Are y'allternative?
June 14, 2021 - Vol. 1 Issue 2
I’m Dalton Spangler and welcome to Perfect Sound Whatever, a newsletter about music. I write updates on the latest music news in New Orleans, feature stories, album reviews, and more. Whether you are from New Orleans or not, my goal is to help you discover new music; provide coverage to local artists, venues, and others creating the music scene in NOLA; and start discussions about music trends and the latest releases. For questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to email me at daltonspangler25@gmail.com.
Today in the newsletter: Celebrating life in New Orleans with Chris Acker, Record Store Day 2021 and Nick Shoulders - “Home on the Rage” album review. All photos by Dalton Spangler.
Feature of the Week
Celebrating life in New Orleans with Chris Acker
I shook Chris Acker’s bike-grease-stained hand as we met in the back garden of Treme Coffeehouse. June in New Orleans means heat, real heat. But it also means life. A bagworm had attached itself to the table we sat at and trees around us teemed with the small lives of birds, grasshoppers and lizards.
Acker sipped on iced coffee to wake himself up. It had been a late night, he explained to me and that he had taken two ibuprofen before coming. He performed a secret show on the front porch of a house in Holy Cross with Nick Shoulders. “Nickie-Bob'' and Acker started a tour of the Southeast in the driveway of that same house. That tour marked the beginning of a years-long friendship. Now, their music is the start of an independent country music label, Gar Hole Records.
Hailing from Seattle, Acker discovered his passion for music in high school. He listened to John Prine and Nanci Griffith growing up and became obsessed with Bob Dylan in his teens. He learned to play guitar and a creative writing teacher encouraged him to write while also introducing him to other singer-songwriters. The last assignment of the term was to write a song, which would become his first.
After a short stint in college, Acker decided to drop out at 19 years old and move to New Orleans at 20 years old in 2014.
“I was really on the traveling kick,” Acker said.
While traveling he learned how to hitchhike and busk, the act of performing on the street for donations. He discovered music from other artists during his travels and was eventually pointed towards New Orleans.
“You hear about it,” Acker explained, “I had this narrative in my head that I was going to make a ton of money because it was a great busking place. But because it’s so good, the busking culture here compared to anywhere else is such a higher caliber, like world-class musicians.”
It was a humbling experience for Acker to see talented musical acts like Tuba Skinny playing the same corners on Royal Street. For a time, he stopped taking his guitar places until he felt good enough to call himself a musician again. He practiced and made a living off his street performances until around his debut “Re-Runs” released in 2017.
It was about this time in the interview that we were pleasantly interrupted by a second-line performance marching down Villere Street. These parades are a tradition in Treme. The parade follows a funeral ceremony and carries the deceased to their burial with a procession of brass leading the way to celebrate life.
New Orleans celebrates life now as it exits the pandemic. Acker released his sophomore LP, “Good Kid” on March 5, 2020, days before the national shutdown caused by COVID-19. Tours the band had booked for the release were canceled and like many, he turned inward.
“There was all this stuff that totally fell apart,” Acker said, “And I never really had a problem with it.”
Acker took the pandemic seriously and felt that canceling shows was the responsible thing to do but despite all the tragedy brought about by the pandemic, the pause provided him with relief.
“I love touring. I love booking tours, but it’s work,” Acker said. “I was feeling kind of lost as a musician and a writer at the time. I felt very disconnected from [“Good Kid”] by the time we released it. I had been working on songs, but when we hit lockdown, I just got so back into writing.”
With the time and space he had, Acker began falling in love with New Orleans all over again. Regularly, he would walk around the city from his home in Treme, going as far as Uptown.
“It was a beautiful time of the year. The jasmine was blooming and there was really nothing else to do.”
“It was a beautiful time of the year. The jasmine was blooming and there was really nothing else to do,” he said. “I had all these thoughts, and I used walking as a way to organize those thoughts.”
By October, Acker and his backing band went to New York to record their album “Odd, Ordinary & Otherwise” in the Hudson Valley with Burt Murder. They made sure to take precautions like testing themselves for COVID-19 and quarantining before camping their way up the country until they arrived.
