Champions of Chill
The Champions of Chill
In the year of 2020 we all went through some collective fuckery. At the beginning of the year I was working at a movie cinema part time and part time as an office manager. My work days began at 8am and ended at about midnight. I was tired all the time and was ready to choose one full time, so in February I gave my notice to the day job and got ready to work full time at the cinema. March 13th was set to be my last day as an office manager, and at around noon that day, I received an email letting the theater staff know that they were closing for the foreseeable future, due to the Covid-19 virus. That threw a wrench in all of my plans, but I wasn’t the only one. When I got the email I went into my manager’s office at the day job, and let them know what was happening and asked if I could stay on. I was lucky enough to still be employed even though it would only be the one part time job and I would be out by 1pm everyday. For the entire “lock down” period in NY I was still commuting into midtown five days a week. The trains were almost as desolate as the streets and I was very happy to walk around an empty city.
Before heading home on March 13th, I stopped by a liquor store and loaded up with a handle of rum and a handle of rye. I thought two weeks max and everything would go back to normal. Silly little me. After two pretty insane months, I came to the conclusion that alcohol and I would not survive this apocalypse and I stopped drinking for real for the first time. It took for about a year and I would eventually quit all together. As pandemic trends go, I bought into a “California sober” way of life. I started smoking more and moving around slower. I had a little yoga practice for a few months and the music that was coming to me was a hell of a lot more chill than I was listening to before.
In 2019 we went to so many concerts and most of them were punk in nature. I was bouncing around Vegas for Punk Rock Bowling, Philly for The Misfits, So many NY shows, many in parks, and the year ended with Gogol Bordello in Webster Hall. I thought 2020 was going to be even bigger. On March 13th of 2020 I also found out the Dead Kennedy concert at Brooklyn Bowl was canceled. I had to come to grips with the new reality, and the music I was consuming reflect that. Second quarter 2020 and beyond was all about slowing it down. I was listening to Buscabulla’s Regresa, Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher, Childish Gambino’s 3.15.20, and Yves Tumor’s Heaven to a Tortured Mind to name a few. Something I also started watching music videos again through the apple music app, who had a nice little rotation there for a while. I’d put on their holiday channel before but never really played regular music. Apple Music video’s is where I fist saw the video to this week’s Sunday Morning Record pick.
Things weren’t great, reality was devastating and grim, but I think we were doing alright at home. The summer was a much needed release valve that year, and I made frequent trips to Brighton Beach. Sometimes with my bestie, sometimes with my spouse, a lot of times by myself. I would get on the B train after work in Midtown and take it straight out to Brighton. That summer the perfect beach playlist didn’t feel as important as a perfect list of albums to let ride on the sand. This might’ve been the first time I felt brave enough to rock an entire album at the beach. My little amazon blue bluetooth radio and I were ready to chill at all cost. The album that probably got played the most that summer was Mordechai by Khruangbin. That’s what I’m talking about today. That glorious barn album made by the Champions Of Chill. I remember sitting at home one Saturday afternoon, lounging in my purple octopus MeUndies robe, watching my videos on the tv when this musical short film came on and just wowed my “pants” off.
So I was sitting there right, and this video is doing it to me right, I start dancing in the apartment and trying to get my dogs in on the fun and trying to get my spouse in on it too, and just basically tried to spread this infectious sound to everything around me. I must’ve watched it three times in a row. Just like that dude is spreading joy with a briefcase full of sand, making little castles everywhere, that’s exactly how I felt in that moment. I knew nothing of the band and I couldn’t pronounce their name right, I mean I don’t always know that I’m saying it right today, and I might’ve been really intense about it to my friend at a Mitski concert recently (Sorry Ang), but I got really into them real quick. All my favorite podcasts were talking about them, and they all had their own pronunciations, so cool it’s about the music anyway. And I found out a lot about them too, like they’re three people from Houston, I’d guessed the UK, and they always record in one of their barns and I’ve totally heard a bunch of their music before but never connected like I did with this video.
Khruangbin is made up of Laura Lee Ochoa (bass guitar and vocals), Mark Speer (guitar and vocals), and DJ Johnson (drums, keyboards, and vocals). Laura Leezy has a wonderful instagram to follow if you dig really nice outfits behind an amazing looking bass. They are on tour now and the fits are out of this world, but they don’t stay up for long so you gotta catch em’ as they come. Going deep into Khru also made me realize I’d heard them earlier in the year on the Texas Sun ep with Leon Bridges, and I’d heard songs from previous albums here and there on mixes but I never went album deep with them. I preordered Mordechai while I was still watching the video, and when that record arrived I swear it didn’t leave my turntable for long for about a month. I poured all of me into it, which is really to say, I let it wash all over me like the dark North Atlantic Brighton Beach tide. They’re whole mood was a big part of getting me to relax that summer. I was at a moment of deep introspection and they gave me deeply introspective music. Khruangbin has a new masterpiece out now called A La Sala, which everyone should check out, and I already have on heavy rotation, even with all the dope records out I’m catching up on. But today is all about Mordechai so let’s jump right in.
