Tonight’s selections from Bria’s debut EP, Cuntry Covers Vol. 1. Brianna Salmena is a Toronto-based singer/guitarist. She’s a founding member of FRIGS (originally DIRTY FRIGS) and a member of Orville Peck’s touring band.
Hop on your horse, cowboy. Catch the sunset and Bria’s patriarchy-threatening country covers.
The latest Sub Pop signing, Bria, a collaborative act between Bria Salmena and Duncan Hay Jennings, both ex-FRIGS members and currently permanent players in Orville Peck’s band, debuted a six-track EP ‘Cuntry Covers Vol.1’. Tormented by the terrors of 2020, they found reflections of their confusion in the classics. Recorded on the territories of the Anishnaabe, the Haudenosaunee, the Wendat and the Mississaugas of the Credit, the record takes a spin on traditionality, proving that there’s not such a thing as outdated, only not updated.
The EP opens up with a rearranged ol’ country classic ‘Green Rocky Road’, as performed by Greenwich Village legend Karen Dalton. The twangy guitar combined with their echoey, melodic voice hits the nostalgic spot that we hidden deep down, secretly longing for an open road and a lover. Only now, we don’t have to feel that guilty of subscribing to often misogynist culture around the themes but enjoy how Bria tear it subtly down by repainting the landscape. — Still Listening Magazine
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Green Rocky Road [2021]
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The environment in which these songs were recorded definitely had a huge hand in the way that everything came together. “My aunt lives out there,” Jennings explains about the space where the album came together. “Our tour was cancelled and needed a place to, sort of, quarantine I guess, I was trying to be responsible. So my girlfriend and I went out there. We thought it would be a couple weeks but it turned into almost nine months. It’s a really special place and a great place to make music and record.” The sound of the farm has absolutely seeped into every single one of the tracks on the record. They all have such an intense, lived in feel to them. “We’ve talked about this a lot,” Jennings says, “I think the wonderful thing about this EP to us is that it really is just a product of that time and that environment. Take a song like “Green Rocky Road”. There’s a lot of ambient sound in there. That’s like my girlfriend cooking a meal as we recorded that, to us it really feels like a timestamp.”
The fact that all the songs featured on the record are all, genre wise, country songs is also no fluke. As Jennings explains, “Country music and its rich history has deeply informed both Bria and I’s separate and shared musical identities.” Salmena had a certain idea in mind when it came time to put their stamp on these songs. “I wanted to do a bit of honouring and a bit of subverting with these. We both really enjoy country music but by no means am I a country musician.” “These songs wouldn’t be defined as country songs at their core,” Jennings says. “However both Bria and I felt that regardless of that, the sentiment, to us, felt like they were country songs though the storytelling and heartache that exists in these songs.” While all this talk of country music as a genre has taken over the majority of the conversation about the record, Bria explains, “Part of the reason why we called it Cuntry Covers was to partially take the piss and the other reason was that we actually recorded these songs on a farm in the middle of the country. If we hadn’t for called the record Cuntry Covers, I don’t think there would this much talk about the genre of the songs but I do think there is something to be said about the lineage of harder music to country and that this type of vulnerably is something that appeals to people, especially as they get a little older.” Regardless of age or geography, the collection of songs that Salmena and Jennings have created here do transcend genre and cast the spotlight on the very real, very human emotions that any great artist hopes to capture with their art. Country or otherwise, with the talent that these two possess, it’s going to be great to hear what they come up with next. — Northern Transmissions
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The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore [2021]
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Bria: Lucinda Williams is such a huge figure for me in country music. As a result, this song was a daunting one to try and cover. We did so many vocal takes, I can’t even begin to tell you how challenging it was to get her voice out of my head. I really wanted my delivery to be purely and truly from my own experience because I would never even dare try to emulate hers. The lyrics of this song might be some of my favourite of all time. I’m happy with how it turned out and grateful to find so much of my own experience within those words.
Duncan: This one was a treat to do. The original version is really important to me, but it was important to us to try to completely reimagine it. Bria’s vocals are pretty nuts on this one. A real nice performance. It was a challenge trying to get the instrumentation to match her intensity in the final verse. I ended up layering multiple guitars, synths and an accordion to try and get there. This one, for me, is the standout track on the EP. — Beats Per Minute
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Fruits of My Labour [2021]
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Queen Latifah, Danny Ramirez, Pusha T
Jimmy Fallon: Fred Armisen, Chloë Sevigny, Michelle Zauner, Måneskin (R 5/20/22)
Stephen Colbert: Mark Esper, Judd Apatow (R 5/16/22)
Seth Meyers: Billy Crystal, Samara Weaving, Ulf Mickael Wahlgren (R 5/23/22)
James Corden: LaKeith Stanfield, Ryan Tedder, OneRepublic (R 3/7/22)
Trevor Noah: Sergiy Kyslytsya
SPOILER WARNING
A late night gathering for non serious palaver that does not speak of that night’s show. Posting a spoiler will get you brollywhacked. You don’t want that to happen to you. It's a fate worse than a fate worse than death.
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Orville Peck :: Nothing Fades Like the Light [2019]
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LAST WEEK'S POLL: FROM 'LEWDEST SOUNDING TOWN NAMES', WHICH IS NOT A REAL PLACE?
Butts, GA 7% 2 votes
Climax, NC 7% 2 votes
Kiester, MN 19% 5 votes
Lloyd's Knobs, IN 15% 4 votes
Sweet Lips, TN 11% 3 votes
Virgin, UT 7% 2 votes
Wankers Corner, OR 33% 9 votes
Wankers Corner won the vote but Lloyd’s Knobs is not a real place (but Floyd’s Knobs, IN is a real town).
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Fred Armisen & Carrie Brownstein :: Put A Bird On It!