“I had my dream band and my dream producer,” Acker said. “I feel really close to these new songs on this album.”
Acker plans on performing around New Orleans this year and picking up tours again in 2022. His new album will be releasing later this Fall but his two singles “Walking,” and “Panicked & Paralyzed” are available wherever music is streamed.
Please follow Chris Acker on Instagram and check out his music anywhere music can be streamed.
The Latest
Indie record stores celebrate Record Store Day 2021
Independent record stores across New Orleans celebrated Record Store Day 2021 with its first drop on June 12. Music fans waited in lines before opening at some stores for the chance to take home exclusive records. The event brings additional support to record stores as they recover from losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also is a day for record stores to engage with the community through giveaways, DJ’ing and public outreach. The next drop for 2021 is set for July 17.
*Related personal news*
In the effort of full disclosure, I began working at The Mushroom earlier this month. This piece is meant to cover some of the new and historical independent record stores in New Orleans.
Euclid Records New Orleans
Bio: A Bywater neighborhood record store that opened in 2010. They focus on supporting artists and music industry professionals by providing deals and events to the community.
Who: Lefty Parker, Manager
Why should people collect physical format music: “I don’t know if they should. I prefer it in some ways… [Vinyl] was the way we consumed music for a hundred years and it turned out to be a good way to consume music… They are very carefully decided from one way to the other what it is going to be and the bands themselves have curated that for the most part... I consider my LPs to be my forever music… In Katrina, I lost about 6,000 CDs but my LPs are fine. The covers are screwed up but LPs play still.
What record(s) do you have a special connection with: I used to play with Ernie K-Doe- he’s a local legend and he passed away in 2001. I lost all the signed ephemera I have from him but I have his records and every time I want to listen to his voice I put on his records. In that way, every Ernie K-Doe record is special to me.
When: Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Where: 3301 Chartres St, New Orleans, LA 70117
NOLA Mix Records
Bio: NOLA Mix Records began in 2011 to teach the youth music lessons like beat-making, lyric-writing and recording through different afterschool programs and elective classes. This program grew into a retail space that doubled as a lesson space for students of all ages.
Who: Ben Epstein, Owner. Began collecting records in 1992.
Why should people collect physical format music: It’s the experience of buying the record. It’s the experience of owning something physical. And it’s a piece of your connection to the artist… It’s a tangible, emotional connection that you have with a physical thing that’s being put on this black platter and plays this magical music. It hits you in all your senses and slows things down a little bit.
What record(s) do you have a special connection with: “They’re all my babies. I have such a personal experience with every record I buy… I mean the only thing that keeps popping in my mind is— Sade just released a box set called ‘This Far’ which is basically every record she’s put out so far and there’s an empty space in the box for what’s seemingly going to be a new record coming out. So as a Sade fan, as her being probably my favorite artist of all time, that pops up in my mind.
When: Thursday to Monday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: 1522 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Louisiana Music Factory
Bio: Founded in 1992, Louisiana Music Factory specializes in local music, specifically jazz, rhythm and blues, Cajun music and others. Snooks’ Scoops, named after the shop cat Snooks, is a newsletter with information on the latest Louisiana Music Factory news and sales.
Who: Barry Smith, Owner
Why should people collect physical format music: It’s fun to touch, look at and have it permanently in your collection not just on some file that could be lost at any time. I prefer CDs. It’s more convenient. I play lots of music in my car… You get all these reissues with all kinds of bonus materials and extra tracks. You get more music for your money.
What record(s) do you have a special connection with: I easily have over 30,000+ recordings, CDs of lots of different genres of music… It’s really hard for me to narrow down to a few favorites… If you had to pinpoint me to one person over my whole life that’s my favorite artist I might be tempted to say David Bowie.
When: Thursday to Sunday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: 421 Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA 70116
Sisters in Christ Records
Bio: Sisters in Christ specialize in weird and rare punk, indie, hardcore, metal music. They also sell books and other writing with a focus on anarchist literature and zines.
