Nova Ahead 12

Anything after Achtung, Baby just kind of falls flat for me, and it’s hard to get into an argument about why bug glasses Bono rubs me the wrong way. I loved U2’s early stuff, and the aforementioned album from 1991, but The Joshua Tree is still such a ridiculous benchmark, that no matter how many times I hear it, it lands just as hard. There is something so earnest and sincere about this album, though it’s constructed with purpose and a very real sense of discovery. This is a well-seasoned band, and as the story goes, the record is inspired by America; specifically the weird chasm between the myth of America, and the “real” America. As people from outside of this country tend to be able to do, U2 saw a landscape and a people filled with beauty and rich in stories and song; the fact then that the very people that built and populate America are also brutally denigrated, taken advantage of, and forgotten, is part of the awe that those looking in profess. What U2 discovered was a country with heroes like Martin Luther King Jr, who was murdered for suggesting that poor people should have access to healthcare and that the United States should get out of Vietnam, a war where we sent our poor people to fight their poor people all for an abstract struggle of economic influence. It’s been twenty-four years since The Joshua Tree was released, but there are still two very different Americas, and it always seems crazy to me that all of the people here can’t take a lesson from a more objective perspective. For instance, there are some folks in this country who are maligning Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization, while those who are maligning them pledge blind allegiance to groups whose actual purpose is to violently reject the idea that everyone deserves the same human rights. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter has just been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The former president spent a lot of time and energy decrying Antifa and asking his followers to stand against them; people: Antifa is an abbreviation for Anti Fascism. Fascism, for those who are not aware, are what the country fought against during World War II, the goddamn Nazis. Doesn’t it seem strange that the republicans are trying to restrict voting, while also getting their people to line up with actual Nazis? Hasn’t this country stomped all over the world with the excuse that the democratic process is being obstructed by conservative forces? In fact, isn’t it the conservative forces in this country who are usually the ones leading the charge? How we are not more acutely aware of this brazen hypocrisy, I do not know. 

I just got in from eradicating the foot plus of snow that was deposited in my driveway last night, and I am, logically, pretty wiped out. One nice thing about shoveling though is that I get to dip into my tape collection for company. Old and New Dreams is a group that began in 1976, made up of Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, and Don Cherry, all of whom played with Ornette Coleman over the years. They played Coleman tunes as well as originals, and it’s one of the great units of American music. Piano tuner and record collector Bill Faller introduced me to this stuff, which opened up an entire realm of ECM recordings. There’s nothing quite like heavy sounds bouncing off of the snow and the cold corners of my garage. We’re slowly wading through this winter folks, hip-deep, but steadily moving toward the light; toward vaccinations and hugs and movies in theatres and shows; SHOWS. I’m looking forward to shows, particularly in the Nova space; which can really be anything. Sweaty and loud, mellow, dazed, frenetic, deep, teary, proud, dancing, thoughtful… I want to feel all of these things with you people. The livestreams are going well though, necessary placeholders. This week, we’ve got Ethan McBrien, aka Party of the Sun; he’s a man of nature, a sheep shearer at times even, with an easy conversational sensibility. When he is short-haired and mustachioed, he might even be the sheriff of a small seaside town (don’t ask me where that came from; I’ve got a deadline and I’m kind of just going with it). 

Join us on Friday for a visit with Party of the Sun, be sure to add a re-listen of The Joshua Tree to your weekend, and plan a discovery tour through the work of Old and New Dreams. And don’t forget Black Lives Matter, an organization doing the same work that Martin Luther King Jr was doing before he was murdered for doing it. So if you are unsure, or uncomfortable, saying those words, ask yourself why; and maybe look into why these folks have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.