It’s really just the perfect matchup of things, I think. hissing lawns and Graveface Records & Curiosities.
The amazing contributors here at hissing lawns are clearly all music nerds, the best kind of people, who apparently like other people too. Now everyone will get an inside look at some of our favorite albums, and get the opportunity to donate to a rad nonprofit.
Earlier this year, Graveface Records & Curiosities announced a new charity initiative. Each month a different organization would curate a crate of records at the physical record shop on Bull Street, and then choose a charity or nonprofit to promote. The proceeds from each record sold from that bin will go the charity. For instance, Savannah Stopover’s crate last month helped WRUU 107.5 FM with over 300 bones.
hissing lawns has chosen Deep Center Inc. to receive the proceeds from our amazing crate. Deep Center Inc, if you are unaware, is one of Savannah’s best nonprofits. Established as an after-school literary program, they’ve garnered national attention for the work they are doing. Last year, Andre Massey Jr. read a poem for First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House after the Deep Center Inc.’s Young Author Project was honored as one of 12 community-based programs to receive a national arts and humanities award and $10,000. Big time!
If you’ve never heard a reading from the kids in the Deep program, I recommend catching the next one. Some six year-old girl drove me to tears by describing her relationship with her father, which was similar to my own. Yeah. Deep, man.
As an extra bonus, and since we are all music writers, we’re going to tell you why we chose the particular albums in the crate. Hopefully, as we replenish the crate over the next month, we’ll have more postings to let you know why we picked certain albums.
For my additions this first week, I picked a variety of my favorite records from Modest Mouse to Kylesa and Miles Davis. It was a bit of a smash and grab effort though. So I won’t go into much detail those this week. The other cohorts who added to the first week’s crate, however, have put together some wonderful blurbs on why they chose what they did.
Here are Dr. Peterson Worrell M.D. Ph.D. WWC Champ and the super sweet Josephine Johnson with some words.
R.E.M., Life’s Rich Pageant
Because “I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract explain the change the difference between what you want and what you need” re-wired my mind at an early age, hanging with older cousins (the cool ones) during Sunday family dinner. – Josephine
Minnie Riperton, Adventures in Paradise
Minnie, those highs!!! Mariah? Pfft… Smooth funk, liquid horns and crystal vocals. – Josephine
Mazzy Star, She Hangs Brightly
What??? Not Roxette, not Poison, not Milli Vanilli—but slow, psychedelic-slurred-echo-y, sooo low-fi and mushy, perfect grit-to-polish ratio. Hope Sandoval’s voice saved my life in the early 90s.-Josephine
Sigur Ros, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
My first Sigur Ros album, to this day Jonsi’s transcendent vocals send me to emerald mountains and pixie landscapes. And that bow-and-guitar combo, ephemeral yet substantive. Gets me every time. – Josephine
You need these in your collection—your ears, spirit, and conscious will thank you soon enough.
MF DOOM, Operation Doomsday
When it comes to hip hop, my tastes have always veered a bit more towards the oddities rather than your standard radio hits. And there are few artists that are as mystifying or enigmatic as MF DOOM. His masterful beat production combined with a flow all his own creates a truly unique experience. – Dr. Petee M.D. Ph.D.
Jawbreaker, Etc.
If you know me, you know I love Jawbreaker. For our curated box, I went with one their collection of B-Sides as it really gives a nice total view of the bands evolution over time. And yes, Boxcar is on the album. – Dr. Petee M.D. Ph.D.
Warpaint, Heads Up
Warpaint’s newest release is a bit of a departure from their first few releases but that doesn’t mean that it fails to impress. Heads Up sees the art rock quartet stray from their atmospheric rock formula and experiment with everything from R&B, hip hop instrumentation, and experimental rock. -Dr. Petee M.D. Ph.D.