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1'i'illWf^ threats & promises
Kxng Blanco’s SummersOnSarsen
SUDOKU Edited by Margie E. Burke
Difficulty: Easy
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Copyright 2020 by The Puzzle Syndicate
HOW TO SOLVE:
Each row must contain the numbers 1 to 9;
each column must contain the numbers 1 to 9;
and each set of 3 by 3 boxes must contain
the numbers 1 to 9.
The Weekly Crossword by Margie E. Burke
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”
Copyright 2020 by The Puzzle Syndicate
ACROSS
1
Fair-minded
52 Perpendicular to
13
Ernie's pal
5
Follow as a
the keel
19
III at
result
54 mortals
21
Turn red, maybe
10
Q-Tip
56 Take to the
25
"Famous" cookie
14
Catch sight of
soapbox
maker
15
Spa feature
59 Math function
26
Civil rights org.
16
Bear's lair
63 California gold
27
Mosaic technique
17
Flave a hunch
seeker
29
Down with
18
Checkout device
65 Indian butter
something
20
Like some
66 Bitty biter
31
Thoroughly
chickens
67 For all to see
32
False front
22
Prevent, as
68 Word on a towel
33
Run the show
disaster
69 Penn of films
35
UN headquarters
23
Faucet flaw
70 Contract details
locale
24
Clear the slate
71 Uno + dos
37
Jack's "China
26
Nothing at all
town" costar
28
Cozumel coin
DOWN
40
First-rate
30
French house
1 Bridges in the
42
Feed a party
hold
movies
45
One who dis
34
Some Japanese
2 End
tributes charity
films
3 Highway sign
48
Follow orders
36
Details, briefly
4 Aerosmith
50
Intelligence,
38
Like a sad sack
frontman
slangily
39
Farmer's guide
5 Break out
53
and well
41
Religious self
6 Tandoori bread
55
One way to turn
denier
7 Scalpel wielder
56
Slays, in slang
43
Genesis son
8 Below the
57
Part, in pictures
44
Word of assent
surface
58
Kind of code
46
Popped up
9 Corn serving
60
Bug's beginning?
47
Crushing snake
10 Type of hunt
61
Roll-call reply
49
For fear that
11 Baseball's Boggs
62
State of disorder
51
"Floly cow!"
12 Declare firmly
64
Part of DNR
Puzzle answers are available at www.flagpole.com/puzzles
PLUS, MORE MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
By Gordon Lamb threatsandpromises@flagpole.com
WEST OF WILTSHIRE: Just when you thought the current heat
wave couldn’t possibly get hotter, here comes Kxng Blanco
with a brand new set of conceptual and direct bangers
named SummersOnSarsen. The whopping 18-track album,
courtesy of GA Pro with ATHfactor-Liberty Entertainment,
just came out last week via all streaming platforms.
Familiar ears will readily recognize Blanco’s hardcore and
nearly flawless flow, not to mention his pull-no-punches
lyricism, but will also be pleased by the notably thoughtful
selection of beats. Nothing here feels pasted over or tacked
on but, rather, sounds deliberately compositional. The most
single-worthy tracks here are the reverb stylized “E.T.,” the
inspirational “Pain N’ Sufferin,”’ and the
title track. Blanco is a great storyteller, and
most of the tracks here are deeply personal,
and not all of it is comfortably absorbed.
But that’s OK, as this work tells his story,
not yours. Find this everywhere, but follow
along at facebook.com/kxngblanco.
ANNIVERSARY SONGS: Long-running Athens
Americana band Family And Friends is
back with a short EP named All My Days.
Two tracks are re-workings of older songs,
specifically “Amadeus,” which first appeared
on the band’s album XOXO (2015), and
the second being “PRSM,” from the group’s
Felix Culpa (2018). Each is a nice replaying
of these older tracks, and they’re joined
nicely by the soft acoustic number “For
To The City.” While this is a fine slice of
keeping-up-with-the-band, listening to
it made me miss long summer nights at
The Caledonia and elsewhere, seeing these
guys onstage and hanging out with, you
know, family and friends. Anyway, check
this out at familyandfriends.bandcamp.
com, and give ‘em a wave at facebook.com/
familyandfriends.
C-60 PASTE UP: I don’t know a single dang
ol’ thing about this band named Divorce
Party, except they share a name with a
Ruby The Rabbitfoot record, but they’ve got an EP out now
that I can’t stop playing. Neatly and succinctly titled EP
#1, it’s composed of six tracks recorded via 4-track cassette
between 2018 and now. Due to its overall aesthetic and
necessary sonic limitations, this is a nice lesson in remem
bering what creative folks can do with very little. The music
itself pulls from a deep tradition of self-produced indie
rock, and the songs spill through much of the latter 20th
Century of college rock. To wit, there are shades of very
early R.E.M., Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, et al throughout
this. None very on the nose, but back there somewhere.
Check it out at divorcepartyyy.bandcamp.com.
FIND IT: Across a mere two tracks, songwriter Elliot Shaw
imparts the loneliness of isolation as well as the sometimes
difficult-to-shed embeddedness of identity. The songs,
“Never Given The Time” and “Queen Of Everything,”
just came out last month, and, while not exactly a full-on
release, they’re far from simply being tossed out there. The
instrumentation—largely acoustic with some supporting
strings imparting drones on the first, and a dark and lovely
piano with wonderfully set guitar transitions on the sec
ond—is perfect on each. All told, this is a very romantic
pair of songs that could have very easily slipped under the
radar but didn’t. Find this at elliotshaw.bandcamp.com.
WE CAN DO IT: Y’all ever felt music just sweat into your ear?
I mean, sure, OK, yeah we’ve all been there. But have you
had it happen lately? If not, go spend a few minutes with
the new tracks from Rosie & The Ratdogs. Since June, the
band has released two singles ( “Sanhedra” and “Flicka”) off
its upcoming EP. I hesitate to lump the band lazily into the
“grunge” category because that term is too many decades
old for quick relevance and reference. That said, sometimes
you just feel lazy and throw off any hesitation you may feel.
So, fans of TAD, Soundgarden, the more melodic tunes from
Unsane, etc. will totally dig these the most. Kick the tires
around over at rosieandtheratdogs.bandcamp.com. ©
Immaterial Possession: Immaterial Possession (Cloud Recordings) Knowing
that musicians Cooper Holmes, Madeline Polites and Jeremy Kiran Fernandes
share a parallel pursuit in surreal theater and performance art, it feels
only natural that their songs, crafted alongside drummer John Spiegel, are
designed to fully engage the senses. Full of mystical narratives, the lyrical
world-building provides rich visual descriptors, while the psychedelic pop
melodies themselves seem to stretch and manipulate time, charming you into
snaking along to and fro. Think of it as the auditory equivalent of hypnagogia,
the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep when
fleeting memories and intentions are reaffirmed over slippery, kaleidoscopic
visuals that flutter into focus before disappearing into the ether. The record
ings feel both folkloric and present-day, unlikely to have materialized out of the same shared reality as the rest of
us, but instead gracefully visiting from the astral realm. [Jessica Smith]
Kxng Blanco
AUGUST 5, 2020 | FLAGPOLE.COM 13