Dinner Music 58: The weekly lineup
psychedelic garage rock, technicolor dream sounds, chamber jazz
This week the sound is about music that might play in our dreams. The albums and songs are dreamlike, sure, but think of them more like uncanny or technicolor. Like those dreams that make you unsure of where you are when you wake.
We begin with Val Stöecklein, a mysterious figure whose dip out of obscurity was quickly followed by a dip back in. Grey Life is a small, aching masterpiece of finger-picking folk, with orchestral arrangements and slick, tremulous vocals. For anyone watching the rain today, start here. With Babble, we keep the trembling, but it’s revisioned as rolling, organ-driven, psychedelic garage rock from down under. These Aussies keep it moving. If the Bean’s album is off-center, we move into Ann Sexton’s (not that one!) firmly centered, classic soul album Loving You, Loving Me. The two albums share the Hammond Organ in common, but the similarities end there. Sexton’s album is brassy and heartsick in that seventies, velveteen kind of way. In the most dreamlike album, we have Works by Gary Burton. Burton is longtime jazz vibraphonist and one of few openly gay jazz musicians. These tracks would be at home with David Lynch — they are equally surreal as beautiful. We end with a man that needs no introduction: Bill Withers.
Enjoy.
The playlist is here.
Monday
Grey Life - Val Stöecklein (1968)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Babble- Beans (2018)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Loving You, Loving Me - Ann Sexton (1973)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Works - Gary Burton (1984)
Spotify / Other streaming services
Friday
Still Bill - Bill Withers (1972)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Alison Roman’s butcher steak with leafy greens. If you have her cookbook, make the steak with that unbelievable chili-peanut paste. (I made this for a dinner party last weekend, trust me).
Pear salad with peanut lime dressing. My favorite kind of salad is one that is more fruit and vegetable, less leafy green. Call me old fashioned.
Soto Vino’s Once Upon a Time in Texas rosé. It’s a dark rosé, so it’s basically a transitional wine. Pairs great with steak when it’s still not really that cold outside.
This essay about loving and leaving home. The whole song is an unfolding of love, of twisted tenderness, of impossibility – and all of it is true.
What is your substance, whereof are you made
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
- Shakespeare's Sonnets, 53
Thank you, thank you. Have a great week.
glad i found you, this is great!
Dark rosé! What a brilliant idea for fall. Any others you like along these lines? (I live in NY, so may need to scout for brands available/shippable here...)