Music Moots with Zachshots
We are extremely back with Music Moots™, the blogseries where I ask someone to recommend me a song they like, and then I listen to the song and then write a little about it.
Today we have Zachshots! The NYC duo of Zach Galsky and Annika Haakonsen, who also play in the screamo band Cash Only Tony's, just put out a new single called "These Are My Friends" which has a charming vocal volley, crunchy guitars (not mega crunchy like a big carrot...maybe micro-crunchy, like a baby carrot) and a wonderfully vibrant, life-affirming energy overall.
It feels like a chiller version of The New Pornographers? Also John's Music Blog did an interview with Zachshots and said that JMC Aggregate, aka past I Enjoy Music featuree Jordan Michael Iannucci, put him on to Zachshots. That is synergy, baby.
JOHN
Zachshots both recommended me songs. Zach recommended "Come Next Spring" by Scott Walker.
Ayyy Scott Walker!! I'm Scott Walkin' Here. I did a podcast a long time ago with Matty from Indieheads about Scott Walker; I went in, I think, completely in the dark on him? And came out with maximum respect. Walker was in a perfectly okay, somewhat derivative band in the mid-'60s, then went solo and got really obsessed with Jacques Brel (incidentally a singer my friend and I also got obsessed with in high school, through the 2006 revival of the musical Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris) and closed out his career by doing increasingly experimental and avant garde shit, like orchestral songs with fart noises on them.
So when I hear the sonorous vocals of "Come Next Spring"—the theme song from a 1956 movie of the same name in which a recovering alcoholic defends children from wild pigs, and a lady falls down an old mine shaft, apparently—all I can think of is how it's beautiful to keep pushing your artistry and trying new things. Don't let anyone put you in a box. If you want to start getting into chanson and doing big gooey ballads, or make a 22-minute song called "SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)", you should do that. Life is short. One of my favorite things to say is "I might get hit by a bus tomorrow" followed by an encouragement to do whatever needs to be done before the bus comes to take me out. Shout out to Scott. Also he named his solo albums Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, etc. for a while and that's neat.
Annika recommended "Ondulé" by Mathieu Boogaerts. A song from 1996 by a French singer (Scott Walker synergy).
What a pleasant vibe. Not bottle service in the lounge of despair...more like tea service in the lounge of congeniality. This has instrumentation that feels very mid '90s in that it's kind of digital-organic, like I think he used a drum machine for the percussion but everything else is 'real'? The chorus goes Ondulé/Par-ci par-là luné/Pas les idées bien installées which translates to Wavy/Moonstruck here and there/Thoughts not quite settled. I like having such a mutable attitude in such a laid-back container. The lyrics say "Idk what the hell is wrong with me?" but the music says "I am chilling, I am relaxed, je suis calme." A balance I strive for in everyday life. High strung, low blood pressure.
Thank you Zachshots! Listen to "These Are My Friends" here and wherever you find your musics.
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