What It Is To be Free: Music As Release

NTSIB’s good friend Brucini, proprietor of The Black Keys Fan Lounge, has graced us with a rumination on the freeing power of music, as exemplified by a couple of his fellow countrymen.

How does it feel to be free? How is it possible to just be yourself? Most folk don’t think about it. Some musicians wittingly or otherwise are emboldened to consider these notions, it informs their way of being.

Musicians through live performance seem to be able to demonstrate a way to be – free, and real, and honest, if just for a fleeting moment.

It’s not a way others can inhabit easily, it’s just a way, their way.

Music historically has opened a door to a type of personal transcendence. Fears, inhibitions, anxieties are either dealt with onstage through lyrics and music or they are simply put aside during those brief moments of performance.

The stage creates a space in which this personal transcendence can take place. The audience pays its respects to this place. The music urges on feelings … Continue reading

Bits: Greg fucking Dulli, Alan Lomax Archive, Grinderman, Futurebirds, Bonnie “Prince” Billy & Cheyenne Mize

  • The big freaking news for me personally this week is Greg fucking Dulli’s (in my world, this is his actual, legal name) first solo tour. “An Evening with Greg Dulli” will be making the rounds in the U.S. and Europe in October and November. Afghan Whigs songs are promised, as are brand new Twilight Singers tunes.
  • The Alan Lomax Archive now has a YouTube Channel with footage of R.L. Burnside, Sam Chatmon and more.
  • Our friends at Buddyhead have a new Grinderman song for you, “Heathen Child”, along with the scary and possibly not-safe-for-work cover art.
  • The charming Futurebirds release Hampton Lullaby today, and you can take a listen at Spinner.
  • Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Cheyenne Mize have released a sweet and mellow EP of covers called Among the Gold. You can listen here and download here.

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