Weekly Music Roundup: Fantastic Negrito and Tank, Khruangbin, and The Chicks

Week of June 29: This week, collaborative songs featuring Michael Stipe, The Streets, and Fantastic Negrito.

Collaboration #1: Fantastic Negrito and Tank, from Tank And The Bangas

Fantastic Negrito, the two-time Grammy-winning contemporary bluesman from Oakland, has just released a new single, from his forthcoming album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, called “I’m So Happy I Cry.” It’s a winning collaboration with Tarriona Ball, better known as “Tank” from the New Orleans soul/funk band Tank And The Bangas. Full of gospel influences – in both the vocals and the hand-clapped bridge of the song – it’s about embracing positivity, especially in challenging times. Tank, in addition to her full-throated singing, contributes a rapped verse in this meeting of two former winners of NPR’s “Tiny Desk Contest.” They also appear together in the video, shot on location in Oakland and apparently made before this spring, if their proximity and the amount of traffic on the streets is any indication.

Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? comes out on August 14.

Collaboration #2: London’s The Streets and Hak Baker

Another empowering – although somewhat more foul-mouthed - duet comes from veteran London rapper The Streets (Mike Skinner) and the young indie singer and guitarist Hak Baker (Hakeem Omarley Baker). “Falling Down” is built around a loop of Skinner’s piano, and the two musicians have created a catchy, easy-to-like ode to perseverance: “When you fall they rejoice/When you fall they rejoice/Falling down is an accident/Staying down is a choice.”  

The song is one of The Streets’ contributions to the forthcoming collection called None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive, along with music by Tame Impala, Ms. Banks, IDLES, and more. That comes out on July 10. 

Collaboration #3: Michael Stipe and Big Red Machine

Michael Stipe you know from REM. Big Red Machine began as a collaboration between Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner of The National but has now become a wide circle of musical friends – and a record label called 37d03d (look at it upside down to learn why it’s pronounced “people”). That label has just released a song called “No Time For Love Like Now,” an aching, downtempo rocker that gradually builds to an almost orchestral conclusion.  (Aaron’s twin brother Bryce Dessner did the arrangement.) Stipe’s lyrics reflect the welter of often confused or conflicting emotions people are feeling during a time of lockdown and division. “Whatever ‘waiting’ means in this new place,” he sings, “I am waiting for you.” 

The Newly Renamed “Chicks” Remain As Outspoken As Ever

The Dixie Chicks quietly renamed themselves last week, dropping the troublesome “Dixie” from their name and releasing a new single under the name The Chicks. This trio has spent almost twenty years on the frontline of the culture wars, and they’re still – thank god – not ready to just “shut up and sing.” The new song, “March March,” along with its powerful video, affirms and celebrates the freedom of speech that is a bedrock of this country – and the very thing that got them in such hot water all those years ago, when Natalie Maines told a London audience the group was ashamed that President George W Bush, leading us into war in Iraq, was from their home state of Texas. So we see images of Black Lives Matter protests, Pride marches, climate change rallies and historic footage all accompanying a call to act, by which the group seems to mean both actively pushing for change and using our right to vote. Despite being cast out of Nashville, figuratively at least, The Chicks are still considered a country band; but there is very little country in this minimalist song, with the three unadorned voices accompanied by skeletal electronics and drums, until a long instrumental outro for slide guitar and fiddle adds a touch of Americana… and provides the video an opportunity to drive home its point.   

Khruangbin Releases New Album – And This Time They’re Singing

The Houston trio Khruangbin (named after the Thai word for “airplane”) has become an unexpected hit in the music world – millions of online streams, a global audience, and a recent feature in the NY Times that examined their unlikely success – as a largely instrumental band. The trio’s members are white, black and Hispanic, and their music has incorporated vintage psychedelia (but from Southeast Asia and South America, as opposed to the usual Anglo-American stuff), world music, and the sound of spaghetti western soundtracks. So the big news about their new album, Mordechai, is that it’s mostly vocal; bassist Laura Lee Ochoa sings on almost every track, and drummer DJ Johnson and guitarist Mark Speer sing with her quite often. On this song, “Pelota,” they’re all singing in Spanish – appropriate for a song that seems to carry an echo of the early 70s chicha music of Peru, with its twangy electric guitar and  shimmery dance beat. A Japanese anime-inspired video completes this cosmopolitan package.  

Nadine Shah Is Unimpressed By Tradition

UK singer Nadine Shah has just released her first album since 2017’s Mercury Prize nominee Holiday Destination.  The new record is called Kitchen Sink, a title that I’m going to take as ironic since one of Shah’s favorite topics has long been the fight against the restrictions and expectations that come with being a woman. The track called “Trad” begins with the line “shave my legs/freeze my eggs/will you want me when I am/old.”  It takes a dim view of the ways women’s lives have been constrained by traditional roles, and like much of the record, couches its withering, sometimes droll lyrics in an urgent post-punk sound.