Who: Kuill, DJ fairiegothmother, associate
Why should people collect physical format music: As a DJ, it’s something that I’ve done for the longest time and it was essential back when I was first starting… It’s a better way to support artists. You want to make sure that the musician is getting paid by the record because— streaming it probably five or six thousand times on Spotify will then get them the money that they would’ve got if you would have just bought the album… It’s the same idea as books. You can smell it, feel it. It’s a full experience rather than feeling disposable.
When: 12 p.m. to 7 p.m, all week.
Where: 5206 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115
The Mushroom
Bio: Founded in 1969 as a Tulane student co-op to buy and sell used books. The store expanded to records, smoking supplies, and other merchandise. It moved locations in 1973 and has been there ever since.
Who: Mike Natale, Manager
Why should people collect physical format music: For me, it started because I got a record player as a kid… It’s fun to dig around for new music, discover new music. The act of hunting for music is very fun. The tangibility is very rewarding because you see the artwork as it was meant to be seen, it actually gives you a reason to sit and read liner notes because you aren’t going to do that on Spotify… When it comes to buying new records, often it’s a way to support musicians, especially independent artists.
What record(s) do you have a special connection with: I’m sure I have a bunch of records that I just found digging that I thought were super cool. Like, I have a bunch of African music. I just bought a lot of African music here one day and I started reading the liner notes and that led me to learn that for some reason the country of Mali produces these amazing guitar players. This dude named Zani Diabate & The Super Djata Band, these records are amazing but I’m not going to come across this on the internet.
When: 10 a.m. to midnight, all week.
Where: 1037 Broadway St, New Orleans, LA 70118
Check out these stores either in-person or online for shipping. Be sure to follow them on social media.
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Album Review
Nick Shoulders — “Home on the Rage”
A pandemic country album, “Home on the Rage” works as the soundtrack for a tumbleweed rolling down an abandoned Bourbon Street or as the muses of a disenfranchised Southerner triaging what he loves from the land that raised him. Nick Shoulders hails from Arkansas, but his new stomping ground is just down the Mississippi in New Orleans. He began his career as a solo, country artist in 2017 after playing with different punk bands throughout the 2010s.
He fits the aesthetic of “cow-punk.” A genre from the early 80s that fused, as you probably guessed, punk sensibilities with the twang and rural look of country. Shoulders leans more heavily into a country sound featuring classic bluesy melodies, high-pitched yodeling and lots of whistling.
“Home on the Rage” takes a melancholic approach, focusing heavily on themes of self-isolation due to the pandemic and reckoning with the South's blood-stained history. The title track focuses on the latter with memorable lyrics like “Our heritage is hate / Though there’s plenty to save” and “How can the land of the free be the home of the slave.”
“How can the land of the free be the home of the slave.”
Shoulders’ lyrics rise above the rest of the album. The songwriting falls into simplistic and classic melodies from country music’s 100-year past but they work to help push the lyrics into the spotlight. The instrumental tracks are a nice breather but the highlights of this album are tracks like “Turn on the Dark,” “Lockdown Lament,” and “New Dying Soldier.” A mournful track “Don’t Write This Song,” hit me like a proverbial truck. Shoulders ironically sings about not writing a song about someone he’s lost. It’s a warning to itself and to the idea of writing about grief. Following the pandemic, most of us at least know someone who lost someone to COVID-19. In its essence, this short track captures the worldwide trauma of the pandemic that we all will have to write about someday.
Powerful moments like these and the memorable lyrics sprinkled all over this album make it an overall solid record. It fits a unique niche and competes well with other artists in the genre of alt-country. If you are a fan of The Bitter Southerner, this album is for you.
If you listen to the record, comment below or email me your thoughts. If you agree or disagree with my review tell me about it.
Let me hear from you!
Send me love, hate, music recommendations, story tips, musicians you want to see interviewed, shows you want to see promoted, etc. by emailing me at daltonspangler25@gmail.com
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