Shuffle Synchronicities: Volume 1 - #171

Guest Post by Jesse Raub (Good Ones) + "All I Do" by Stevie Wonder - 06/22/21

Today we have a guest post from Jesse Raub! Of the Substack music newsletter Good Ones!

Good Ones is a newsletter about the songs that don't always get the appreciation they deserve and the stories behind them from Jesse Raub, who used to drink coffee for fun and write about music for money, but has now since switched those two around. 

I found Jesse’s newsletter recently when he did a post about Juicy J, which I greatly enjoyed for the detail of his memories of that time. There are many more ‘good ones’ that he writes about, so take a gander, and it’s an honor to have him!

Take it away, Jesse!

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I used to live an organized life. In my early 20s, you’d be pressed to find an aspect of my day-to-day routines that wasn’t significantly categorized into some strict taxonomy. Music was, for the first time, easily transferable and storage was expanding, however, there were still major decisions to be made for what Made The Cut. At some point, your furious torrenting of entire band’s discographies would catch up to all the old promo CDs you ripped, and then whammo! — your iPod is full. Diligently sorting through the albums in your library felt like an enthusiast meticulously polishing their guns: you never know when you need it to be ready, and you best believe it needs to be dangerous at all times. 

People like to talk about how mobile broadband internet and streaming services changed the way we consume music, but people also forget how much more the touchscreen and mobile keyboard really changed it all. Not only is nearly every album available to you at all times, you can also just search for it instantly. There’s no more need to feverishly adjust every piece of info for every album you cautiously add — gone are the days of scrolling alphabetically for something you hope will be where you expect. In just a few thumb taps, we’ve got algorithms ready to predict exactly what we want to listen to, and with that, whoosh. My library is truly fucked. Any artist I’m remotely interested in immediately gets their entire discography woven in. Loose audio projects and podcast episode raw audio lives happily along with early demos from friends’ bands. All Songs shuffle feels like Russian Roulette, and there’s absolutely no unkempt list of favorite songs anywhere. 

With that in mind, spin the chamber and pull the trigger, baby: let’s find something we can actually write about:

“The Wanton Song” by Led Zeppelin, a Physical Graffiti prog-funk jam

“Summer Days” by Bob Dylan, a half-hearted boogie from Love and Theft 

“The Little Smug Supper Club,” Ted Leo and the Pharmacists from The Hanged Man (an album I have a hard time listening because the mix always sounds off to me)

“Life On Your Knees” by Neurosis, an early hardcore Neurosis song before they slowed things down

“Spitting In The Faces Of Fools As A Source Of Nutrition” which is a song by The Locust, which is all that needs to be said 

“Trio And Group Dancers” a Charles Mingus song I wish I knew better

“Zodiac Shit” a Flying Lotus jam that I once made into my ringtone because the opening drums hit so hard

“Amen” from Johnny Cash, an early gospel style track

“Little Sad Eyes,” from Magnolia Electric Co’s Josephine, an album I couldn’t really listen to because I was too sad about Jason Molina drinking himself to death

“A Sad Country Song” by David Allen Coe, an early pastiche of the music world he was still trying to make a name in 

“You’re Gonna Be Sorry” a Dolly Parton song nestled into a massive collection of her albums I haven’t had the chance to dig through yet

“Living In Paradise” by Elvis Costello and The Attractions, which is just kinda goofy sounding 

“Road Tips” by comedian Brent Weinbach, a danger of hitting shuffle

“The Lost Brigade” by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists from Living With The Living, a really intriguing song that showed Leo’s growth as a songwriter

“Lately” by Stevie Wonder, a saccharine ballad that demonstrates Wonder’s amazing grasp of constructing a chord progression and melody, though toothless

“Raised In The City,” an early Replacements punk song

“I’ve Got A Feeling” from The Beatles Let It Be, a song I’ve never heard before but has an embarrassingly bad intro

“Rachel Khoo” from IDLES, a band I added to my library to see what they were about (and got bored with quickly)

“Glass Tambourine” by Wild Flag, which is intriguing but the album never grabbed me early enough in the track listing to keep me moving through it

