Lagniappe (la·gniappe) noun ˈlan-ˌyap,’ – 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus.

I first heard Ola Podrida (née David Wingo) via David Gordon Green’s All The Real Girls. In addition to contributing to the score, it was a lyric of Wingo’s that inspired the film’s title. Several years later Wingo’s Ola Podrida entered my life, specifically “Jordanna”, and I’ve been keeping up with his work, whether scoring under his own name, or under the guise of Podrida, since.

Last month saw the release of Ola Podrida’s third album, Ghosts Go Blind, yet another atmospheric, meditative, triumph in the Wingo canon. For this installment of The Lagniappe Sessions Wingo, a child of the 80s, takes on none other than pop-radio god, and zeitgeist avatar, Huey Lewis, and deconstructs shoegaze vets Ride’s “In A Different Place”.  David Wingo, in his own words, below.

Ola Podrida perform at the Satellite, here in Los Angeles, Wednesday night.
__________________________________________________________________________________

MP3: Ola Podrida :: In A Different Place (Ride)

This was inspired by an interview I read with either Andy Bell or Mark Gardener years ago where they said they thought the thing that set Ride apart from the rest of the shoegaze bands was that their songs could be played on just an acoustic guitar and still sound good. It was something I often thought about when listening to them after that but over 15 years later I tried it out and saw that it was true. Some friends of mine were getting married and wanted me to do a song for a 7″ that was going to be the present/keepsake for all the attendees and since he and I both came up being major shoegaze fans it only made sense to do a song from one of those bands. I immediately thought of the Ride quote and decided to keep it acoustic and it became a pretty fun challenge to see what songs still worked with only acoustic guitar and light percussion. I tried several but sure enough, nothing from any of the other bands I tried felt as much like a complete, whole song as Ride’s did. Several of their songs that I tried worked in my opinion, but I ended up going with “In A Different Place” as it’s a love song of sorts and felt like a pretty perfect song for the occasion. It makes we wish that they had done an EP of all acoustic versions of their songs.

MP3: Ola Podrida :: Perfect World (Huey Lewis & The News)

A friend of mine is a massive Huey Lewis & The News fan with 100% sincerity. Hopefully that doesn’t say something about me that I have to qualify that, but I say it because I usually am a little curious when anybody is a huge fan of any major pop culture touchstone from the 80s that could maybe be considered by some to be kitschy. But I quickly realized that there was not any irony in his love for them, and since I met him he’s been talking about trying to organize and put out a Huey Lewis covers compilation. Since talking to him about them I went through and listened to their songs more thoughtfully, and after the idea of covering one was planted in my head it ended up becoming something I really wanted to try. There are other songs that I like more than “Perfect World”…I don’t know how many people remember it at all now, unlike so many of their previous hits that everybody who grew up in the 80s could still sing to this day. But in listening to the song I started thinking about how so many pop songs from every era shroud somewhat bittersweet and resigned lyrics in peppy, upbeat music, this being a really good example of it. So I took it as an opportunity to take a song like that and try to reflect the emotion of the lyrics more in the music and to do so with zero irony, obviously. If it felt at all like “ha ha, I took a fun 80′s pop song and made it all moody and reflective” then I obviously would have failed at what I was trying to do, but it’s a well-written and well-crafted song that I think would hold up on its own under most any interpretation. I had a lot of fun doing it and it made me really hope my friend can see through his covers comp one day soon, I think it’d be a pretty good listen.

Lagniappe Sessions Archives / original illustration for aquarium drunkard by Ben Towle.

Sometimes it’s not about the belief so much as the believing. That’s the primary takeaway regarding Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Black Religious Music. Originally issued in 1975 on Advent Records, this fine collection is bona fide classic. Long out of print, the assembled recordings are once again widely available via Dust-to-Digital who re-issued the album on vinyl in April.

