The Provisional Mix

Razz Dazz Weekly is a playlist series providing a gateway into what's playing overhead at the shop. Listen and follow along on Spotify to hear what's currently playing in the store on Spotify or check out this week's archived playlist below via YouTube.

Here's what's playing on the speakers (and available for sale) at Razzle Dazzle Music & Movies this week:

1. Tonic "Open Up Your Eyes"
2. Fugazi "Bad Mouth"
3. Suki Waterhouse "Neon Signs"
4. Aesop Rock "Daylight"
5. Mac DeMarco "The Way You'd Love Her"
6. Khruangbin "Cómo Me Quieres"
7. Augustus Pablo "Keep On Dubbing"
8. Aesop Rock "9-5ers Anthem"
9. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss "Rich Woman"
10. Lillie Mae "Over the Hill and Through the Woods"
11. Ambulance LTD "Yoga Means Union"
12. Aesop Rock "The Yes & The Y'all"
13. Teenage Fanclub "Thin Air"
14. Jon Spencer "Overload"
15. INXS "All Around"
16. Khruangbin "A Hymn"
17. Aesop Rock "Coma"
18. Augustus Pablo "King Tubby's Meets Rockers Uptown"
19. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss "Killing the Blues"
20. Lillie Mae "Honky Tonks and Taverns"
21. Teenage Fanclub "I’m in Love"
22. Khruangbin "Cómo Te Quiero"
23. Aesop Rock "No rEgrets"
24. Augustus Pablo "555 Dub Street"
25. Tonic "Casual Affair"
26. Fugazi "Waiting Room"
27. Jon Spencer "Ghost"
28. INXS "Communications"
29. Suki Waterhouse "Good Looking"
30. Khruangbin "Evan Finds the Third Room"
31. Aesop Rock feat. C-Rayz Walz "Bent Life"
32. Augustus Pablo "Stop Them Jah"
33. Lillie Mae "Loaner"
34. Mac DeMarco "Another One"
35. Augustus Pablo "Satta"
36. Khruangbin "Shades of Man"
37. Aesop Rock "The Tugboat Complex Pt. 3"
38. Fugazi "Provisional"
39. Teenage Fanclub "Steady State"
40. Ambulance LTD "Primitive (The Way I Treat You)"
41. Jon Spencer "I Got the Hits"
42. Tonic "Mountain"
43. Fugazi "Glue Man"
44. Suki Waterhouse "Valentine"
45. Mac DeMarco "Just to Put Me Down"
46. Augustus Pablo "Corner Crew Dub"
47. Lillie Mae "These Daze"
48. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss "Nothin'"
49. Khruangbin "August 10"
50. Aesop Rock "Flashflood"
51. Augustus Pablo "Each One Dub"
52. Fugazi "Suggestion"
53. Jon Spencer "Cape"
54. Tonic "If You Could Only See"
55. INXS "Taste It"
56. Ambulance LTD "Stay Tuned"
57. Jon Spencer "Trash Can"
58. Tonic "Bigot Sunshine"
59. Khruangbin "Friday Morning"
60. Teenage Fanclub "Live in the Moment"
61. Mac DeMarco "I've Been Waiting for Her"
62. Aesop Rock "Battery"
63. Augustus Pablo "Young Generation Dub"
64. Khruangbin "Maria También"
65. Robert Plant andAlison Krauss "Fortune Teller"
66. Lillie Mae "Forever and Then Some"
67. Suki Waterhouse "Johanna"
68. Aesop Rock "Labor"
69. Khruangbin "Lady and Man"
70. Augustus Pablo "Braces Tower Dub"
71. Ambulance LTD "Sugar Pill"
72. Aesop Rock "Shovel"
73. INXS "Baby Don't Cry"
74. Jon Spencer "Time 2 Be Bad"
75. Fugazi "Bulldog Front"
76. Tonic "My Old Man"
77. Teenage Fanclub "It’s a Sign"
78. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss "Please Read The Letter"
79. Khruangbin "Rules"
80. Aesop Rock feat. Illogic "One Brick"
81. Augustus Pablo "Frozen Dub"
82. Ambulance LTD "Ocean"

About nine years ago I was turned onto the album from Lillie Mae featured this week, Forever and Then Some. Surely it was the Third Man Records connection that drew me in, but it hit at the right time. I was still deep in a period of experimentation, attempting to learn more about what I might be missing within the broader realm of country music where voices like Sturgill Simpson and Margo Price had found success carving out their own paths on the outskirts of Music Row. This album seems to have aligned with that.

