Remember how in the film Clash of the Titans, Zeus and his crew would take the little clay action figures of mortals off the shelf and screw with their lives by physically placing the tiny version of Harry Hamlin on a beach, or right in the path of a giant scorpion? (It’s still really cool.)
As a kid, I don’t remember worrying too much about the implications of the gods controlling human lives. I think I was preoccupied with being freaked out over Zeus’s robot owl and how the snakes kept slithering after Medusa’s head was severed.
But lately, I have been thinking about fate, in the sense that there is so much that us mortals don’t have control over in our day to day lives. For one example, there’s the scene in the video above for Washington D.C. singer/songwriter Meredith Bragg’s latest song. It’s just one step this way, instead of that, then big change. [CORRECTION: Turns out I don’t know my Broadcast videos. The original of the one above belongs to that band’s tune “Tender Buttons” (Go see. It’s longer and still really rad!), and this one here is just some inspired overdubbing by a YouTuber going by the name of Spaceship Steve.]
That’s the hardcore stuff, and though it fascinates me, I try and not think too much about it. I’ve been digging on the kind of fate that happens when I prune back the weekly schedule of stuff I’m always scheduling and let an hour here or there (or even a day or two when I’m being really kind to myself) just happen. Given just a little extra room, my day can take on hues that are not on the palette of my usual agenda, and it’s nice to open myself up to being surprised (and nice to take a break from wrestling with every minute of the day).
For his upcoming solo album (out Dec. 11 on The Kora Records), Bragg made a deal with the Silver Sonya recording studio the CD takes its name from–he provided the tunes through only his voice and acoustic guitar, and the studio dudes then “pulled, filtered, shifted, butchered, looped, [broke], and mended” as they saw fit. In a note on Bragg’s website, Silver Sonya’s Chad Clark elaborated: “The music generally had a wistful, melancholic tone. Our job as the producers was to make the music just a little bit less pretty and tasteful. Nothing radical, mind you. A tiny red smudge in the corner of an otherwise blue painting.”
The touch is pretty caring and gentle here (more like Zeus to Perseus than Zeus to Calibos)–doubled-up vocals, maybe some fingers tapping on wood, and sleepy chorus at the foot of the bed where our narrator is repelling vipers in the night. The idea of Bragg just letting the songs go is beautiful. He’s worked with these guys before. He trusts them. Why not?
You can pre-order Silver Sonya beginning Nov. 6, but to tide you over till then, Stereogum has this one for download, and you can get “Twin Arrows” at The Kora Records site.
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