Inside the gorgeous tip-on sleeve are detailed notes from producer David Evans, who traveled the American South (with a stop in California), with Marina Bokelman, John Fahey, George and Catchy Mitchell, Marc Ryan, Cheryl Thurber, and Alan Wilson (archivist Bill Koon also contributes a recording) between 1965-1973 with the goal of documenting sacred music removed from Sunday mornings services where it’s often recorded. “Most records of black religious music contain some form of gospel singing or congregational singing recorded at a church service,” Evans writes in the album’s notes. “This album, though, tries to present a broader range of performance styles and contexts with the hope of showing the important role that religious music plays in the Southern black communities and in the daily lives of individuals.”

So here you’ll find blues singers like Furry Lewis, Robert “Nighthawk” Johnson, and Babe Strovall singing sacred music, though they are primarily known for their secular songs, on “the principal that the devil shouldn’t have all the best music,” right alongside Reverend Rubin Lacy, the mixed denominational trio of Annie Lee Crawford, Annie Mae Jones, and Oscar Crawford, and church soloist Katie Mae Young. The recordings are relaxed and often celebratory. “Blind Pete” Burrell’s rendition of “Do You Remember Me” floats on easygoing charm. Johnson’s “Can’t No Grave Hold My Body Down” is strident, a confidant boast in the power of the resurrection. Even the songs most concerned with matters of repentance — like “You Got to Give an Account” (“Of your sins,” the lyric continues) — sound like a party.

Evans draws little distinction between the blues – a music that was every bit as rebellious and hell raising as its eventual child, rock ‘n’ roll – and the plaintive spirit of rural gospel. “The average person who attends church irregularly usually sees little harm in the blues,” Evans writes, going on to state that preachers “rarely condemn the blues singers as much as they do the liars, gamblers, drinkers, adulterers, hypocrites, and backsliders,” even if those blues singers might very well fall into the categories mentioned. Instead, he argues that the preachers enjoyed a special kinship with blues singers, not only in the matters of speaking to the broken nature of humankind, but also in the celebration of its spirit, of lifting up as much as warning or ministering to. It’s a link that still exists in popular music, though rarely is it displayed as nakedly or as raw as it is here. words/ j woodbury

Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday – Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

Download: Hour One: Mondo Boys – Beyond The Audiodrome (A Mixtape)

SIRIUS 296: Jean Michel Bernard – Générique Stephane ++ The Truants – Sunset Surf ++ Link Wray & The Wraymen – Rumble ++ Jack Nitzsche: The Lonely Surfer / Oscar Harris: Twinkle Stars Boo Galoo ++ Joe Bataan: Chick-a-boom ++ Jacques Dutronc: Les Cactus ++ The Shadows: Scotch On The Socks ++ Koldo: Disc Man ++ Vican Maneechot: Dance, Dance, Dance ++ Linda Van Dijck: Stengun ++ Carl Carlton: I Can Feel It / Janey & Dennis: Take It From A Friend ++ Donald Jenkins & The Delighters: Elephant Walk ++ Symphonic Four: Who Do You Think Youre Fooling ++ Milton Henry: Gypsy Woman ++ Lulu: Rattler ++ Monomono: Give The Beggar A Chance ++ Tony Joe White: Stud Spider / Lee Hazelwood: No Train To Stockholm ++ Marine Girls: Love To Know ++ Allen Toussaint: We The People ++ Nairobi Sisters: Promised Land ++ Ty Segall: Caesar ++ Harpers Bizarre: Witchi Tai To ++ Dirty Projectors: Swing Low Magellan / Gladys Knight & The Pips: Tracks Of My Tears ++ Doris Troy: Whatcha Gonna Do About It ++ The Olympics: Dooley ++ Bobbie Gentry: Somebody Like Me ++ Wuta Wazuri: Mondo Soul Funky ++ The Lijadu Sisters: Danger ++ Bobby Hebb: You Dont Know What You Got ++ The Kinks: Tell Me Now / Nancy Dupree: James Brown ++ James Brown: Taurus (interview) ++ Foxygen: Make It Known ++ Linda Brannon: Deep Inside Me ++ Al Stewart: Year Of The Cat ++ Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Swim And Sleep (like A Shark) ++ The Equals: Ooh That Kiss ++ The Orwells: In My Bed ++ Ananda Shankar: Jumpin Jack Flash ++ Del Shannon: Under My Thumb ++ Ariane: Tuvoudraisquejoublie ++ Witch: Like A Chicken ++ Bob Azzam & His Orchestra: The Last Time ++ Pill Wonder: Wishing Whale ++ Ramones: Dont Come Close ++ Tame Impala: Apocalypse Dreams ++ The Pretty Things: The Good Mr Square / Kyu Sakamoto: China Nights ++ Mike And Herb: Ive Been A Fool ++ Atons: Yellow Ribbon ++ The Oh Sees: Floods New Light ++ Jimmy Norman: Gangster Of Love ++ Wendell Stuart & The Downbeaters: Hey Jude / The Rollers: Knockin At The Wrong Door ++ Foxygen: Teenage Alien Blues (outro) ++ Peter Ivers: Miraculous Weekend ++ White Fence – Lillian (Won’t You Play Drums?) ++ The Non Travellin Band – Twon Hands Full Of Fingers ++ Foxygen – No Destruction ++ Jacco Gardner – Clear The Air ++ Circulatory System – Overjoyed ++ Gruff Rhys – Con Carino ++  Caribou – Eli ++ Tame Impala – Solitude Is Bliss ++ Jay Reatard – Hammer I Miss You ++ Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Bicycle ++ Twin Peaks – Ocean Blue

