Tag: Spooky

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Adia Victoria “Stuck In The South”

Adia Victoria

Adia Victoria

“Stuck In The South,” the debut single from the little-advertised shadow figure Adia Victoria (along with her band: Mason Hickman, Tiffany Minton and Ruby Rogers), is a curious matrix, at once single-mindedly powerful and also complex, made up of conflicting impulses.

Adia Victoria’s is not a voice that sidles in politely. Rather, it slams open the door with one callused fist, stalks into the joint, elbows you off your barstool, and orders a whiskey neat. The 28-year old South Carolina native has clearly practiced making herself heard, both in the crowded Nashville bar and honky-tonk circuit where she made her bones as a performer, and also as a means of escape from the American Gothic nightmare she describes in “Stuck In The South.”

“Yeah, I been thinkin’ about makin’ tracks,” Victoria sneers in the first verse of the song, “but the only road I know, it’s going to lead me back.” She sings with an animalistic glare, conjuring not only a clear picture of her stagnant,  claustrophobic, sinister environment but also of herself as a character within it. Every twang on her guitar cuts like barbed wire, and it’s this anger, haunting and predatory, that makes the single so goddamned good. But in “Stuck In The South,” Victoria’s prowess as a storyteller is impressive too, and the track evokes the drawl and swagger of Southern rock and roll as colorfully as it does the “Southern hell” she’s trying to get away from. She seems to turn her fear of becoming a product of the South on its head, becoming unstuck not by running from her demons but by dominating them. The song immerses a listener in a three-dimensional environment, cinematically evocative and all the richer for its details and complexities.

Produced by Roger Moutenot (known for his work with Yo La Tengo), “Stuck In The South” is Victoria’s first foray into relative Internet mainstream. Her minimalist approach to releasing music–even now, after her single’s release resulted in a resounding critical chorus demanding more–makes a powerful song even punchier. Dig into “Stuck In The South” below, via Soundcloud.

TRACK REVIEW: “Give It Up”

htrk1I wouldn’t consider myself an especially devout David Lynch fan, but I love Twin Peaks rabidly and uncritically, and I watch the show in its entirety at least once every winter. Never when the weather’s warm. My theory is this: something to do with frigidness, and the overarching quiet that comes along with a thick blanket of snow, demands a Lynchian blend of detached dreaminess and surreality. So maybe the recent snowstorms and having Laura Palmer on the brain is to blame for the way I feel about this track–it’s otherworldly, it’s vaguely sinister, and it’s an utterly appropriate backdrop for the weather these days. 

Duo HTRK claim an affinity with Lynch’s aesthetics; you can hear a kinship in the hypnotic chilliness of the melody, the scratched-out echoing synthesizers that ripple outwards as if a pebble’s been dropped into the beat of the song. Church-organ reverberations in minor mode plod menacingly up and down in the periphery, like mystery men in black trench coats and low-brimmed hats. The repetitive, androgynous vocals add to the sense of uncanny that characterizes this track.

HTRK stir some real polish into this mix, too–with glitzy production and a beat that suggests driving fast on open roads late at night, in a deserted city or through an empty stretch of highway. The sultry and foreign landscape that the song creates provides a space in which to detach from the outside world, whether in the dubious isolation of a dream space or nestled into the warmth and stillness inside a fast-moving car. The group’s new LP, Psychic 9-5 Club, will be out in 2014 and promises an expansive and rich musical landscape. For now, listen to “Give It Up” below: