On family road trips, singing along is mandatory

Plus, an interview with rapper Veeze as he teeters on the brink of stardom.

View this email online July 15, 2023 by Stephen Thompson A tribute to humiliating yourself in front of your family whenever possible; plus, an interview with rapper Veeze as he teeters on the brink of stardom. Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for iHeartMedia It’s standard practice, on most family road trips, for the driver to maintain control over their surroundings: the climate, the windows and, most importantly, the music. The driver, after all, is the one who needs to minimize distractions, stay awake and get everyone to their destination safely, so if the driver wants to listen to NPR, podcasts or a new album of interest, then that’s the driver’s call. In my family, this rule exists to be violated, extravagantly and at all times, by my 19-year-old daughter Grace, who’s been home from college and has been gifted since birth with a pathological stubbornness that triples in the presence of a car radio. Country music? Overruled. NPR gets an “Eeeeeeeeeeewwwww” that intensifies when the host is a family friend. And rock trumps all other genres — both the classic Led Zep/Stones kind and the kind that mixes contemporary hits with “oldies” that date allllllll the way back to the fossilized remains of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Nirvana, Guns ’N Roses, Pearl Jam, Weezer and even the occasional woman join together to make me nostalgic for young adulthood and my daughter nostalgic for our early-pandemic nights playing “Rock Band” in the living room. (When we reunite to play shows, our family band — we’re called Hoobastank U.K., perhaps you’ve heard of us? — still rocks pretty hard.) I don’t recommend the “Youngest Family Member Gets to Choose the Radio Station” rule, as I wasn’t present when it was passed. But I do recommend the second rule that comes up when my family listens to music in the car: Singing along is mandatory. Naturally, because I’ve obsessed over those ’80s and ’90s oldies longer than anyone else in the family, this tends to translate to me snarling every word of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” while the rest of the family joins in on the choruses. If I’m driving and my partner has tuned to one of those “from the ’80s to today” pop stations from the passenger seat, then the arrival of NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears necessitates that she provide not only a self-Auto-Tuned vocal performance, but also seat belt-constrained choreography. Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance,” which has somehow never left D.C.’s radio dial since its release in 2014, gets its own series of hand motions and visual commands. Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69,” which gets played on the radio a lot more than I’d have expected, gets belted — at least by me — in its entirety, albeit with “I got my first real six-string” repurposed into the mondegreen, “I got my first real sex dream.” More than once, I have abandoned a sentence mid-word to holler, “JOSIE’S ON A VACATION FAR AWAY” at the onset of The Outfield’s “Your Love.” Still, the predominant family song has become a track of more recent vintage; namely, “Monsters” by the Baltimore-area rock band All Time Low featuring blackbear (and, later, Demi Lovato). It has, near as I can tell, never left heavy rotation on one of our local stations since its release in 2020, in part because it has an absolute ripper of a chorus, which (in its radio-friendly version) goes as follows, feel free to scream along: I’m wondering why Do all the monsters come out at night? Why do we sleep when we want to hide? Why do I run back to you Like I don’t mind that you ruin my life? “Monsters” has, in many ways, soundtracked Grace’s slow transition from “teenager who thinks her dad and stepmom are dolts” to “young adult who thinks her dad and stepmom might be onto something.” As such, I’ve come to 1) cherish the song; and 2) holler along with it with a kind of blinkered intensity. Grace has received more than one texted video of me screaming along to “Monsters” in the car — sometimes recorded without my knowledge — just so she knows that our family’s most sacred traditions are still there for her the next time she’s around to call shotgun. Look, I’ve gotten plenty wrong as a parent. But I really and truly stand by the practice of singing together — loudly, stupidly, joyfully. There’s something so bold, so fearlessly loving about that, you know? Newsletter continues after sponsor message More to read, watch and hear Detroit rapper Veeze has seemed on the verge of superstardom for a little while now, and how he’s finally released a full album called GANGER. Mano Sundaresan recently interviewed Veeze — whom Mano calls “one of the best rappers alive” — about the rapper’s home state, the long run-up to GANGER, Veeze’s desire to interview Jeff Bezos and more. Speaking of hip-hop, you’ll be hearing a lot in the next few weeks about the genre’s 50th anniversary – pegged to the date of a summer party in the Bronx that just happened to feature an 18-year-old DJ by the name of Kool Herc. We’ve got many features on the milestone coming up; first, here’s Kat Lonsdorf, Juana Summers and Patrick Jarenwattananon on that momentous Bronx party. It’s been 30 years since Octavia Butler published her Afrofuturistic science-fiction novel Parable of the Sower, which imagined a dystopian America marked by climate crisis, gun violence and a politician who vows to “make America great again.” (Don’t worry, it’s only a novel.) Butler’s work has been transformed into an opera by the great mother-daughter duo of Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock fame, and Anastasia Tsioulcas has the story for Morning Edition. This newsletter’s brilliant former author, Marissa Lorusso, reviews Palehound’s new album Eye on the Bat with characteristic clarity, with a headline that says it all: “You can feel Palehound’s songs in your gut.” Marissa digs into the album’s visceral nature — complete with body blows — but never neglects its joyful side. Speaking of brilliant writers tackling music they’re uniquely qualified to appreciate, Nate Chinen examines Kings Highway, the new album from Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band. Nate does a tremendous job not only reviewing the record, but also contextualizing it within the jazz drummer’s long and fruitful career. Marissa Lorusso isn’t the only one who’s excited about the new Palehound record; both of your All Songs Considered hosts play tracks from Eye on the Bat this week. Bob Boilen includes “Independence Day” in a mix that also features Talking Heads, Margo Price, Hania Rani (with Patrick Watson), Laufey and Margaret Glaspy. And for New Music Friday, Robin Hilton and a panel of geniuses hail not only Palehound, but also Kool & The Gang, Alana Springsteen, Mahalia and J Hus. The latest episode of Jazz Night In America goes behind the scenes at the 2023 American Pianists Awards — and introduces you to the five finalists for the coveted Cole Porter Fellowship. For All Things Considered, Kira Wakeam and Manuela López Restrepo profile Congolese-Canadian singer, songwriter and DJ Pierre Kwenders. Tiny Desk Estefania Mitre/NPR Portuguese singer, songwriter and guitarist MARO isn’t new to the Tiny Desk; after all, she was a featured performer in Jacob Collier’s extravagant, maximalist set. But her return found her presiding over a softer sound, as she performed at the center of a trio. The magnificent Anamaria Artemisa Sayre described MARO’s Tiny Desk concert as “a transfixing expression of bilingual heartbreak, strung together by the seamless narration of three acoustic guitars.” Also this week: Irish singer-songwriter Lisa O’Neill creates droning, captivating music that draws on themes of nature and interconnectedness. And Alice Sara Ott mixes several works of Chopin with a piece by the contemporary composer and pianist Chilly Gonzales. One More Thing Saxophonist and composer Marcus Strickland invites you to consider the miracle of life on earth Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? 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