Music

Mutual Benefit Performance & Interview on WNYC SoundCheck [Audio Stream & YouTube Videos]

Brad Bershad

by Brad Bershad

Published January 10, 2014

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Mutual Benefit stopped by New York City's NPR Station, WNYC, to perform a few songs on the show Soundcheck hosted by John Schaefer. The full 28+ minute audio is above, including an extended interview with bandleader Jordan Lee. You can also find YouTube videos of two songs below. You can also download the full audio for free, on the WNYC SoundCheck page.

It's a really interesting interview, covering the history of Mutual Benefit and their sudden success with the album Love's Crushing Diamond after several previous albums released on cassette tape. The soft spoken Jordan Lee talks about roving around the country from Austin to St. Louis to Boston, giving cassettes of his band's music to fans and club owners and starting his own label called Kassette Klub. There's some discussion of cassette culture, compared to vinyl culture and how things have changed over time. It's also interesting to hear Lee say that he likes the lo-fi element of cassettes because it's more forgiving to his vocal performances. When asked about why he's releasing his music digitally now, Lee laughs and says, "I guess I sold out."

The name Love's Crushing Diamond came from an episode Lee had playing around with magnetic poetry on a refrigerator at a party. He explains how that phrase stuck wit him and eventually became the name of the album. The band is introduced as Mike Clifford on guitar, Marc Merza on bass, Jake Falby and Molly Fletcher on violin, and Cory Siegler joining Lee on vocals.

Mutual Benefit "Advanced Falconry" on WNYC
Mutual Benefit "Auburn Epitaphs" on WNYC
Mutual Benefit WNYC SoundCheck Setlist:

1:26 "Advanced Falconry"
5:33 Interview
13:52 "Auburn Epitaphs"
16:20 "Strong Swimmer"
21:30 Interview

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Source: WNYC SoundCheck

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