San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
NEW ALBUMS
Jade Bird, “Different Kinds of Light” (Glassnote):
The 23-year-old South Londoner’s sophomore album has her rising in the ranks of Americana and alt-country music. Recorded primarily at RCA Studios in Nashville, “Different Kinds of Light” shows Bird taking a step forward in her artistry, hitting the studio with revered producer Dave Cobb, who has won Grammy Awards for his production on albums from Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell. Bird now finds herself among those peers; and while songs like “Houdini” and “Now Is the Time” feel decidedly rooted in the Nashville sound, this is music that bucks traditional country norms by marrying them with pop, rock and a global perspective. Her fierce, gravelly voice burns beyond lovelorn songwriting on the album.
She is scheduled to perform at the Independent in San Francisco on Sept. 28.
Jungle, “Loving in Stereo” (Caiola):
The first release on the band’s Caiola Records label, “Loving in Stereo” is the very essence of feel-good music. The high-pitched harmonious duality of singers Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson bursts forward on the London duo’s third album, like on the discofunk of lead single “Keep Moving,” where they preach forward movement toward brighter skies. “Romeo,” featuring New York City rapper Bas, achieves a splendor akin to notable producer/rapper collaborations like Gorillaz and De La Soul’s “Feel Good Inc” or Flight Facilities and Reggie Watts’ “Sunshine.”
Jungle is heading out on tour next month and is expected to stop in the Bay Area for two nights at Oakland’s Fox Theater on Oct. 26 and 27.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Ty Segall, “Harmonizer” (Drag City): Without any advance notice, the prolific musician’s 13th album seemingly fell from the sky and into our ears on Aug. 3. “Harmonizer” sees the University of San Francisco grad — and crucial force in the city’s garage rock movement in the 2010s — tapping into a synth-heavy sound, but with no absence of the biting guitar he’s known for. “Whisper” still feels like Segall’s San Francisco-era work with his signature vocal harmonics over filthy guitar riffs. But synths prop up Mikal Cronin’s jolt of bass on “Erased” and are fully in the driver’s seat for the title track. Recorded at Segall’s brand-new Harmonizer Studios in his new home city of Los Angeles, the album is backed by the Freedom Band, featuring frequent collaborators
Online extra
For The Chronicle’s playlist of this week’s picks, and to watch music videos of select songs, go to datebook.sfchron icle.com
Cronin, Ben Boye, Emmett Kelly and Charles Moothart. Segall’s wife, Denée, co-wrote and provided vocals on “Feel Good,” a slacker punk number that shows that the pair’s edge remains very sharp.
ICYMI
Dave McMurray, “Grateful Deadication” (Blue Note):
On
July 16, Detroit saxophonist Dave McMurray released an album of interpretations of songs from the Grateful Dead songbook. McMurray, who played in Was (Not Was) with current Blue Note Records President Don Was as far back as the early ’80s, applies a distinct Detroit soul expression to songs like “Dark Star,” “Touch of Grey” and album standout “Loser,” featuring Bettye LaVette, Was, Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros band. On the latter track, the group stunningly takes on the Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter classic with McMurray’s sax, Maurice O’Neal’s organ and LaVette’s incomparable range leaving a lasting mark.
McMurray told The Chronicle he was inspired to make the album after performing the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter ballad “Days Between” with Weir and other special guests at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2018.
“It was so intriguing musically I thought, ‘I’ve got to investigate the Dead’s music,’ ” he said.
Read more about McMurray’s project at datebook.sf chronicle.com.
Dave, “We’re All Alone in This Together” (Dave/Neighbourhood Recordings):
The follow-up to the Brixton rapper’s 2019 Mercury Music Prizewinning “Psychodrama” has been far and away the No. 1 album in the U.K. since its release on Aug. 3. The context of Dave’s Nigerian roots is present everywhere throughout the record. “What’s the point of bein’ rich when your family ain’t?/ It’s like flyin’ first class on a crashin’ plane,” he raps on album opener “We’re All Alone.” “Clash,” with layers similar to Atlanta rapper 21 Savage’s “Bank Account,” features fellow U.K. rap star Stormzy and is one of this year’s best tracks.
SONG OF THE MOMENT
Silk Sonic, “Skate” (Warner):
The second single from the super pop duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak is pure summer heat. The two are at their most jovial with brightly clad roller skaters winding around them in the happy-golucky video for the song, which feels like a new-age tip of the cap to “I’ll Be Around” by the Spinners. “Skate” is set to appear on their debut album, “An Evening With Silk Sonic,” which features Parliament-Funkadelic bassist Bootsy Collins as its “guest host” and is due out this year.
LOCAL PICK
Cold Beat, “Mandelbrot Fall” (Like LTD):
The San Francisco synth-wave quartet’s latest single is a buoyant number with a waterfall of synths that nod toward ’80s pop panache. Hannah Lew’s vocals are swathed within the track’s upbeat drops and glitchy effects, giving rise to movement and a sense of hope through chaotic times. Appearing on Cold Beat’s upcoming album, “War Garden,” out Sept. 17, Lew said in a statement that the song “is about embracing change and surrendering to uncertainty. There’s no fighting time or gravity. This song is about submission to those forces.”
By Rachel Zarrow
While most people know the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover,” few of us are familiar with the idea that you can’t judge a tree by its trunk. Biologist Meg Lowman is here to change that. Lowman’s book, “The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us,” is equal parts memoir, scientific reporting, love letter to the trees and a call to action in the face of the climate crisis.
