The mechanics of music: Fuzzy Needle’s Friday recs
Greetings Fuzzy Needle friends,
Hope we’re doing well this Friday. Thanks everybody for coming out for our Black Friday sale last week. It was wonderful to see all of your faces and all of the neat albums you found in our crates, shelves and bookcases. Special thanks to everybody who stopped by and gave their well wishes to Folkstone for their last weekend of service. Maggie and Brady have spent the week rearranging the shop — there’s so much room now, it’s kinda nuts. We’d love for y’all to come check it out.
Music is so awesome, right? Like music is super cool. The other day I saw a bumper sticker that a friend of mine is obsessed with: it says, “Music has an interesting power.” Yes. I’m always saying this.
So we all agree on that. But let’s all take a moment to close our eyes and take mental stock of our relationship to its creation. Ask yourself: where in my house is there a musical instrument? And have I played it recently? If the answer is nowhere and no, I have a good idea for what you oughta request from Santa Claus this Christmas. If the answer is somewhere and no, I have a suggestion for what to do with your evening.
If you like listening to music, you should learn how to make music. Not because you want to be the next Wednesday or wow aunties everywhere with your interpretation of Michael Jackson on the cello. Those are noble goals for sure. But I encourage you to try it simply because understanding the mechanics of music deepens your appreciation for the art form.
Example: I’ve mentioned my enduring love for D’Angelo in these newsletters before. But it wasn’t until I sat down at my dinky little $50-on-Facebook-Marketplace keyboard that I understood how profoundly talented the guy was. Even a song as seemingly straightforward as this one (it’s got cussing btw, fair warning) is a veritable battle on the keys, at least for a novice like me.
There’s a little frisson that comes, too, with covering another person’s song. You lapse into a sorta transcendent flow, often right through the same vein the artist once journeyed through. If you play an instrument, you probably know what I mean. It’s almost tactile. Playing the bass line for that D’Angelo song — which is about an enraged man discovering his wife and best friend together — is a little like turning a stone over in your hand before throwing it through a windshield. You know? Like, Track 10 on the harp is picking petals off a rose. Lucinda Williams on the guitar always feels like feet on the dashboard. Right??
Sorry for the clumsy prose. I just love music. Whether I’m listening to it, playing it, or struggling to play it, I feel moved by forces greater than myself. You should try it out. It’s an interesting power.
Now, our most powerful works for sale this week…
A Very Special Christmas - Various Artists
It’s Day 5 of my Advent calendar, which is usually round the time I start listening to holiday music. This compilation is particularly cool: it features Bruce Springsteen, the Pretenders, and the Eurythmics delivering arguably one of the greatest renditions of any Christmas carol out there. We also have a nice selection of Christmas vinyl if you’re more interested in the classic versions.
A Wilmington, NC Homegrown Compilation - Various Artists
Another interesting compilation. These are all local bands — I couldn’t find a date on it, but I did a little Googling for y’all. The Beat, Wilmington’s old music mag, folded back in 2011, and there’s an archive of its back catalog at UNCW. The Wilmington location of Manifest Disks and Tapes shut down in 2004. And WRQR — not to be mistaken for WHQR, which is very much alive and well — apparently changed its call sign round 2008. 104.5 FM now only plays Christian contemporary. If you wanna go deeper down the rabbit hole, come by the shop and have a listen.
Push: 80s Skateboarding Photography - J. Grant Brittain
You can find it in our new art section on the left hand side by the door.
Memorial Drive - Natasha Trethewey
A harrowing and elegiac memoir from one of the South’s greatest writers. Trethewey has a way of articulating the kinda unutterable truths about experiencing (and witnessing) domestic violence. I’m very grateful for this book.
I’ll Never Write My Memoirs - Grace Jones
Grace Jones! Truly the coolest lady alive. And yes, it comes with pictures.
Blue Skies - Dehd
Jangly but still rough-and-tumble indie rock offering courtesy of Fat Possum Records. They kinda sound like Mannequin Pussy’s cousins? Like they’re not totally down with the whole hardcore sound, but every Thanksgiving they all get together to cover Sonic Youth songs in their grandma’s basement. Favorite song off this album is “Empty In My Mind.”
Big Top Pee Wee movie soundtrack
I can say with some measure of confidence that no one else is gonna buy your special someone this film’s soundtrack on wax for Christmas. A perfect gift for anyone in the Playhouse.
The Complete Yusuf Lateef - Yusuf Lateef
Are y’all listening to Yusuf Lateef? You need to listen to Yusuf Lateef. He’s one of the early pioneers of what we now call world music. He’s also one of the few jazz musicians who specialized in the oboe — it sounds otherworldly on this record. Sidenote: per a review from Thom Jurek, this is not a retrospective “best of” type record, but rather, “Lateef is referring here to the complete in the sense that it contains the completeness of his musical vision at a given time.”
Al Atlal - Riad el Soumbati
Okay. So this is one of the most famous Egyptian musicians of all time. Riad al Sunbati (that’s not how it’s anglicized on the record, but that’s the spelling I’ve seen most often) was a super accomplished composer and musician. He worked with Arab singers like THEE Fairuz (incredibly famous Lebanese singer) and Umm Kulthum, who sang Enta Omri, which is kind of a defining record in the Middle East? You’ve probably heard at least a fragment of it. Here’s Shakira dancing to it in 2009. Anyways. Yeah I’ve never seen any of his records in person before so this was a very cool find.
Alphabetland - X
Very awesome record from a very underrated punk band. The backstory here is that X dropped this with no warning in 2020, following a 27-year period of no releases. It’s the original lineup, and they sound great.
Cool stuff happening round town:
We don’t have any major events coming up in Wilmington as of writing, but our friends at the Durham location have a fun show coming up: Minor Moon, V.V. Lightbody, and Peter Horses on Friday, January 9th. Should be a good time. You can purchase tickets here. Also — we’re also remodeling our website, so if y’all have any issues with downloading or opening tickets, please let us know ASAP.
I did want to spotlight an event for those of you who are mourning Taylor Salvetti’s departure: Tercel is performing tonight at 7 pm. It’s at WHQR’s MC Erny Gallery, and it’s in honor of their brand new self-titled EP. It’s also hosted by yours truly. I <3 my job. We do hope to broadcast this show sometime soon, but if you can’t wait to hear it on the air, reserve your tickets now. Here’s how.
I’m told that there’s also going to be something called the Sh*tty Car Show at Fermental Saturday afternoon. It sounds hilarious. If you stop by Fuzzy tomorrow, I’d recommend popping by Fermental afterwards. Here’s more info.
As always, remember to check us out on eBay and on Discogs. Y’all take care, and have a great weekend.
— Your friends at The Fuzzy Needle
