Dinner Music: The weekly lineup

phantasmagorical exotica, psychedelic african funk, steel guitar blues

Sep 04, 2023

This week the sound is about nearness — posing moody “exotica,” psychedelic african funk and Texas-style blues side-by-side. The trio shares more than not, from slide guitar to heavy, jam-like riffing to the enduring good-time mood. Perhaps the clearest likeness is the way these albums are instrument forward; they let the music take over and drive the momentum of the songs. These albums all obviously stand alone, but what is interesting this week is the way all of them (and songs in the playlist) are in conversation with one another. Of course, it’s a conversation fabricated by me, but the point here is weaving music where it seemed the threads were disconnected.

We begin with Eddie Chacon, a 90’s soul singer who only recently began making music again. Sundown is the result of weeks spent in Ibiza, not in the clubs, but in the natural ambiance of the island. The Fender Rhodes piano brings the woozy, smooth sound out as Chacon’s silky vocals overlay. The album is paradisiacal; blissful.

We stay in the bliss with Pee Wee Crayton, albeit the kind of bliss that comes out on the dance floor when a blues guitarist is swooning and you’re swooning and everyone is swooning in unison. It’s music for the moment. It’s not wistful; it fills the body with an out-of-body feeling of nostalgia and buoyancy. There’s also a hint of irony, considering the album is called Things I Used To Do. However, the album is best characterized by it’s hit track: Let The Good Times Roll. Agreed.

The self-titled album from The Electric Prunes is a lo-fi fever dream of guitar and tambourine. The album is characterized by distortion, firmly in a musical dream space somewhere between The Beach Boys and Martin Denny. “Did we have too much to dream? I know we had a great time,” said James Lowe, the lead singer. This is an album for late-night cigarettes and midnight solo dancing.

The Togolese album from Akofa Akoussah is similarly late-night, with it’s soulful percussion and uptempo African funk-folk sound. It sounds like hot summer nights, humid and sweaty in a way that is cleansing, like a ritual. That connection makes sense — Akoussah was the principal soloist in her Catholic school choir. The ballads and swings alike make the album sound like something of a dream, one that is wistful and just a little strange, in the best way.

We enter into peak dream space with Blue Hawaii by Elvis Presley. This album was a massive departure from Presley’s earlier rock-n-roll albums, much to the chagrin of many fans, but where it’s thing lies is not in the individual songs, but the sum of it’s part: a mood, a feeling. The fifties and sixties were peak exotica (there is a great essay here on exotic and white American nostalgia), where it was “the disposable soundtrack for a moment when the utopian dream of riding a wave of consumption into the future was ubiquitous.” Perhaps this sound is appealing now because we’re nostalgic for the nostalgia of that utopian dream.

Enjoy.

The playlist is here.

Monday

Sundown - Eddie Chacon (2023)

Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services

Tuesday

Things I Used To Do - Pee Wee Crayton (1971)

Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services

Wednesday

The Electric Prunes - The Electric Prunes (1967)

Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services

Thursday

Akofa Akoussah - Akofa Akoussah (1976)

Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / Other streaming services

Friday

Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley (1961)

Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services

Pair with:

Cajun Chicken With Peach Salsa. Quick, before summer ends, put peaches on everything! This recipe is dumb easy and perfect for last minute al fresco dining.
Scorpion Bowl group cocktail. I will personally make anything Rebekah Peppler tells me to, so since tiki group cocktail is no different. It’s my personal responsibility to have a tiki drink, considering Blue Hawaii above. I’d be wrong to only have fun here, consider donating to the Maui Wildfire relief fund.
This home tour of the textile designer Pauline Caulfield. There’s gardens, there’s colors, there’s loads of natural light. It’s just nice to hear artists talk about their spaces.
A nice swim at your local pool or swimming hole.