MCRH 9/18: Ty McClanahan visits the historic People's Building studio for a performance and a chat
plus entirely too much Elephant #6
This’ll be my last show for a few weeks as I head out to Slovakia to find the bastard that murdered my mailman. I had Ty McClanahan in studio for a performance and he blew my mind, I wish we got more songs out of him while he was here.
Setlist:
Powerful Man (Alex G)
Ride Into The Sun (Velvet Underground)
My favorite talk-over song. Helluva jam.
Fire In The Hole (Steely Dan)
I never listen to SD but this song just slaps, can’t deny a banger.
Tuff Ghost (The Unicorns)
From a Top 5 album of mine.
Vampire Empire (Big Thief)
Listen to Adrienne growl! Excited for this new direction.
Yesterday’s World (Circulatory System)
Underground (Ben Folds Five)
Another great song from a band I never think to listen to. I’ve been on a strong kick of songs with showtune-esque vibes but singer-songwriter-esque quality. (Black Country, New Roads, fun., Mother Falcon). Perhaps BF5 deserves to be added to that list.
Twitching in Time (Elf Power)
A Peek (Circulatory System)
This is my third song from an Elephant #6 band which means I watched their documentary twice this weekend. Their collective makes me long for a collaborative community and makes me grateful for being in Charleston. What a sound they had, which has yet to really be understood. Jeff Mangum’s absence is extremely felt; as if everyone else thought they were a group of equally talented, destined for success friends and he knew all along that he was the star. This is unfair, he was probably just not keen to break his anxiety-induced silence. But consider if it was Dylan, and the documentary was about the Greenwich folk scene, and they wanted him to talk about how they all lived and loved and worked together and how all of their best work was really a collaboration…
I’ve been trying to think about how to translate their style into the literary, and besides the lack of a suitable 4-track parallel, it would probably be something like early Eggers meets early Korine? Another missing aspect of the film: discussion of any non-musical influences. Maybe Mangum was bored by a bunch of philistines..
For Emma (Bon Iver)
Big Flame Is Gonna Break My Heart In Two (Doris Wilson)
Credit music for I Think You Should Leave from Tim Robinson. That show is underrated for the soundtrack it puts together.
Rolling Stone (Aaron Fisher & Ghost Fleet)
A good friend and a great musician. Excited for their reunion show this Saturday.
All of Human Knowledge Made Us Dumb (Sofia Isella)
Spit On A Stranger (Pavement)
Old Friends (Pinegrove)
Got in trouble for playing this one without editing some FCC-unfriendly words.
Top of the Hour— 5pm
Flaming Telepaths (Espers)
Holy shit haha this song goes so hard.
Don’t Do That Anymore (Ty MClanahan)
I was blown away by Ty’s songwriting ability, and he seems to be very conscious about his work / production. He hesitated to choose which songs to play before knowing what their context was. We talked on air about his patience when it comes to releasing work. He could easily have singles, an LP out there— he’s not going to do this until he’s beyond confident with them. Moreover, he knows the ways his creative process will necessarily change once there are recordings out there, and he chooses to not yet enter that new paradigm.
Born For Loving You (Big Thief)
Long Game (Ty MClanahan)
Relatively Easy (Jason Isbell)
Saving Grace (Ty MClanahan)
This one had me hyped. Ty really showed his range here, and as I mentioned in the interview the song felt very distinct. You should really try to see him live.
Little White Moon (Hoyt Axton)
Ave Maria (Ty MClanahan)
Fine & Mellow (Hurray For The Riff Raff)
A top 5 artist for me. Gnarly song, solid closer.
Thanks for following along. If you want a recording of the interview with Ty you can reach out to me directly. He will be performing at Fife St. Brewing on 9/27.