In the summer of 2016, Brooklyn's longest-lived band, Life in a Blender squirreled away at Old Soul Studios in Catskill, NY, to record their ninth album, Happy Enough. Producer and Old Soul Studio's owner, Kenny Siegal-who has recorded The New Pornographers, Chris Whitley, AC Newman, Langhorne Slim, and others-manned the large recording knob.
Many of the songs on Blender's latest album were inspired by (not stolen from) other people's works of art. They were written as part of the Bushwick Book Club, a creative project developed by the shimmering Susan Hwang. The BBC encourages musicians to write songs about books, poems, graphic novels, and other written works. The song "Let the Baby Cry" takes its lyrics directly from a poem by Emily Pérez. She teaches English and Gender Studies in Denver where she lives with her husband and sons. Don's screaming at the beginning recreates his own birth. "Underneath the Banyan" comes from Unfamiliar Fishes, and taps into the Hawaiian spirit presented in Sarah Vowell's book. Don wrote it semi-nude in Courtney Lee Adams' apartment while she was away and none the wiser. Two songs come from the works of Kurt Vonnegut-"Rocket to Love You" is based on the novel Galapagos and "What Did You Hide in the Potato Barn?" is inspired by Bluebeard.
Life in a Blender Releases Its Ninth Album, Happy Enough
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