Dan DeLuca’s Mix Picks: Lana Del Rey, Nick Cave, Philly punk, and music from Brazil and Niger
What you should be listening to this week.
Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files. Australian rock songwriter Nick Cave began answering fans’ questions in thoughtful, deeply personal dispatches posted on this site named after his 1994 song “The Red Right Hand,” 2018, seeking connections in the wake of the death of his teenage son Arthur. The intimate Q&A’s work like a Reddit AMA on a higher intellectual plane. This week’s exchange concerns his 1997 breakup with PJ Harvey, which he blames on drugs and narcissism. Cave was so surprised to be dumped, “I almost dropped my syringe,” he writes. The singer is doing sold-out Conversations with Nick Cave shows on the East Coast in September, but unfortunately there is no Philadelphia date.
Lana Del Rey, “The Greatest.” This single from the Southern California singer’s new Norman [Expletive] Rockwell, shares a title with the best-known song by Cat Power, the similarly sultry vocalist whom Del Rey collaborated with on last year’s “Woman.” This “The Greatest” — which is bundled on YouTube with a song with a profane title — works the world weary, beach-side despair that is Del Rey’s forte to stunning effect as it conjures a world that’s lost its way in which “L.A.’s in flames” and “Kanye West is blonde and gone.”
SRA Records 10th Anniversary. An all-ages celebration of the Philadelphia hardcore label, featuring eight bands and the promise of quick changeovers and pizza. Notable acts include Soul Glo, Psychic Teens, Flag of Democracy (FOD) and Gene London Calling, whose moniker references the Clash and a beloved Philadelphia children’s TV show host from the 1960 and 1970s. Sunday at PhilaMOCA.
Boogarins / Mdou Moctar. A super-cool multi-continental double bill. Boogarins is a four-piece band from Gioania in central Brazil whose sung-in-Portuguese songs draw on the legacy of Tropicalia movement of the late 1960s before heading in their own direction. Moctar is a dazzling guitarist from northern Niger in West Africa whose resume includes playing in wedding bands and casting himself in the role played by Prince in a remake of Purple Rain in the Tamasheq language. Thursday at World Cafe Live.