Penny & Sparrow

Penny & Sparrow is a band made up of the duo: Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke.  It is a very simple machine with Jahnke on the guitar with harmonies, and Baxter singing lead.  Their stage presence is relatively intimidating in that neither of them can possibly crack a smile while singing, and they are for the most part stationary in stance.  Their three albums: Struggle Pretty, Tenboom, and Creature are pretty good.  That being said you may be wondering why I would even choose to write about this artist who is just pretty good.  Well, I recently had the pleasure of attending a live performance by P&S and I had high expectations because many of their high points in the recordings come from their perfect and unique harmonies.  After their mesmerizing performance I have not been able to stop listening to their recordings- wishing that I could enjoy the live presence of their harmonies again.  I would have never had such a feeling if I had only been able to hear them through my Spotify account and a set of headphones.  The live experience was what set them apart.

 This experience has made me seek out more concerts and performances like this because I realized that an experience is something that can be shared with someone more than any possession.  So with my cheap frugal college lifestyle I plan on using my entertainment money to seek out experiences with others and seek out more gems like Penny & Sparrow.  You should check out P&S and also get out there and experience something!

Aziz Ansari: Master of None

Famous actor and comedian Aziz Ansari recently released his Netflix Original series titled Master of None.  A show that stars Aziz as the lead role- Dev- a 30 year-old making his way through life in New York City.  The show documents Dev's relationships and career, both having their own respective roller coaster-like progression.  The show is an entertaining ten episode first season, and deserves to be recognized as a beautiful combination of quirky seemingly fictionalized situations and very heavy (sometimes even dark) realism.  Situations that arise in Dev's life allow Aziz to show how his hilarious mind works in all types of scenarios.  Now I will be the first to tell you that this show is great, and after binge-watching it, I can say it is both entertaining and thought-provoking.  However I'm not here to just talk about the content of the show but instead how the soundtrack plays into the series, and how every scene was crafted very precisely with a song in mind.

I will not bore you with each and every song from the incredibly diverse and unique soundtrack but instead would like to point just a few out.  Writer Aziz Ansari and music supervisor Zach Cowie use "Don't Worry Be Happy" juxtaposed to a few songs from the Halloween (1978) soundtrack in episode "Ladies and Gentlemen."  The scene depicted is that of an attractive woman being followed on her walk home-this has the terrifying sounds of the Halloween soundtrack as the background- while two men (Ansari and Wareheim) are walking home through a sketchy park with "Don't Worry Be Happy" playing as their background.  Quick cuts from one to the other creates a very unique viewer experience in that you are having mixed emotions, mixing laughter with the stress of watching something terrible happen to the woman.  This episode continues on to carry a light theme of feminism, which can be seen clearly from the intro.  

As another example after a surprisingly romantic night with a previous lover, Ansari leans in for a much expected kiss and his counterpart in this scenario turns him down.  She explains that she already has a boyfriend and it would be weird if they kissed.  Immediately after this interaction the song "Master of None" by Beach House begins to play.  Very obviously the concepts displayed by the lyrics of this song are shown throughout the entire season, but this moment highlights a few.  The lyrics that seem to be highlighted by the scenario are as follows: 

"Jack of all trades

Master of none

Cry all the time

Cause I'm not having fun"

I do not want to explain exactly what occurs in the episode leading up to that moment, but you should definitely check out this artistically stunning and mentally probing Netflix Original series as soon as you can.

Don't believe Me? Believe them:

Pitchfork on Master of None soundtrack

New York Times on Master of None

Metacritic on Master of None