Wow, it’s May already. I’ve been unemployed for two and a half months now. I really didn’t expect it to go this long. Time is passing me by at an alarming rate, but hey, at least I have music and Baseball.
I went Chicago mode this week. Now, I wasn’t as diligent in my Baseball following this week as I usually am, but I still came away with a decent impression of both the White Sox and the Cubs. I came out liking both teams, which was honestly sort of a surprise: I really expected to dislike the Cubs.
The White Sox are a very fun team to watch. The batting lineup, centered around Munetaka Murakami, is explosive. They don’t get going every game, but when they do they have huge innings where they score multiple runs, on a combination of regular base hits and big homer. And Murakami specifically is really exciting. He was sort of a question mark in the offseason, with analysts wondering whether his big swing and miss, big slugging style would translate to MLB, where the pitching is a bit tougher. But it turns out that big swing and miss and big slugging is just exactly what he’s delivering, higher velocity be damned. He is, as I write this, leading MLB in home runs, with 13. It’s great to see. I was pretty bummed about how skeptical people smarter than me were about this guy; I’ve loved seeing the optimistic forecast come to pass, at least so far.
On the pitching side, the most remarkable thing to me is that they’ve got former Blue Jays reliever Seranthony Dominguez working as their closer. I’ll be honest: I was sort of happy to see Dominguez leave the Jays, because watching him pitch always stressed me out. But man, I’m feeling a little wrong for this. Dominguez has looked perfectly fine as a closer for the Sox, while the other Jays reliever who stresses me out, Jeff Hoffman, has blown multiple games and lost the closer role. Dominguez has been effectively wild, while Hoffman has just been wild.
Do I think this is a great Baseball team? I’m not really sure. Their offense is exciting, excellent when they’re on, but not always on. The pitching and defense seem just sort of average. I wouldn’t put any bets on a playoff appearance, but they seem much better than they were last year. They’re also a young team. If I were a Chicago White Sox guy, I’d be really excited about the direction this team seems to be heading. That said, as I understand, they have a cheapskate owner, and any promise of development is always under threat. So let’s all cross our fingers. Maybe with the Pope’s blessing they’ll hold onto some guys and become a real contender sometime in the next couple years.
As one final note, I love how the Chicago Sports Network scorebug incorporates little Chicago six pointed stars on the inning marker. More teams’ broadcasts should add local flair to their visual design like that. One of the games I caught was also on kids’ day at the ballpark, so they had alternate designs for everything on the broadcast to make it all, like, kindergarten themed, which was really cool. Whoever is running graphic design at that network deserves a raise.
Now, the Cubs. I have way less to say about the Cubs. They’re a pretty standard issue good Baseball team. The lineup hits, the pitchers pitch, you know. Nothing super unique or exciting to speak of, on the actual game front. Their big offseason acquisition was Alex Bregman, who just doesn’t look like he’s having any fun, ever. But he’s a good player, so good for them.
The stuff that has excited me the most about the Cubs is all nickname based. Shota Imanaga has two of my favourite nicknames in Baseball: “The Throwing Philosopher,” which dates back to his NPB days, and “Mike Imanaga II.” Imanaga loves Dunkin Donuts, and gives the baristas the name “Mike” because its easier for them. Then he appended the II himself after it became a clubhouse nickname, just because he likes it. That’s hilarious to me. “The Throwing Philosopher” is just funny at face value. I love it.
My Cubs nickname delight does not stop with Shota Imanaga, though. Moises Ballesteros, an exciting young player having a very good season so far, has earned the nickname “Mo Baller,” which just rules. Now, it doesn’t even stop with the players. Whenever the Cubs booth throws it to the field reporter, Taylor McGregor, the commentator addresses her as “T-Meg.” This is the first time I’ve seen a field reporter get a nickname. The Cubs are topping the league in total nickname potency, whatever else one might say about them.
Of course, all these nickname related good vibes are dampened somewhat by the presence of Matt Shaw. Matt Shaw is a right wing dipshit who left the team during a playoff race last year to attend Charlie Kirk’s funeral. He and Charlie Kirk knew each other, but it doesn’t seem like they were close. Shaw then spoke at some US conservative conference or another this year. Now, obviously most MLB players are conservatives, this is not a surprise. Most of them aren’t loud idiots about it, though. Some people might think it’s unfair for me to let Matt Shaw’s politics inform my opinion of the Chicago Cubs, and to them I say, who cares. I’m some guy from Nova Scotia. What I think about Chicago sports is basically totally irrelevant.
So anyway, I like the Sox more than the Cubs, but I enjoyed following both. The ranking as of now:
1. Seattle Mariners
2. Arizona Diamondbacks
3. Kansas City Royals
4. Chicago White Sox
5. New York Mets
6. Chicago Cubs
7. San Fransisco Giants
8. New York Yankees
Next week I’ll be following the Athletics and the Milwaukee Brewers.
This is going to be a more shallow music review than I like to write. I mean, so was last week’s, but at least there I had the excuse of covering five albums at once. This time the shallowness is just because an album that came out yesterday as I write this completely eclipsed everything else I checked out this week, I haven’t had a ton of time to let it sink in yet, and it is jazz, which I am out of my depth discussing.
The album in question is “A Great Day In Newcastle,” by British jazz fusion band Knats. Because everything in British culture connects back to insular circles, this group has ties to the Windmill Scene: they’ve toured with Geordie Greep, and he produced this album. The commonalities end there, though, and I will stop bringing the Windmill Scene up now.
The songs on here are mostly fast, propulsive jazz/rock fusion. “Carpet Doctor” also verges into blues territory. Several songs also feature spoken word lyrics. The grooves are wonderful and danceable, the melodies are fun and catchy, and the song structures are sprawling and elaborate. The spoken word vocals, when present, gel with these elements wonderfully, as being spoken word they do not distract from the music, instead enhancing it with atmosphere and storytelling.
Knats was built on an initial friendship between its drummer and bassist, with the bassist serving as the primary composer. These facts are evident in the music: this music is rhythm section-forward, every song driven by smooth, lovely basslines and frenetic, exciting drum performances. This isn’t to say the other performers don’t put in work: there’s great trumpet and saxophone stuff going on, but the drums and bass are, for me, what make it truly special. This is music that you can move to, and even the lower key numbers like “Messy-In” have great, danceable grooves. It’s an extremely fun album, and I’ve had a great time just sitting there, tapping my foot and taking in all the little details.
The stories told in the songs with vocals revolve generally around working class life in northern Britain. They have a specific sense of place that gives this album a really unique identity. Somebody with more knowledge of Jazz and northern British culture could probably write something really interesting about this dimension of the album; unfortunately that person is not me.
Yes, I am abdicating my responsibility as a critic by brushing off the most interesting stuff here as above my pay grade. But consider this: I am barely a critic, and my pay grade is literally zero dollars. I’m just standing here, barely meeting my self imposed weekly deadline, telling you that “A Great Day In Newcastle” has had me headbobbing at my desk for two days now and you should check it out.
Rating: ☆☆