The Portland band Spoon Benders released their hard-driving single “Nation” back in May this year, on their album “Dura Mater.” Frontman Matt Winfree gives this colorful explanation of what the band’s saying: "Stylistically, I guess we’re a hodgepodge of classic rock and American roots music. Try to imagine Albert Collins, the Funky Meters, Paul Simon, Jeff Buckley, Jimi Hendrix, The Police, U2 and the Black Crowes all peeing into the same bucket. Our pee would smell something like that.” Powered by a riotous guitar pace, the song slows the tempo in the middle for a psychedelic transition just long enough to entrance you, before throwing you right back into the sonic mosh pit for the closer.
Bartees Strange, takes us on a musical escapade with his single “Boomer.” He developed his musical roots growing up in the Black church in rural Oklahoma, but developed an approach for more secular music as he got older and moved to Washington, D.C. “I went to see The National play at the Anthem. ... It was an amazing show, but I remember thinking, 'Damn, it’s pretty crazy this is D.C., Chocolate City, and I don’t see any people of color in the room. What if we took this music and reshaped it?” His DIY approach is on display in the video for “Boomer,” which features him playing every instrument himself while displaying a shifting vocal range that fits perfectly with the changes of musical tone.
The Big Star song “Thirteen” has been placed in the hands of Bedouine’s Azniv Korkejian, Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra. Together they perfectly capture the delicate tone of the original while giving it an additional element of a softer vocal delivery. “We threw the idea around of doing a song together but weren’t sure what,” Korkejian said. “I was backstage in Columbia, Missouri, when I realized it was the anniversary of Big Star’s ’93 reunion show that had also taken place in Columbia. I was fiddling around with the song in my dressing room when Katie and Alynda walked in. Suddenly I remembered there were three verses to split up. We played it as an homage that night and every night after.”
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