In “The Arbornaut,” Lowman details her transformation from a shy, nature-loving child to a prominent ecologist and conservationist. Lowman describes her methodology for climbing high into the forest canopy, which she calls the “eighth continent,” as well as her fieldwork (and adventures) in America, Scotland, Australia, the Amazon, India, Malaysia and Ethiopia. According to Lowman, scientists estimate that more than 50 percent of our planet’s terrestrial biodiversity lives in the canopy and that 90 percent of species remain unknown. This stresses what Lowman and her fellow arbornauts understand as the critical importance of getting beyond the forest floor (what she refers to as the “big toe” of the tree) and studying canopies.
“Exploration of the eighth continent lags behind coral reefs, deserts, polar regions, and even outer space because only a handful of professional arbornauts exist, so we must scramble to catch up,” Lowman writes. She compares her innovative field methods of using ropes and harnesses to explore the canopies to the way that scuba gear once sparked research
The Arbornaut on coral reefs. In addition to her rope system for climbing trees, Lowman has also supported the construction of walkways through various forest canopies.
Though the book can be a bit dense at times with scientific facts and figures, as well as study designs and findings, Lowman’s enthusiasm and passion for her work and our planet’s trees is apparent on every page. Lowman’s voice reads like that of a beloved mentor, especially as she describes the challenges she faced as a female scientist in a maledominated field as well as those she experienced as a single working mother.
In addition to writing about the ways she has supported aspiring female scientists, Lowman describes her commitment to making field research accessible for mobilitylimited students. With these students’ needs in mind, Lowman supported the construction of the first walkway compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act in a botanical garden in North America, a walkway that included a ramp up to the treetops. Lowman believes that “linking people to nature is one of the most important components in addressing conservation challenges,” and she describes the citizen science expeditions and community BioBlitzes she has led over the years.
“The Arbornaut” includes photographs from Lowman’s expeditions, as well as charming illustrations of trees. But most charming of all is Lowman’s joy and wonder at the natural world. When describing her encounters with insects and birds on one of her first ascents high into a canopy in Australia, Lowman writes, “It was humbling to enter their world and think of how unknown all these creatures were to all of science, and more humbling still to realize my presence did not frighten any of them to fly away.”
Lowman writes ruefully that through the ’80s, climate change wasn’t much discussed among ecological professionals. “We were so consumed with figuring out how ecosystems functioned and how so many creatures coexisted that we did not connect the dots and interpret the climate warning signs. Yes, we missed the forest for the trees.” Though we are now in a climate crisis, Lowman offers suggestions for ways we can fight deforestation and protect the trees, and by the time you reach the last page of this book, you’ll either want to climb a tree, hug a tree or both.
By Samantha Schoech
It is impossible to know or judge a marriage you are not part of. In “Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage,” author Eleanor Henderson does her best to remedy that conundrum. And yet, as detailed and splayed out as her 20-plus years of marriage are in this memoir, this remains a very difficult relationship to understand.
At the beginning of the book, the author meets her future husband, Aaron, at the CD Warehouse where he works. She is still in high school. He is seven years her senior, charming, funny and open. She’s the class valedictorian. He’s a high school dropout. It’s a story straight out of the passionate young-love playbook, carrying whiffs of “Say Anything” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
Only this romance actually lasts. He follows her from Florida to her East Coast liberal arts college and they somehow
make it work despite the fact that it becomes apparent very quickly that Aaron is a deeply damaged person in need of a great quantity of care.
The next 300 or so pages are a laundry list of Aaron’s chronic but difficult-to-diagnose illnesses and the ways in which Henderson caretakes him in the name of love.
At various times over the span of their marriage, PTSD, Morgellons disease, schizophrenia, manic depression, Lyme disease, parasites and a host of other, lesser-known and difficult to pronounce syndromes and diseases are suspected. At one point, they think he may have a “parasitic twin,” a collection of living
Everything I Have Is Yours By Eleanor Henderson (Flatiron Books; 400 pages; $27.99)
human tissue from a neverformed sibling, living in his abdomen.
He is also, it should be said, a drug addict and an alcoholic who sometimes rages at his wife and often attempts or threatens suicide. He can’t and won’t get a job, something Henderson tries to justify in the name of feminism by writing, “Didn’t modern feminism need to include sympathy for male weakness, and to imagine masculinity in various forms?” To which I would say, “Absolutely, but not by assuming women will pick up the slack by taking on the roles of caretaker, counselor, domestic servant, mother and breadwinner simultaneously.”
And herein lies the rub. It’s hard to critique this book without critiquing this marriage. Although the author failed to convince this reader, there must be something about this Aaron, about this relationship, that makes it worth the unceasing struggle. They do seem to have a lot of sex for people raising two small children in a “sick house family,” as one of their boys calls it.
In a 2018 review of the movie “A Beautiful Boy” about a young man struggling with meth addiction, Chronicle movie critic Mick LaSalle wrote, “A story about a drug addict doesn’t follow an effective narrative course — that is, it doesn’t build. It just repeats. A drug addict falls off the wagon, gets back on the wagon … and on and on. That’s the nature of drug addiction, and however much that might mean to the addict or to the loved ones involved, it’s a boring thing to watch from the outside, because the story can go nowhere, and it’s always the same.”
This is exactly the issue with “Everything I Have Is Yours.” It is a continuous loop of illness, despair, hope and illness again. Henderson is smart and insightful, but this story is more litany than narrative. There are many rubbernecking moments. Metallic ooze coming from his navel? Insect-like husks collecting in his mouth? Frothing nipples? In the end, the empathetic pain the reader feels is for her, not for him.