*You can listen, for free, online with the SIRIUS three day trial — just submit an email address and they will send you a password.
__________________________________________________________________________________

As one of Kurt Vile’s deputized Violators, Steve Gunn has already had an eventful 2013, appearing on various late night TV shows and playing to the assembled hordes at major music festivals. But his crowning achievement this year is undoubtedly Time Off, an instant classic if ever there was one.

The album neatly ties together two strands of Gunn’s previous work — the expansive, improvisatory guitar-drum jams of the Gunn-Truscinksi Duo and the more song-based approach of 2009′s masterful Boerum Palace. The guitarist leads his rhythm section (John Truscinski on drums and Justin Tripp on bass) through a set of tunes that nod in the direction of the Grateful Dead, JJ Cale, and Neil Young without feeling remotely retro. The interplay here is marvelous; Truscinksi and Tripp can choogle like nobody’s business, but with the lightness and dynamics of jazz players, leaving Gunn free to weave intricate webs of layered acoustic and electric guitars. The album rocks, to be sure, but never relies on volume for its inherent heaviness. Dig the beautiful ebb and flow of its majestic opener, “Water Wheel,” the deep boogie of “New Decline,” or the hypnotic churn of “Trailways Rambler.” Time Off captures a musician at the top of his game. Gunn’s aim is true. words/ t wilcox

Related: Wooden Wand Interviews Steve Gunn

MP3: Steve Gunn :: Water Wheel

Among certain critics and cultural trainspotters, there exists a colloquialism – ‘gamechanger’ – to denote a brazen, unexpected creative leap by an already respected and established artist. The risk of potentially alienating a listenership that increasingly has more choices than patience is a perilous one, but to take such a gamble and succeed can earn an artist irreproachable status henceforth. Some examples of historical gamechangers are Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden, Radiohead’s Kid A, and Scott Walker’s Tilt. We may soon be adding to this list the new album by New York-based guitarist Steve Gunn, whose Time Off, released June 18^th on Paradise of Bachelors, finds the formerly ubiquitous psychedelic journeyman exploring traditional songwriting through a prism of airy blues, ambling jazz-folk, and subtle but virtuosic guitar dreamweaving. For starters, imagine the Dead’s “Bird Song” performed by guys who know all the Sun City Girls records by heart. Not so much an about-face as a panoramic zooming-out, Time Off should introduce Gunn’s beguiling music to an entire new audience even as it retains the spirit and the logic of his earliest and most experimental work. I got to talk to Steve about Time Off, declining lucrative record deals, and how legends like Jack Rose and Michael Chapman have influenced his life as much as his music.
__________________________________________________________________________________

James Jackson Toth: This may seem like mundane way to start, but despite the fact that you’ve been around a while, there seems to be a relative dearth of biographical information about you out there. Let’s start with your roots in the hardcore scene. Is that when you started playing music, or were you already playing by then?

