Little Wings - Live in New York
Years ago, a Good Thing member emailed to ask if the next month’s record was going to be the new Little Wings album. I found this a little presumptuous — but also intriguing. Who is Little Wings, and why would someone just assume we’d be doing their album? They must be good, I thought. I dug in... and soon became a fan myself. A couple years later, I got this email. -Will
Hi Will,
Squire McLaughlin lent me your address so I could wander the cobble in cape and cane and crack on! But lo that wild wind...
We played one of our favorite Yankee Charms shows of all time on our third tour up in Kingston. Everyone was eyeball to eyeball singing along to songs once thought impossible to sing along to. The sound wasn’t perfect. But the feeling was far and beyond.
We tucked that glowing hum the best we knew how and RAN to New York City. As you may know they record the shows at Union Pool so we got caught and captured at the absolute height of our big city high. Michael Azerrad said “wow Little Wings even has a designated merch person,” but it was just me in a hat and bandana.
The first ever LW album was recorded in 1998 in New York City, in the month of November. The psychic aluminum foil reflection shaft that echoes and reverberates in the hallways of the mind in that city built on quartz... incomparable.
They say you’re never a saint in your own territory. Far away from home my music resonates strongest when the hour is at hand and the moment aligns. When the daily rigors no longer claw at one’s robes transcendence is possible.
We did it!!! And it was recorded. Thank you to all attendees of our sold out Union Pool show. A great deal for us. Then they boot you off stage in 5 minutes and your neck snaps back and you are immediately standing in line for tacos in the backyard. Amongst 200 Brooklynites. Mr. Toad’s wild ride doesn’t begin to describe.
So now we find ourselves with this historical document in our hands. It's a Good Thing! Couldn't be better. Are you busy this summer? We'd gladly send your club members one vinyl record, paba free. Pairs well with fried fish, but a pound of coffee will do.
The cover will consist of colored pencil drawings of the legendary tour translated into cinematic stills all old and macabre like... hand drawn mind you! Using outdated methods or a charcoal drawing with imaginary creatures and or a bootleg version of NY, NY by Sinatra, but done Little Wings underground 1980’s surf style... Perhaps a physical only release for a time period that we all agree on, giving it a throwback bootleg feel and hopefully making its value otherworldly (within our micro-microcosm of course).
Either way it's a beautiful recording of ONE of our favorite shows we've ever played with Nat Baldwin on Bass, Peter McLaughlin on Drums, Kyle Field on Guitar, all supremely juiced on NA beer and the positively gleaming front row. And it's the first proper live album of the band Little Wings with a decades spanning set list of songs that have been so loyally passed from person to person for many years now. We're grateful for all of it.
And we'd be grateful if we could team up on it. I feel we could all benefit in ways that might push the boulder joy forward!
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Kyle
Chelbesa - Gedeb, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
Ethiopia season rolls along with this easy-drinking lot from the famed Chelbesa Washing Station in Gedeb, Yirgacheffe. Approximately 1,000 smallholder farmers deliver cherry to the Chelbesa One Station, one of seven stations across Ethiopia managed by the exporting company, SNAP Coffee. Cherries are sorted, floated, and depulped, then dry fermented in tanks for 48-72 hours before being washed and placed to dry on raised beds for 7-10 days. Washed coffees from this station are typically pristine and elegant. Expect a bright, lightly effervescent profile with gentle aromatics and notes of sweet citrus and stone fruit.
