WXPN’s Joey Sweeney picks dub, dream pop, hip-hop, more for Ears We Trust

Joey Sweeney is a man about town. He hosts Sleepy Hollow and writes here at WXPN, spins vinyl at 48 Record Bar, serves as editor-in-chief at Philebrity, and sings and plays guitar in Joey Sweeney & the Neon Grease. Naturally, he’s got ears we trust, and here’s what he’s sharing for this week’s installment.

“I’m super fortunate that a lot of my work points straight into the direction of music discovery, and I don’t take it for granted. I have a kind of approach that is like always-on open ears in general, but I kind of leave it to my brain, my own internal emotional sorting instinct, to dictate the stuff that I go back to and draw inspiration and feeling from. This is the stuff that is giving me life right now.”

Wale – “The White Shoes” and Mos Def – “Quiet Dog,” live on The Late Show with David Letterman, June 2009

I think everybody’s got their songs that they play on repeat for a category of inspiration that might be the driving force of why we all listen to music period: for inspiration and to soothe the soul, to let us know that we will be alright, if not now then at some point down the road. And maybe most of all, to give us courage in the moment. “The White Shoes” is kind of a gospel tune to me, a way to make sense of our lives as we swing from vine to vine in late stage capitalism, and this particular Mos Def performance — from an album that he’s either disowned or is in some kind of rights netherworld at present — gives raw punk energy at the Stooges level. Take either of these in when you need to do something that maybe you are not certain you can do; they will do you right.

Vivien Goldman – Resolutionary (Songs 1979-1982)

Vivian Goldman has walked through this world for decades as a Zelig-like musical figure and writer — adjacent to/working with PIL, The Flying Lizards, The Slits, Massive Attack, Prince Far I and more — but as this compilation proves, she is also quite possibly in a genre of her own: a very smart English lady making dub music in her bedroom. It’s beguiling and wild music, and maybe illustrates something that is probably not discussed enough: dub is for everyone. Dub is the very plant-level DNA of hip-hop and punk, too. Dub is good for you. (XPN trivia side note: In the early 1980s, Goldman also developed and produced the BBC world-music show Big World Cafe, thus proving that there is only ever one good idea in the world at any given time.)

Cindy – everything they’ve put out so far

Cindy are a super-prolific minimalist dream pop band from the Bay Area, and every new piece of vinyl they put out disappears instantly into a rabid fanbase who just want the world to shut up for a minute. But they’re more than even that grand and simple proposition: I see them in a direct lineage to a whole host very, very good Velvet Underground cosplay acts — Paisley Underground bands like Opal (and later, Mazzy Star), early U.K. twee and Pacific Northwest refuseniks, and more popular ‘60s obsessives like Galaxie 500, Beachwood Sparks, and The Clientele. Listen to it all, their entire catalog is a box of small and elegant weed chocolates.

Prince Far I – Silver and Gold 1973-1979

More dub! But make it canon. This compilation of Prince Far I’s hottest platters of the 1970s is foundational to the genre, I believe, both for me personally (a friend gifted it to me, sound unheard, years ago) and to the music itself. These tracks feature his gruff, chant-y toasting style and fantastic sense of the melody and malleability of so many of the source tracks he worked with. In that, Silver and Gold is also a kind of style document — a demonstration of flair as content elevated to actual genius. A tribute site to Prince Far I (he was taken from us in 1983) describes him as “a man to grace any style with wisdom, a chanter to quake the walls of the city, a preacher to strike fear in the weak heart, humble in the garden and proud in the city,” and you can feel that in this music. We should all aspire to walk in such glory in our own ways.

BONUS: Chris Forsyth’s What Is Now?

This new trio from the avant-guitarist might be his most soundtrack-y and accessible yet. See them at Solar Myth sometime soon.