One in 635 Billion
Some notes on music this week. -Adam
Ryan Walsh, a college friend, will release a concept album (?) with his Boston-based band Hallelujah the Hills next week. Though I call him a college friend, I actually saw him more often on this pedestrian walkway in Allston in the five years after I graduated than I ever did during school.
The new Hallelujah the Hills project is called DECK. It's made up of four albums, each based on a suit of playing cards, with one song for every card in the deck.
If 54 songs sound like too much, I think the following might sway you. Ryan writes this in the liner notes:
THERE IS NO CORRECT WAY TO LISTEN TO DECK. YOU COULD LISTEN TO EACH ALBUM IN ORDER — DIAMONDS, CLUBS, HEARTS, SPADES —ALL IN ONE SITTING, BUT WE SIMPLY CANNOT CASUALLY RECOMMEND THAT.
ABOVE ALL, WE RECOMMEND DOING THIS:
THINK OF A QUESTION, OR A PROBLEM YOU ARE TRYING TO SOLVE, OR SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR LIFE YOU'D LIKE TO UNDERSTAND BETTER. THEN, PULL ANY 13 RANDOM CARDS FROM ANY DECK OF CARDS. THEN, MAKE A PLAYLIST OF THOSE 13 SONGS. THAT VERSION OF DECK CAN THEN SERVE AS AN AUDIO TAROT READING SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU.
IN FACT, IT LIKELY WILL BE YOURS AND YOURS ALONE. THERE ARE OVER 635 BILLION DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS/ORDERS OF 13 DIFFERENT CARDS/SONGS YOU CAN PULL OUT OF A 54 CARD DECK, AND SO THE LIKELIHOOD OF ANYONE PULLING THAT SPECIFIC SET IS EXTRAORDINARILY UNLIKELY.
DECK will be the ninth album from Hallelujah the Hills. (Maybe ninth through twelfth?) If you’re looking for somewhere to start before you can deal yourself an audio tarot reading, three of their best albums are I’m You, No One Knows What Happens Next, and Collective Psychosis Begone. Ryan’s clever music videos are another fun way in.
Man, that streetview pic of Allston above transports me back to 2003-2008. Here’s one more, a few steps down from my apartment at that time.
Garden Party and More
Bob Dylan covering Ricky Nelson’s“Garden Party” a few weeks ago was momentous: he seemed to be having a great time, it was self-referential, and it sounded great.
I’m seeing Víkingur Ólafsson this weekend in Chicago and might hang out downtown for a few hours until Mavis Staples performs across the street.
The classical music industry fascinates me because it’s unusual to me: Why do soloists tour multiple programs at once? Why does one of the top pianists in the world always play a Sunday matinee in Chicago? How long will we wait for Ólafsson to record the piano concerto John Adams wrote for him—Adams being one of the greatest living composers? Getting lost in all of this reminds me of learning the culture of popular music as a teenager.
New releases: I’m eager to listen to Pulp’s first record in 24 years and the soundtrack to The Phoenician Scheme.