Side A (This Side)
1.First Class, 2.Time (You and I), 3.Connaissais de Face, 4.Father Bird, Mother Bird,
5.If There is No Question
Khruangbin is usually a band of few lyrics, and this album was a bit of a break from that. It’s not very lyrical, just a lot more than before. I recently heard an interview with Leezy where she said they usually do songs to embody the feeling of a flight, and I’m guessing the first song here is just about that. First Class is how you start an album when you want the room to know that you mean to chill. I’ve never flown first class but I imagine this is what it felt like in the PanAm golden error of commercial aviation, or at least how TV’s sold it to me. I hope to one day make it on. The trio of sounds on this track glide on you like a well watered slip n slide. It’s giving me so much Roy Ayers, who they’ve said they like to sound like on certain tracks. Their voices come in like a surreal midsummer daydream. They’re not saying many words here, they’re doing a soothing chant or incantation to ward away the demons of stress. Someone please book me a first class ticket to anywhere! Oh the vibes.
Time (You and I) was my real entry point here. The video, directed by Felix Heyes and Josh R.R, takes you around a rainy London day, with two people building sand castles and just spreading funk everywhere they go. The weird thing is that I only think of the video when I watch it. With other songs when the video charms me, all I see is the video when I hear the song, but with Time (You and I) It’s become so much more. I see my spouse and I enjoying that first pandemic summer. I see us at the beach or on the boardwalk or the park to the sun filled living room. It’s a total montage builder. I see all the funnest moments of us play like one of those iphone clips that randomly pop up once in a while, except we’re in movement and we’re not drinking and we’re having an amazing summer together, all horrors considered.
“That's life
If we had more time
We could live forever
Just you and I
We could be together
That's life
If we had more time
We could live forever
Just you and I
We could be together
That's life”
Connaissais de Face goes back to that hazy daydream feeling. They’re having a conversation over the sultry silky song and I feel like I’m eavesdropping. I’m obviously not meant to hear your words, but please say more. This song makes me forget what I’m doing. When i’m out of the house listening to it I really forget what I’m doing. I don’t get transported anywhere and I don’t stop what I’m doing, I just lose some consciousness of it all and just relax while I continue moving about. It leads right into Father Bird, Mother Bird, which has no lyrics at all and keeps me exactly where I am. I don’t always know when one song ends and the other begins. Not because they sound so much alike but because I’m just so drawn into it and my mind is limber and it all feels like it’s supposed to be there. I’ve caught myself snapping out of the trance a few times and it always brings and smile and chuckle to my face. Try it out.
If There is No Question is a big more of a soft Spanish disco goes on the love boat on its way to fantasy Island. This song has lyrics again and it's never intrusive to the song. How they chant “You're wild/But, you're not crazy” gets me deep in the relaxed depression nerve and often makes me tear up. I’m wild but I’m not crazy. Sometimes you need that repeated at you several times before it sinks in, and even then it can all go away. So I listen again and try to remember that I’m wild but I’m not crazy.
Side B (That Side)
1.Pelota, 2.One to Remember, 3.Dearst Alfred, 4.So We Won’t Forget, 5.Shida
Pelota feels like they wanted to wake you up after all that winding down. The percussion brightens up here and the melody is of a tropical celebration feel. They sing throughout the song in Spanish, telling a tale of a ball that became a demon and became a seed and it’s very South American surrealist. This song could easily play at the Easter party in Macondo from Marquez’s Hundred Years of Solitude. It also has some Andalucian feeling vibes to it. Lorca probably wrote about this song.
One to Remember is a dubbed out fourtwenty appropriate song. The guitar on this is extra dubbed and groovy and sexy. At some point I had this song duplicated on my playlist and it played twice many times before I noticed, not that I was complaining. Chill dub has that effect. The same one I’ve been talking about, just always in different moods. No two songs sound alike but they all sound like they belong together. This dub track is no different and it really gets you in a sway in your seat kind of way. This is purple octopus robe kinda music. Nowhere to go, nothing to do but chill type of music. This song leads perfectly into Dearest Alfred. I haven’t spent much time in deserts but Dearest Alfred feels like a desert day dream on some natural desert hallucinogen. It’s a seductive song with a guitar reminiscent of Santana in the 70’s. They got you coming down all ready for a happy nap when they bring the vibes back up before they go.
So We Won’t Forget is back on a Funky bass and drum beat with a cascading guitar smoothing out into the choir like vocals “Ooh, one to remember/Writing it down now/So we won't forget, /Ooh,/never enough paper/Never enough letters/So we won't forget”. They’ve brought back the funk and dreaminess and all the smooth for this fun upbeat but pensive song. I know the end of the album is near but I linger and hope it’ll keep going. Keep holding on to the feelings, all of their complexities and glories, so we don’t forget.
This incredible album ends with Shida, which feels like it’s influences rest somewhere in the middle east maybe. It’s such a rich song full of all subtle sounds that truly transfix me. I love it on this album, but I have a copy of their live concert in Sydney and that performance takes me into a state of divine peace. Maybe I like it more on the live album because it’s in the middle and doesn’t mean the listening has come to an end. If you’ve got to that point in your listening as well please continue down the Khruangbin rabbit hole and check out any of their projects.
I’ve heard their live show is a glorious experience I won't soon forget and I’m so excited to see them this year in September out in Queens. I’m so very excited, and I don’t want to miss the summer but I cannot wait for this show. All the tour pictures and A La Sala are giving me Khurangbin fever right now. Oh I love this band, and wish I could go shopping with Laura Leezy. That’ll be a trip worth writing about. I hope you enjoy this beautiful album with the Champions of Chill. I hope everyone had a great Records Store Day and enjoyed 4/20. I’ll be back in seven days for the next Sunday Morning Records.