As is regularly true, I don't know what I was trying to do with this particular strain of thought, but I remember where I was at the time, the kitchen table where I sat as I typed it out, and the general vibe of the time which help provide context for the form this took. It's a pretentious letter to a stranger, attempting to clarify a view on their creative process. It also swings at a pitch of another kind, placing this stranger in what I understood of the city we shared and how my view of its mechanics might have influenced their path. The following was titled "Through the Woods and Far Away," first published March 5, 2017.

The ghost of scarcity plagues this town.

As a child, growing up in Illinois playing music with your family, your vision of success peaked with the concept of being paid to play music. The utmost achievement was a few dollars collected in return for a performance. But our dreams all tend to shift, and in looking out beyond ourselves someone else’s vision can easily undermine our own. With it, the illusion of scarcity begins to encroach. For certain, success is what you choose it to be. But there are problems that accompany assuming someone else’s definition of the word as your own. For some: personality is what first draws attention, but shifting goal-posts signal that the cost of widespread acceptance might be to shed bits and pieces of one’s true self — the core traits that inspire others to take notice in the first place. The music industry was built on this, commercializing uniqueness by way of dimming the lights and sanding smooth any unusual irregularities. Belief changes, and suddenly what you really want isn’t as good as what you think they’re offering.

This is where my imagination places you and your group — and at this place, an evolving vision led to a first hand experience of how external ideals conflict with internal dreams. “What band do you want to sound like and what are we going to do to create that sound?” they demanded of you. This only confused matters: you were already the band you wanted to sound like.

From this side of the table any guess as to what happened is purely speculative based on a story that continues to repeat itself, as if any lesson to be learned from gambling with your creativity is meaningless when weighed against the payoff. The vehicle that transported you from your childhood years to the brink of adulthood attracted industry suitors, and somewhere a contract was signed that promised opportunity. But opportunity for what? Promotion? Features? Was there really a mainstream demand for a wholesome freak-scene country band with a “vibrant, fashion-forward sense of style every bit as head-turning as their music“? What a trip it must be, opening yourself up, creating something from scratch, exposing your vulnerabilities, and that being someone’s take away.

Commercial success was limited and the label pulled the plug on its support, but you kept playing. Of course you kept playing. Because the opportunity they spoke of wasn’t the culmination of all that you had worked for. Nothing ever will be. At times we all fool ourselves into believing that there’s something just out of reach that will make the entire process make sense. The key rests in not quitting when the success they promise you doesn’t materialize. After all, not quitting means more opportunities. And here, within more opportunity a gig in a high-profile “crack touring and recording combo” emerged, where you played fiddle, mandolin, and sang on a stage dwarfing that of Music Row’s promise. An avenue to record a solo 7″ and full-length album followed, the latter a collaboration with tour-mates stemming from yet another unforeseen opportunity. Now, after all of this, Rolling Stone writes of your “debut,” an album produced by a modern-day Legend who called you a “one in a billion“-type talent. This all happened after the idea of success that someone else had sold you on had collapsed.

No doubt, all of this is to invent someone else’s story for them through a spotty narrative, trivializing a life of creativity and unknown struggle for the purpose of convenient storytelling. There’s very little to be gained by merely restating plot points or press-release highlights, but in looking back at the timeline, the aperture expands, and with it the bigger picture takes focus. How much abundance does this world have to offer if only we refuse to accept someone else’s definition of success as our own.

This town tends to haunt those who fail to question that.