Hear this playlist of Arizona musicians who’ve used their music to reflect on love of all kinds

To celebrate Valentine's Day, The Show wanted to feature some Arizona musicians who’ve used their music to reflect on love of all kinds.

Valley DJ Ash Uss picked out some of her favorites.

Full conversation

ASH USS: When I was asked to do this, my initial reaction was just a feeling of overwhelmingness, like there's so many talented local bands, local artists, and it was a cool chance to think about just how many local bands or musicians I listened to. It was hard to really narrow it down. So that was the first thought.

And then the second thing was a fun challenge of this interpretation of love. So I wanted as well, to think of love songs in the way that people might traditionally consider them in the context of Valentine's Day or whatever, but love for other things, love for community, love for self, I tried to really broaden the interpretation of love.

SAM DINGMAN: OK, well, and in the songs that you have selected we get the full range of that. Let's listen to the first one that you've selected. And this is a song called “Sagebrush and Stone” by Morphia Slow.

Those are obviously some very Southwest lyrics for a love song. What made you pick this one?

USS: Yeah, oh, man. This song, this whole album from Morphia Slow, the lead singer, Allene, her voice is just so powerful and hauntingly beautiful. There's a pitch of it, a tone of it that is just like so distinct and so compelling and so I love her voice.

I picked this song just the message about love that, that line that you featured. “I know it's not meant to be, but I love you, chickadee.” I think that's something that so many of us can relate to, like people who we love with our whole hearts, and it's just not quite meant to be for a variety of reasons.

Amber Victoria Singer

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DINGMAN: To the point that you maybe have a pet name for them that they don't know about.

USS: Yes, yes, absolutely, yeah, or, like, there's a lot of content about them in your group chat with your friends, you know, stuff like that. We can all relate to it. So I love this track.

DINGMAN: Absolutely. So let's listen to this next one. This song is called “Roses,” and it's by Dolly Creamer.

Tell us why you chose this one.

USS: OK, this one. Her voice is really compelling, very eclectic. It has a range to it that I think a lot of people can't quite tap into or do well. And this is a newer album that she put out pretty recently, and I have a personal connection to it.

I went on a backpacking trip to the Lost Coast of California, and I could only really pick a few albums to download, and this was one of them. And this song, that line, “he brings me roses with fists, or brings me them with fists.” It's just such a powerful image.

This idea of people can be sweet and they can also be volatile, and it's just this song, to me, is just a beautiful representation of the human condition, that we have our flaws and we have our sweet parts as well.

DINGMAN: Let's go now to your next selection, which is by Pijama Piyama, this is “Champetaman Finds Love.”

So when I first turned this song on, especially this, what we just heard is from the middle of the song, but the very first part of it sounds, so it's like very Vampire Weekend, Paul Simon kind of mashup. But then obviously it's got that sense of humor that Pijama Piyama's music always has. Tell us why you selected this one.

USS: So the band Pijama Piyama, the music is very whimsical. And the lead singer, Jonathan, he plays a lot on, like, alternative dimensions, these characters that he creates. And then the music takes you through the stories of these characters.

And so a lot of their music is Cumbia. And this is more from the style of Champeta music, which is out of Colombia, and it's a really specific Afro-Latin sound. It's from the coast of Colombia, so you see a lot of African influence. It's very traditionally associated with, like resistance liberation sounds.

Champeta music also was like, not very respected in the world until recently, because it is intentionally chaotic, right? And it doesn't follow the traditional music structure that a lot of the Western world, like esteems quite highly. So it's, you know, powerful in terms of its historical and cultural significance.

But in this song, the character is finding love, and it's sweet and it's just light hearted.

DINGMAN: Yeah, it's also more, maybe traditionally danceable than the first couple songs we heard, and that is true of this next one as well. Let's hear “Fleshy Musings” by Jerusafunk.

DINGMAN: So tell us why you chose this one, Ash.

USS: I mean, we can't have a Valentine's Day playlist of sorts if we don't have a romance song. And this one's simple. It's not super deep. It's about pleasure and intimacy and that being fun. And yeah, I love it.

DINGMAN: That was also a really fun song to listen to. In the vein of what we were talking about a little bit with Pijama Piyama because, again, we have this blend of styles. There's a lot of traditional funk sounds, and then there's a lot of influences from international music, from all over the world.

USS: Yeah, so I'm not sure specifically like their process, but I do know that Jesse and Chris, who kind of do most of the writing for Jerusafunk, they're like the stewards of this band.

They spent, you know, several years all over Central and South America, and so a lot of the music and the rhythms that they use are inspired by their travels. It's really fun, too, to watch their dynamic play out when they perform the song, because they are in a relationship, and it's just, it's really fun.

It's such a fun one to see live. I hope everyone gets to at some point.

DINGMAN: Well, for our last selection, Ash, let's listen to this track from Spiritual Warfare and the Greasy Shadows. This song is called “I Love America.”

So, as you were mentioning at the beginning of the conversation, Ash, we're talking about a lot of different kinds of love here. The sentiment I love America is a very loaded thing to express, always, but perhaps even more in this moment, what made you choose this one?

USS: Yeah, this one was one that I spent a lot of time thinking about selecting. Again, obviously, the sentiments about loving America. You know, that's a challenging thing, depending on your experience in this country, and especially given the context of the world that we're living in right now.

But as you heard in the clip this song. It's just, it's really haunting, and so the vocals are stating the words, “I love America.” And yet there is this really heavy, sad undertone to it. It just to me, it almost reminds me of, like a sound you maybe would hear at a funeral. That's like, where I go when I think of this song.

And I don't say that in the way of like, you know, obviously you could unpack so much about the meaning. But what I thought of when I selected this was how the lyrics reference trying times. And trying times are, from my experience, the spark or what creates love.

DINGMAN: That's a beautiful sentiment. And that line, he also references bravery, brave in these trying times. And one of the things I started spinning out on as I was listening to that line is, you know, the adjective trying evokes the idea of something being a trial, you know, like a difficult test.

But you could also look at it as a time to try, you know, to actually make the effort to find the kind of sentiment that you were just expressing.

USS: Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up, because that's another key part of why I love this song. Is like, I would imagine, you know, part of the message would be, also what you're talking about, to not, to not give up on it.

And how do we resist? And I speak from personal experience as a social worker and as someone working in a school you know, the school I am at, there's a lot of folks from different backgrounds and different places, and some of the middle schoolers don't say the Pledge of Allegiance anymore, and that is their choice, because their families and their lives are impacted negatively by certain parts of this country right now.

And I thought of that a bit when I selected this song, you know, like the idea of country is complicated to so many people right now.

DINGMAN: Well, a complicated range of emotions in all of these songs selected today by my guest Ash Uss, who also DJs around town as DJ Trip Hazard. Ash, thank you for curating this amazing range of music, and thanks for sharing all with us.

USS: Thanks so much for having me.

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