Soundtrack

A Lyrically Lingering List from Generationals

Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer, a.k.a. New Orleans indie rock duo Generationals, have been churning out bright, inviting guitar pop for a half-decade. Their latest album is called "Heza." They spin a soundtrack full of breezy tracks, and lyrics that linger.

Generationals - courtesy of the artist

Grant Widmer: Hi, this is Grant.

Ted Joyner: And I’m Ted with the band Generationals.

Grant Widmer: That’s right, and we just made a new album called “Heza” and this is the dinner party soundtrack we put together for you guys.

Ted Joyner: Well, for our dinner party – which you guys are invited to – I think we envisioned kind of having a bunch of people over.

1. “That Old Feeling” by Chet Baker

Ted Joyner: To get things started, kind of for the pre-dinner cocktail hour we wanted to start things off with some Chet Baker, off of his record “Chet Baker Sings,” a song called “That Old Feeling.” I got that old feeling. The irony is that we got into “Chet Baker Sings'” the record thinking that he was a singer.

Grant Widmer: Right.

Ted Joyner: Which he is.

Grant Widmer: You know, among jazz fans he’s probably more famous as a trumpet player.

Ted Joyner: Well that’s the thing. His voice has got a really soothing quality to it, for like a Saturday afternoon, or it’s kind of just relaxed.

2. “Rent Money” by Dent May

Ted Joyner: Next is this track called “Rent Money” by an artist named Dent May. And so I hear ‘Rent Money” kind of being our appetizer, like when we first start bringing out the food.

Grant Widmer: Yeah, we’re gonna bring out some fried green tomatoes.

Ted Joyner: Oh yeah, there you go. Fried green tomatoes.

Grant Widmer: It’s a favorite appetizer dish for me and for folks around here.

Ted Joyner: You dip it in like a remoulade.

Grant Widmer: Yeah. That’ll work.

Ted Joyner: Dent May is a rock band from Mississippi. They’re kind of playing against type, and it has more of a breezy sort of like California maybe rock band vibe. I think sometimes it’s fun to have music that contradicts itself.

They’re kind of clean electric guitar sounds is sort of uplifting sounding, and then the song is about the kind of the day to day that this guy is going through.

3. “Headache” by Frank Black

Ted Joyner: The third song that we’re gonna go into here is called “Headache” by Frank Black. As a 12-year-old I was kind of blown around by it, had no idea who The Pixies were or anything like that.

Grant Widmer: It’s a good kind of upbeat rocker, that’s why we chose it for our main course.

Ted Joyner: You realize you’re kind of nodding along to this song where Frank Black is telling you about his terrible affliction that he’s dealing with.

Grant Widmer: I guess that’s kind of part of our menu is bad thought, bad feelings kept in like good vibes, good sounding vibes.

Ted Joyner: I think those are the best sounding songs. I guess it might turn a few friends off, and maybe they’ll push their plate away.

Grant Widmer: No, they’ll love it.

Ted Joyner: They’ll play along.

Grant Widmer: Yeah, so that’s all our songs for our dinner party, and I guess we’ll close it out with one of our own songs. This is a track off the new record that just came out. It’s called “Put a Light On” and here it goes.

“Put a Light On” by Generationals