“Smash Into You” from Beyoncé’s I Am… side of the dual album, which is an interesting modern ballad but feels more like a throwaway 90s alt-rock ballad 

“Wide Lovely Eyes” from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds off of Push The Sky Away, an album I just never got around to

“Are You Ready For The Country?” from Neil Young’s Harvest, a song I always thought was corny

“Heroes” from Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings, a song from an album I had no idea was in my library

“Death Cult Soup n’ Salad” from The Almighty Defenders, the Black Lips/King Khan & BBQ Show. I liked this project a lot, but in light of recent allegations, absolutely fuck the Black Lips.

“Life’s Angles” from Yesterday’s New Quintet, an album a friend put in my library after at a bar that I didn’t realize was on my phone until this shuffle

“Hazey Jane I” from Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter. I feel like Nick Drake wins a lot of twenty-something white guys over early, but the older I get, the more my interest wans. 

“Walking Through The Darkness” is a Ghostface Killah song from an album I’ve never listened to but it’s not my fault, his catalog is too deep!

“Fkku” from NxWorries’ Yes Lawd!, an album I love but this is more of an interlude than a full song

“I Shook Hands” from Minutemen, a band I never could get into but refuse to take out of my library

“Granny” from Cat Stevens, which is a Cat Stevens album cut, and I think sums it up nicely

“Auto Pilot” off of Queens Of The Stone Age’s Rated R. This band flirts with cool stuff but never really gets there.

“Kanga Roo” from Big Star’s Third. I’ve resisted listening to this album because of it’s unfinished nature

“God’s Hate” by God’s Hate off of God’s Hate. I love when bands do the trifecta, and I like how heavy these guys are but it’s usually something I just put on when I’m lifting heavy things

“It’s A Vibe (feat. Ty Dolla $ign, Trey Songz & Jhené Aiko)” — I love 2Chainz but he doesn’t always put together a full album of hits

“The Bug” by Dire Straits is proof that there are way more Dire Straits songs than you’re ready for

“White Girls” from Cam’ron is just proof that I never got deep enough on Dipset

“Benjamin” from Bobbie Gentry, which is another example of how Bobbie Gentry is a genius that I haven’t given enough time to

“Wolf Like Me (Live)” from TV On The Radio is one of those rare examples where the album cut has more energy and urgency than this live cut

“Moon Pie” from Melvins is just a noise collage thing so we can skip it

“Kata” from Kate NV — Okay, let’s do this:

One of the best ways to break the law while running a small business is the employee run stereo system. Technically counting as public performance, music organizations like BMI and ASCAP will hunt through businesses that are big enough to sue for royalties and pay snoops to sit in cafes all day looking for any hint that there has not been a licensing deal reached. People have lamented the quality of song selection pumped into doctor’s office and elevators by Muzak, but what no one really talks about is how those doctor’s offices just don’t want to get sued for an errant Steely Dan deep cut that the office administrator has a soft spot for. 

If you’re small enough, however, you can usually sneak under the radar. Even if you are worried someone’s listening in your cafe seating with ill intent, you can combat this by 1. Making a playlist, so the ambient music could suggest it’s a licensed affair, and 2. Pump the playlist full of more obscure bands so that the major label sharks don’t have investment in squeezing dollars out of your space. Remember: someone gets paid pretty well to make sure that the label Interpol signed to gets paid. 

This makes the small, independent cafe a beautiful music exchange between employees. Get ready for underground power violence tracks to smash into backpack rap at breakneck speed. Weirdo indie power pop laying its soft-head on the lap of vintage Italo-disco. Experimental Russian electronica indie-pop being, well, the song of the day.

Kate NV’s music is the best type of solo work — instead of having to tailor the songwriting process to fit the members of a band, her debut album Binasu bumps around between extremely experimental loops and synth work to engaging indie pop. All in all, the album is built for the background, so when a friend who owns a small coffee shop put this album on in the car, it made sense that he said “Oh, one of my employees put this on the other day. It’s pretty good.” 

