What I’m Listening To is a series where we talk to exciting artists and musicians and get a five song slice of their current playlist. 
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“It seems mystical to many people but I actually find it quite logical.”

 

separate spines
Separate Spines performing, image courtesy of Sydney Jones.

Sydney Jones kicks nards and spits for the band Separate Spines. What does that entail?

“Stomping around. Singing and dancing. Screaming as loud as you can because no one can hear you anyways,” she says. Jones, this month’s curator of What I’m Listening To, joined the band after seeing them perform at the Colonial.

“Performing with the Spines has been an incredible channel of release and empowerment for me. I feel the freedom to be forthright and ridiculous in equal measure.”

Separate Spines started with singer Buddy Hale’s idea to have a band with “two Rhodes players, two drummers, and synth.” Keyboard player Zach Hake joined him and they began playing house shows with backing tracks to get the sound they wanted. When Jones saw them play at the Colonial, she contacted Hale to see if they needed anyone and he asked her to sing with them. Now the band is six strong and no longer needs backing tracks to play their music live. They call themselves ‘throat kick.’ Jones jokingly defines it as “[s]omething to dance to and make you feel a little better about living through the grudgingly slow degradation of all things sacred.”

In addition to singing, Jones has practiced palmistry since she was a kid.

“It’s fascinating to me that people’s idiosyncrasies affect the way that they carry their body, which is manifested in what they do with their hands. It seems mystical to many people but I actually find it quite logical.” Jones made use of her palmistry and singing skills at this month’s TUBE. hosted Crocker Art Mix.

So what is Sydney Jones listening to?

‘Milk Man’-Deerhoof-“It’s super goofy and evocative. It’s light and silly and sweet. What’s that milk man doing with bananas in his arms? I don’t know, but I’m in love with him anyways!”

‘What Wind Walks Above!’-Jacaszeck-“This song is eerie and inquisitive. It makes me feel like I am exploring a magical and potentially sinister landscape for something that could bring me great power or destroy me.”
‘Scan the Moonglow’-Dragging an Ox through Water-“The lyrics of this song are amazing as are the effects that he uses in his music. This song has such a nostalgic quality for me even though I was only introduced to it this year.”
‘Nicotine’-Brazilian Girls-“This is a dazed and dreamy one. Like laying in your bed and watching the sun through the leaves.”
‘Minaraten’-Samla Mammas Manna-“This song was written by some silly Swedish dudes and it’s really fun to dance to. I’m pretty sure trolls party to this song.”
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Separate Spines is getting ready to take the world by storm.
“We’ve been on a hiatus while we’ve been hammering out new material and artwork.”
But the hiatus is over, the band just released their album Voli this month and are gearing up to play some shows this spring and summer.
Listen to Voli here.
Words K. Hules

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