild for? Tracks like “You Sure Can Kill a Sunday Part I” have the flashing guitar work right out of the gate, with fuzz filled bar chords and dueling staccato guitar notes. Songs like “Road Song” and “Honey, Have I Lost It All” save the loudness for the end, almost in a strategic and manipulative way to keep listeners emotionally overwhelmed that they feel the sudden need to punch dance out all of their pent up feelings. So who is going wild at these points in time? Is it the band, the listener, or does it go deeper into the world of Maria?

Closing off the album, the song “Wild For You” is a look at the role of women in a marriage, especially in the modern day concept of a legally binding relationship. Maria takes reference from her life to try to piece together a tale of a loveless marriage. She sings “And when I am gone you stray/And when you are here you are nothing”. Going wild can mean a number of things. It can be a reactionary to what can be seen as oppressive, or it can be finding youthfulness again when there is nothing left. With dynamic swells of strings and the driving rhythm of the drums and Maria’s words, “Wild For You”, pushes us to think about who makes us feel like going wild, and, to that point, is it worth it?

When listening to Maria’s lyrics, it is hard to imagine how she can make this beautiful cluster of elongated phrases into a melody that is enjoyable to listen to. But Maria is well versed in making the words work for her. Her intimate lyrics are chalked up with specific and intricate details that can only come from her personalized artistic thought process. Coming from indie-folk roots, Maria is duty-bound by her need to tell a story. Whether these are stories of love in turmoil or the mundane feeling of killing a Sunday with someone other than your own thoughts, MAITA’s charm of narrating is key to their draw. Stories are only as good as the one acting as the storyteller. In her own style of playing, MAITA proves time and time again that she is one hell of a storyteller with a lot left to be said.

By: Shea Roney

MAITA information:

https://maita.bandcamp.com/merch
Talking Quietly of Anything With You

February 6th, 2023
Free Cake For Every Creature

GENRE: folk/pop LABEL: DOUBLE DOUBLE WHAMMY

“Talking Quietly of Anything With You”

At the age of 22, I am at the stage in my life where I am roughly teetering between the stages of uncompromising adulthood and the inscrutability of being a young kid. I’m required to make my own doctors appointments and I drink black coffee, but yet I pick the tomatoes off my sandwich and my mom still offers to do my laundry when I’m home.

No one has captured the minimal obscurities of everyday life and the inconsistent feelings of getting older such as Katie Bennett and her project called Free Cake For Every Creature. The Philly based soft pop group released their album Talking Quietly of Anything With You in 2016. With a runtime barely over 20 minutes, the album goes through a collection of tracks that soothe and excite the listener, almost like a soundtrack to their own life. On this album, Katie leaned into textures of warmth with her soft voice that almost resembles a close friend whispering to you. Her voice, mixed with the playfulness of her bandmates, make even the catchiest pop songs seem like a closely guarded playground secret.

I didn’t find this album until I was 21 years old. This could not have come at a better time. Not only was it fun to have a giggle with my friends when I told them my new favorite band was called Free Cake For Every Creature, there was something about this album in particular that really resonated with me. What I found to be a common theme throughout this album is that it is okay to be unsure about where you’re at in life.

Most pop songs are upfront with how the writer is feeling. Love songs brag about hopeless romantics drooling over their latest attraction and presenting their dream life. Sad songs hold no question as to what emotion is being told. With Katie’s music, she tells us that she doesn’t know what she’s feeling. In her writing she focuses on the miniscule details of the world around her to cement herself in the present rather than worrying about an overarching situation or emotion.

Lyrically this whole album tells the story of a young adult figuring things out. On the title track, “Talking Quietly of Anything With You”, Katie sings, “we’re not old/but we’re getting older”. This line in and of itself can strike fear in any twenty-something year olds in the midst of a PBR induced all-sharing hangout session. Sitting with a pal and talking about the future and rehashing the days of past laughs and stories. Scientifically speaking, you’re not old at the age of 21, but, fuck, does it feel strange to think of getting older? Following that mini-crisis, the following track happens to be when Katie slows down and takes a breath with you. She sings, “All You Gotta Be When You’re 23 is Yourself”, assuring stability in knowing who you are and where you’re at in life. At 23, it’s okay to be a part-time artist and part time Whole Foods grocery bagger. It’s okay to walk three miles in no direction just for fun. It’s okay to move to a new city and go out wearing funny clothes and make friends with other people wearing funny clothes. You have time at 23.

When I first came across Free Cake and Talking, I was madly in love. The type of young love where you don’t even know what to do with yourself. It seems too big to comprehend and place it into one person. The song “For You”, takes a leap of faith into interpreting what it means to be in love. Katie puts focus on the tiny, silly things you do when you’re in this state of tenderness. Instead of the generic and muddled expressions of sexual attraction, Katie sings about saving the brownie from her TV dinner for her love, or writing a “shitty poem on the wall of a dressing room at JCPenney”. She then goes into the reoccurring dream of any two young lovers of leaving town together, committing crimes, and being on the run. But in Katie’s world, this consists of stealing a 50 cent machine and living a life hiding from authorities and surviving off of gumballs. Her view of love turns this scary concept into a simplified, almost childish, game of enjoying life with the person you like like a lot.

Since finding this album, I have gone through major life changes. My long term relationship ended and I graduated from college with no idea on what to do next. It might be cliché to say that I have found comfort in Katie Bennett’s music, but it couldn’t be more true. Taking a step back and focusing on the miniscule parts of life that you find joy in is the only way of surviving change, as well as, family, friends, enemies, school, jobs, and acts of god. What better way to go about that than a collection of soft pop songs singing about kissing your crush with margarita lips or doodling chubby cows in your journal.

By : Shea Roney

Free Cake For Every Creature Information:
- https://freecakeforeverycreature.bandcamp.com/
- https://dbldblwhmmy.com/store/free_cake_for_every_creature