“Kata” is the most approachable track on the album and calls back to early 70s piano pop from the American music landscape. Built around what could have been a throwaway Michael McDonald piano riff, “Kata” bubbles up with a catchy back beat on programmed percussion with intriguing synth leads and shiny vocal melodies. However, the song isn’t really built like a pop song. Instead, different melodies and lyrics are repeated in different ways, somehow blending classical motifs with early 2000s electronica sensibilities. 

Most of the lyrics are Kate NV singing the lines “you tall,” “are you,” and “you tawny” in different combinations and along different melody lines paired with different keys. The end result is one of most toe-tapping tone poems to ever be associated with the Russian New Wave.

It’s the perfect song for a sunny day at the cafe, and if you’re on your way to work and need something to play over the speakers. Just be cautious about doing the same with Kate NV’s latest release Room For The Moon: that album was released by Rough Trade, whose label connections get big enough to flirt with the royalty hunters.

(Jesse wants to provide a legal disclaimer here that he’s not authorized to give legal advice about what does and does not count as royalty avoidance).

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Alright, Jesse! Thanks so much for sharing! Not just this beautiful Kate NV song, but also your encyclopedic take on all the songs you skipped over too!

Regarding breaking the law and music and small business, I recently had an LA entertainment/copyright lawyer review the first quarter of posts to see if I could publish them as a book.

Here was his response:

Dear Dave,

Here are my thoughts on your very inventive and impressive book.

1.      Song lyrics are generally protected under copyright unless the song has passed into the public domain.

2.       For that reason, use of song lyrics (like any other copyright-protected content) requires the permission of the copyright owner.

3.       The Fair Use Doctrine, which an important part of the copyright law in the United States, allows limited use of copyrighted content without the permission of the copyright owner.

4.       Fair Use relies on four different tests: (a) purpose of the use, (b) nature of the copyrighted work that is being copied, (c) amount and substantiality of the portion that is used, and (d) effect of the use on the market for the copyrighted work.  No single test is dispositive, and it is possible to prevail on Fair Use if you are strong in one test and weak in other tests.

5.       I think you have a strong position under the first test, which favors commentary and criticism, and the fourth test, because no one will be able to forego the purchase of a lyric sheet by consulting your book.

6.       However, publishers tend to avoid using song lyrics (and poems, too) with permission under the Fair Use Doctrine because quoting even a few lines of a song or a poem may constitute a substantial percentage of the poem or song in its entirety.  Also, music copyright owners tend to be vigilant in detecting and prosecuting infringements.

7.       Fair Use is not an affirmative right.  Rather, it is a defense that can be raised if you are sued for copyright infringement.  No lawyer can tell you in advance whether any particular use is Fair Use.  Ultimately, you will find out if you are sued and you raise Fair Use as a defense.

8.       I can tell you that some of your quote song lyrics are more defensible than others. The quoted lyrics from “On Graveyard Hill” are very unlikely to be defensible as Fair Use because you quote so much of the song.  By contrast, the quoted lyrics from “Lazuli” are much more defensible because you have quoted so much less of the song.

9.       To give you substantive legal advice, I would need to review the book in its entirety, a process known as vetting. I cap my fees for vetting a book at $—

10.     If you apply for media risks insurance, you will probably be asked to provide an opinion-of-counsel letter.  After completing a vetting report, I can provide an opinion-of-counsel letter for a flat fee of $—.

Let me know if you want to engage my services to vet the book.

Kind regards,

So I’m thinking I might both cut the amount of lyrics in the songs I am using overall in the posts before this and reduce going forward, and also maybe not self-publish the books after all.

But at the same time I think of the song I got today:

“All I Do” by Stevie Wonder

And sort of “All I Do” recently art-wise is mess with copyright law.

Whether it was quoting large sections of books and song lyrics already in the long sentence book, this newsletter about music and memoir, or the latest book I am working on this the remix where I remix other artists’ stories, poems, and lyrics, I can’t seem to avoid what seems to be the dividing lines between art and law.

Okay, that’s the one hundred and seventy-first Shuffle Synchronicities.