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One Track Mind: Frenemies – “Having Sex” feat. Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak)

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MP3: Frenemies – Having Sex

Frenemies is the nom-de-guerre of one Chris Freeland, sound wizard behind a vast number of your aural experiences in and from this town, regularly working sound at the Talking Head and engineering any number of albums from local artists.  But when he’s not behind the EQ, he makes some pretty fantastic music of his own.  Look no further than his days as drummer for Baltimore legends Oxes.

His Frenemies project has been a bit infrequent lately, rarely playing out and sporadically dropping nuggets of goodness like mana from heaven to a privileged few.  A week or so ago, Chris dropped the Spring-beckoning track “Having Sex” on me and I haven’t been able to turn it off since.

The fantastically playful melody starts things off, simply tapped out on a Casio.  Collaborator Steve Hefter drops some baritone, sleepy vocals to set the mood perfectly as the entire track coasts along at a steady, lackadaisical pace, gliding along like a gentle, smooth breeze on a lazy sunny day.  Your head is swiftly lost in a haze that perfectly mimics that blissful bit of post-coital haze.  A special treat arrives when you find the supporting female harmonics are actually Jenn Wasner’s, her lush voice turning out a Francophone version of the chorus a little over a minute into the affair.  The particularly inspired inclusion of horns-and-hand-claps really gives the track a great, classic lounge feel that conjures nostalgic images of the classic crooners while mixing with the synth melody, closing out the track with gently fading harmonic reprisals of the refrain.

You would do yourself a disservice to not have this song on your spring/summer soundtrack.

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3 Responses to “One Track Mind: Frenemies – “Having Sex” feat. Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak)”

  1. I love the Having Sex track (especially the vocals). While I’m not a big Frenemies fan, Chris is flat out amazing…he did an amazing job on Sri Aurobindo’s last album and remains the best soundman in Baltimore. Did you catch the City Paper article about Andy Cook a couple of weeks back? Andy’s the guy holding the drums.

  2. caleb says:

    seriously, this is probably the catchiest single ive heard out of baltimore since ive moved here. wtf? i certainly hope pitchfork, etc, gets to see this.

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