The Friday Dispatch
Great Grandpa, Spotify's Lizzy Szabo, Mishaal Tamer, Chris Black and more
Great Grandpa and the other side of honesty
For most successful musicians, their band is their everything. Around the project spills other things – dead-end jobs or half-cooked connections that languish meaninglessly in relation to the promise of critical recognition, or celebrity status.
For Great Grandpa, the indie-folk five-piece from Seattle, it’s quite the opposite. Over half a decade since their 2019 album Four of Arrows, they return with a 12-track rumination on love, life, loss, and time. It is as much, they tell me, about their time apart as it is their time together. Patience, Moonbeam is a warm, thoroughly considered, and eclectic amalgamation of alt-country and freak-folk, which deserves all the Big Thief comparisons it has received.
Comprised of Pat Goodwin (multi-instrumentalist and co-vocalist), Dylan Hanwright (guitarist and producer), Al Menne (lead vocalist), Carrie Goodwin (bass), and Cam LaFlam (drums), Great Grandpa are riding on a record of youthful chaos into a new era of self-assured slickness.
“We did a lot of what other people told us we should do – a lot of what was expected by others, or seen as a kind of prerequisite for having success,” says Hanwright. Now, finally, they are chasing their own definition of success, one that falls back on an intrinsic enjoyment of record-making as an art-form itself and feels, according to Hanwright, “fulfilling and rewarding not just because of outside pressure.” The record comes out of reality – its immersive, mythical sound all the more impressive for it.
“Sustainability,” says Menne. “That’s a word that comes up a lot in our conversation: sustainability for the band and for us as individuals, and putting that first.” The reckless touring “probably led to a lot of unhealthy habits and patterns, but I think that it happened for a reason.” It’s the most consistent thread in our conversation; each member is reflective and open, willing to hold up their perspective as if intrigued by how it is they got there. As Goodwin says of the work: “I’m incredibly proud of this record and of our band. We’re like a superhero team – greater when combined.”
This week, Sleigh Bells return with Bunky Becky Birthday Boy; Djo releases The Crux; Black Country, New Road gives us Forever, Howlong; and Panchiko marks a new era with Ginkgo.
Desk Notes: Lizzy Szabo
Lizzy Szabo is the US lead indie editor at Spotify, where she and her team look after the indie playlist ecosystem from Lorem to Fresh Finds and more. They've just launched the Lorem & Friends Substack, which dives deeper into the curation, storytelling, and community around the playlist.
“This is my desk in area in our Hollywood bedroom. My husband took this photo, and I figured I should look my best - even though I’m actually writing this in pajamas. I'm a collector of all things, as you can probably tell from this one little corner of our apartment. A maximalist!
Remi Wolf pizza box: This is from our infamous little backyard Lorem & Friends hang from Fall ’23, where Remi Wolf performed and Norah Jones came out as the special guest. We brought fans, artists, and creatives of all kinds together to the In Sheep’s Clothing house in the Hollywood Hills. My coworker Lisa had the brilliant idea to have Remi design the pizza box. I love how it turned out, and now I get to think about that night every time i see it on the shelf. We still say it’s one of the coolest things we’ve ever done at Spotify.
Furniture: This midcentury atomic-legged desk and George Nelson shelf behind me are local auction scores, and I drove an hour for my pink Modernica Case Study desk chair I found for a steal on FB marketplace. I love to research vintage pieces and furniture makers, gallery hop, etc. Aside from music - interiors are my thing.
John Mayer letter: When I was still an assistant at Spotify, I made a case for his ‘New Light’ video to be included in our first editions of the canvas tool on platform. He was grateful, and sent a handful of these letters out. It’s typed on a typewriter! And signed. It’s traveled with me from LA to NY to New Orleans and back.
Ella Rose Flood print (far right middle shelf): I came across Ella’s work during the pandemic and fell in love. It’s a little bit dark and dreamy and I'm fascinated in how she presents different objects. She lives in Chicago, you should check out her work. This is a limited edition print she did of a ghost orchid. I purchased it the second it went live, so it's #1 of like 250.
Piece of the 2021 Arc de Triomphe "Wrapped": This is a little fraction of the 270,000 square foot wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe by iconic artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude that I bought on eBay. It's a reminder of what is possible, that art and its legacy is fantastic.”
If you live somewhere that generally enjoys the four seasons, you might have seen your first peak of warm weather this week. The days are longer. The air feels different. And nothing rings in that time better than America’s classic, “Ventura Highway.” This time, we bring you the 1979 live version from Central Park — arguably the way this song should always be enjoyed. Don’t we all want to be that girl with the glasses clapping along in the front row? Yeah. We do.
The introduction…
Meet Mishaal Tamer, the Saudi Arabian singer taking the world by storm.
Age… 25
Hometown… Jeddah.
How you started making music… I broke my arm at the age of 9 and learning to play guitar was the physiotherapy.
Describe your sound… Doesn’t stick to one genre but stays true to itself.
Your favourite part of the creative process… Those little moments while writing or producing when you get to hear back what you create as you’re making it. Just experiencing a song come to life and getting excited about the little moments as they come to life is very special to me.
A song that’s gotten you through something… “Ahwak” by Abdel Halim Al Hafez.
The key to good style, in your opinion… Being true to yourself.
Chris Black on Cat Power
Cat Power is from Atlanta like me and she was always this kind of mythic figure that would always be around, you know? Like she’d sometimes be working the door at a bar but she always had this career too – and it just felt closer because of that
“The Greatest,” a song of hers from 2006, is just a masterpiece, man. All of her music feels like that to me and I think she's got one of the most special voices that we've ever heard. But this one in particular cements a time in my life when I living in a certain neighbourhood and doing certain things.
Just also being able to listen to music like this that's pretty sad overall, listening to it all the time: I'm going to work, I'm listening to this, I'm at home, I'm eating dinner, I’m listening to this. It was a CD and I listened to it in my car. I listened to it at home I just rinsed it! I think if I was listening to it as much now though, some of this stuff would affect my mood a little more than it did.
We had her on How Long Gone and she was amazing. She was really gracious with us and really cool, but she opened the show by telling us how she had to move because she had a stalker. It’s becoming more and more normal for me to talk to someone on How Long Gone who is a mythic figure that I grew up with and feels so close to me and someone like her is a great example of that. She'll message me occasionally and we’ll talk, I'll go to a show. She’s so nice and so normal. We have a lot of friends in common.
And even after meeting her, I still love the music. I love it more than I did when I managed a band. This is the most glamorous and cool art form, and it forever will be to me. I don't care about movies. I don't really care about TV. Getting to know some of these people - some of whom I've listened to for a long time – is fascinating and it brings me great joy, really. That's the only way to put it. If you want to talk about all the business stuff, and about streaming, you know, I don't give a fuck about that!
We had Johnny Marr on the show and he was fucking great, but part of the reason that How Long Gone has had any success is that we treat everyone the same, and I think that is at the end of the day, no matter how recognised or are famous you are, you don't want to be treated like that every second of every day.
You may have more talent in your pinky than I do in my entire body, but you're still a normal person who has to do all the things that we have to do. There’s some level of that being our trick a little bit, you know?
Listen to the week in new music by following our Discovery playlist
Dropping at midnight every Thursday, follow our playlist for a taste of the best new music from the most exciting breaking artists. Leading the selection this week are new tracks from Daffo, Rigo Kamp, Sunken, virgin orchestra, Tracey, and coverstar nabeel.
“He was the victim of an ailment so common that most people would consider it trivial. But when it gets to Sinatra it can plunge him into a state of anguish, deep depression, panic, even rage. Frank Sinatra had a cold.”