As far as solo debuts go, Alec Ounsworth‘s Mo Beauty (Anti-) is impressive. The Philadelphia-based Clap Your Hands Say Yeah frontman travelled to New Orleans to record the album with producer Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and a host of the city’s notable musicians, including bassist George Porter, Jr. (Meters), drummer Stanton Moore and keyboardist Robert Walter (Greyboy Allstars). The result is a mature, confident, 10-song collection that Ounsworth had only hinted at being capable of with his work in Clap Your Hands. He also has a second solo album, Skin And Bones (credited to Flashy Python and available online only), that features members of the Walkmen, Dr. Dog and Man Man. While all this new music is good for Clap Your Hands fans, you get the impression that the band (now on hiatus) is no longer a priority for Ounsworth, who became a father last year and is enjoying family life at home. Ounsworth is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Ounsworth: I am writing this in and, in a way, about my dining room. Table Manners by Chris Roberts-Antieau hangs on the dining-room wall. Every year on our anniversary, my wife and I take a trip. For our second anniversary, we went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. For our first, we went to Baltimore. I like Baltimore. When in Baltimore, I visit the American Visionary Arts Museum. This museum houses one of the best collections of art I know. People call it “outsider” art, but I’m not sure why. They also call it “folk” art, and I don’t know about this, either. Designations of this sort never made much sense to me (e.g. “indie” rock). Again, I don’t want to go on about what the museum means to me, as I could hardly do justice to the sum of its parts without addressing each part specifically. I won’t do that. Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEp1FnR6qF4