Steve Gunn: I was definitely playing before I got into hardcore. When I got my first instrument I was borrowing music from my older sister, like Misfits tapes, and stuff like that, and I was also listening to rap. It was kinda all over the place. A few years later, in high school I started getting into punk and hardcore. Around then I started playing with other people, going over to people’s houses and playing in their basements and things.

JJT: And was this in Philly?

Steve Gunn: Yeah. I lived out in the suburbs of Philly, and then during my freshman year of high school I started going to the city, and going to shows – punk shows and all other kinds of different shows. And this is when I started hitting up record stores.

JJT: This was before you met Jack (Rose) and Bardo Pond and all those Philly folks, right?

Steve Gunn: Oh, yeah. I actually convinced my parents to let me go on a small tour the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school. I played in this really terrible hardcore band – we were doing Chain of Strength covers and stuff. We even played a couple shows with that band Mouthpiece. And I somehow convinced my parents to let me go. I basically cried, and they were finally nice enough to give me the OK.

JJT: Skipping ahead a bit: the first time I met you, I think you were playing with GHQ. For those who don’t know, GHQ is a long-running band that, at one time, included Helen Rush of Tower Recordings and Metal Mountains, but was a trio of Pete Nolan and Marcia Bassett when you joined. How did this collaboration come about? Were you aware of Un at this point?

Steve Gunn: I was definitely a big Un fan. When I was in college, I moved into a house with these older guys, and they had all these records, and it kinda opened up my world. That’s when I got turned on to all those Siltbreeze bands, and I got to see most of them [play live]. And I definitely became a fan of Un and saw them a bunch of times and I became friends with Grant [Acker] and Marcia. When I moved to New York, I was still keeping in touch with Marcia, and I started playing around and doing these sort of pick up jams with her and whoever she was playing with. Another person who I knew from back then in Philly was Patrick Best, who was in Pelt. He was living in Brooklyn at the time – around 2001 – and so this first incarnation of GHQ was me, Patrick, Helen and Marcia. We never played many proper gigs, though we did a few recordings that never saw the light of day. That’s kinda how it started, and we just kept it going. And then Pete [Nolan, of Magik Markers, Spectre Folk, Vanishing Voice, et al] moved to New York, we hooked up with him, and that’s when we started actually playing gigs and compiling recordings.

MP3: The Dutch Rhythm, Steel & Showband :: Down By The River

King Khan’s next release, with the Shrines, Idle No More, is tee’d up for a September release – this time via Merge Records. Says Khan of the new project: “The Shrines was my pirate ship and we sailed many a turbulent sea, spreading our music ‘like peanut butter’ all over the world….The dream was to make something reminiscent of Sun Ra, James Brown, and Otis Redding with a hint of The Velvet Underground, Love, The Monks and about a million other influences that riddled my LSD-soaked brain at the tender age of 22. Idle No More is probably the most refined piece of music we have made to date. The songs are about the state of the world we live in today.” It’s been a minute. Bring on the circus.

In the meantime, here’s an oldie/goodie KK solo joint initially released on 45 via Norton Records, later comped on their I Still Hate CDs collection.

MP3: King Khan :: It’s A Lie

Madison, Wisconsin. Recorded live to tape, Moon Glyph just released Never Prayed Once, The Non Travellin’ Band’s debut — a fleshed out rendering of the group’s faded psych-folk beginnings from last year. Tuned up and turned on.

MP3: The Non Travellin’ Band :: Two Hands Full of Fingers