February 4 2024
When we meet Andre 3000, he and Heidi bond over being Geminis. "We're crazy," he says. He is sitting on a couch on the second floor of the Blue Note, holding an electronic flute and looking at an iPad. He says he is getting used to reading reviews, is learning how to "digest" them. Later, it turns out Heidi and I both thought "we're Aquemini" at the same time, because I'm an Aquarius.
The show is calm and he talks more than I expect. Is he feeling some kind of uncertainty around doing this in front of us? He says he didn't expect to be playing the flute, but he also didn't think he'd be in OutKast. He encourages us all to make noise at one point—"the noise," he calls it. A lot of people make wolf sounds. He talks about meeting Carlos Ninõ at Erewhon, a "high-priced bodega," and also does a riff on moving around as a kid. He'd make up a story about where he was from at every new school. One year, it was Cuba, one year it was New York. "All I knew is that the streets had numbers so I said 'I'm from 143rd Street,' and people believed me."
Heidi said the music was like "a frog on a branch, or maybe a bird." I agree. Andre's music now is as much about enabling a way of being together in a space than it is about particular patterns or composing strategies. Heidi suggests that it may be "literally, pure vibes," and I also agree with that.
Talia Lavin on Detroit's Hani sandwich is really great. I agree that we are being "scrunched so hard into sameness" and local food is a bulwark against the Devil's incursions. (I also love her post on Russian claymation, especially the links. Russian Winnie the Pooh seems agitated as hell.)
If you're new here, I want to point out that the entire archive (including all five years of Substack posts) is open. The year-end posts are fun, if you are still new just like you were a sentence ago.
Andy Zax sent me a sick record by Gee Gee Decorator and the only YouTube rip of it I can find is in the account of someone who goes by "Hani Hanbali." They may be entirely real. Who knows! The account is a real trove of unknown raers and wild finds, floating between dub and African diaspora and new wave and lunacy. I made a complete playlist of all the Hani Hanbali uploads. It seems likely that there will be something in here that works for you.
Discostan's For Falasteen tape is beautiful. I wish I knew more about the tracks and if I learn anything, I will pass it on. Discostan had a hand in the re-release Zenaib Shaath's The Urgent Call of Palestine EP (a song from which ends their For Falasteen tape). From the text: "More than 50 years ago in Beirut, teenager Zeinab Shaath recorded a set of revolutionary folk music — the first English-language songs to lift up the Palestinian cause to the wider world. Inspired by Vietnam-era protest music from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, 'The Urgent Call of Palestine’ record was intended to share the stories and messages of Palestinian resistance to an international audience." We keep singing the intifada song around the house.
When I was in LA, I learned that after a protest arrest last month I had been at One Police Plaza with the son of an old friend. Apparently we talked about Norman Finkelstein and movies. I also went through a depression worse than anything I've felt in maybe five years, right as we hit Santa Monica for three days of "rest" (that involved a fair amount of working). Heidi eased me through the dark night and I went into the hot tub for relief, where one guy brought his own reggae Bluetooth speaker. I let the jets palpate me and thought ah yeah civilization. Later, a friend brought me to an ACA/ALANON/AA meeting in Beechwood Canyon, and it restored me to life.
Broken and complete, the pomegranate lasts forever. Every seed has sovereignty, in this light. They let me stay.