On this weekend’s Saturday THING, I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of artists for the first time, and celebrating their debut releases with them.
In the first hour, my guest was Brandi Ediss. She’s a singer-songwriter based in Massachusetts, and she has a wonderful debut album out on Futureman Records called “Bees and Bees and Bees”. If anyone ever had a way with words, it would be Brandi, on this album. It’s all about the lyrics. Clever and incisive, they let you get right inside of her head, and by the time you’ve listened all the way through, you’ll feel like you know Brandi. Or–you feel like Brandi knows you. The songs are delightful and heartbreaking. Maybe even delightfully heartbreaking. They tackle a lot of awkward situations a lot of us have had growing up, and often with an “a-ha!” moment attached. This album is eminently relatable. There’s a lot of self-deprecating, wry humor here, and that makes the life lessons we all have to learn, go down a little easier. As the saying goes, “adulting is hard”. This album acknowledges and works through that. The melodies go from folk to rock, with the occasional quirkiness that I love so well. The music brings you in, but the lyrics stay in your head. You’re gonna love this one. https://brandiediss.com/
And we kicked off the afternoon portion of the show in fine style with Purple Witch of Culver, a collaboration between Sarah Safaie and Evan Taylor. They formed just this year, and their whole sound is rapidly evolving. It’s especially been a whirlwind for poet/vocalist/saxophonist Sarah. Consider this–she moved to L.A., to be involved in the music scene in January, started playing live gigs in February, then the pandemic and resulting shutdown happened in March. Somewhere along the way, she met up with producer/multi-instrumentalist Evan. During the downtime, they stayed in touch via phone, and talked a lot about music, and realized they have a lot in common. So in September, they put together their first song, “Trig”, featuring spoken word vocals over some funky, jazzy music. It came together really quickly, and sounds great. This was the start of their partnership, and they got back in the studio and recorded “Eulogy for a Sunbeam”, and released it in October. They have an easy working relationship, and are now a band. The ideas are flowing, and so their plan is to release a new track every month, which seems to be a comfortable, workable cadence, with an EP or album out next year.
Musically, Sarah has always been a huge fan of Parliament-Funkadelic. Imagine her surprise to find out, not right away, but months after meeting Evan, that he had worked as production partner with Bernie Worrell of P-Funk! Seems like this meeting was meant to be. One other note–it’s really telling who their biggest musical influences were. When I asked the question, Sarah responded with John Coltrane–because of his sense of exploration and searching. Evan responded with Brian Wilson–because of his studio wizardry. Since this duo is so new, it’s hard to pin down exactly where they’re going–but everything I’ve heard so far gives me confidence that they’re going to be doing great things. Check out their first two singles here: https://purplewitchofculver.bandcamp.com/. And stay in touch with Evan’s indie record label, Loantaka Records here: https://loantaka-records.com/
Artist | Title | Album
Heiskell | The Great Opaque | Songs In The Key Of H
Trip Wire | Had Enough | Once & Always
R Stevie Moore | The Winner | Afterlife
Alpha Cat | Mona Lisa In A Comic Book | Thatched Roof Glass House
Identical Suns | E.M.I.L.Y. | Identical Suns
Brad Brooks | GOD SAVE THE CITY | GOD SAVE THE CITY
Blake Jones & The Trike Shop | Life Turns On A Dime (Featuring Tom Magill) | Teasers From The Whispermaphone
Lisa Mychols & SUPER 8 | Time Bomb | LISA MYCHOLS & SUPER 8
Brandi Ediss interview
Brandi Ediss | Bees and Bees and Bees | Bees and Bees and Bees
Brandi Ediss | Chicago | Bees and Bees and Bees
Brandi Ediss | Count to Three | Bees and Bees and Bees
Chandler Travis Philharmonic | Going Back To Work Tomorrow | Waving Kissyhead, Vol 2 & 1
Natalie Cortez & the Ultra Violets | You Dear | Stupid Fresh Or Stupid Bad
The Smithereens | Deep Black | Green Thoughts
Drunken Prayer | It Happens All The Time | Cordelia Elsewhere
The Living Dolls | Everything That Happened | Everything That Happened (Big Stir Digital Single No. 18)
Rachel Taylor Brown | Pritty Pinny | World So Sweet
Tom Alford | Nothing Comes Between Us | Moving In To Love
Gail George | He’s an Exclamation! | Follow Your Bliss
Frank Black | Jaina Blues | Show Me Your Tears
Librarians With Hickeys | Obsession | Long Overdue
The Who | 905 | Who Are You
Felsen | Generals and Majors | Felsen Loves You
Interview with Sarah Safaie & Evan Taylor
Purple Witch of Culver | Trig | Trig
Purple Witch of Culver | Eulogy for a Sunbeam | Eulogy for a Sunbeam
Dolph Chaney | It’s OK | Rebuilding Permit
Molly Grue | Anyway | The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story
Gretchen’s Wheel | shapeshifters | such open sky
Great Mimes | Leave It Where It Is | Second Helping
Chris Isaak | Running Down The Road | First Comes The Night
Lannie Flowers | C’mon Over | Circles
Petrified Max | Three Times Gone | Charlie Drove North
Anton Barbeau | MTV Song | Empire of Potential
Girls on Grass | Father Says Why | Girls on Grass
Mark Bacino | Queens English | Queens English
Elvis Costello | Senior Service | Armed Forces
The Feelies | Gone Gone Gone | In Between
The Armoires | Alesandra 619 | Zibaldone
Sex 66 | Your Stinkin’ Bones | Grew Up Down
Adam Marsland | Cut and Run | Go West [Disc 1]
The Schramms | Hearts And Diamonds | Omnidirectional
Bill Lloyd | I’ll Take It From Here | Don’t Kill The Messenger
Corner Laughers | The Red Queen | Tomb of Leopards
Elk City | No Depth | Everybody’s Insecure
WOODY RADIO BLOG 