Music Monday Roundup

A few weeks ago I came across The Session with Christian James Hand when Jimmy Eat World shared a snippet on their stories. I think it was a clip of “Bleed American,” but it sounded like quite a different mix, so I went over and watched The Session video. Christian takes songs and breaks them down by instrument tracks (or stems), which lets you hear a lot of the layers that go into it as well as things you probably never noticed in the finished track.

I was hooked pretty quickly. Sure, it is one of my favorite songs, but Christian’s enthusiasm for the music and knowledge of recording adds a lot to it. It’s a livestream, so chatting with other fans is also fun. Band members have been in the chat several times. At the end of each session, he plays his own mix of the song, usually highlighting some of the elements you might have missed.

For an introduction, I recommend his breakdown of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” This was on the radio show so is shorter than the Instagram show, but it’s a great example of his enthusiasm and how surprising some of the individual tracks can be. Even if you’re not a fan of that song, suspend judgment momentarily and listen.

He does this almost every night on Instagram, so I recommend grabbing headphones and joining sometime. Tuesdays are “Tuesday JEWsday” (Jimmy Eat World), by the way.

Most times I have tuned in it was a track I already knew, but I was really captured by this new-to-me track, “Loveless” by Lo Moon. It is one of my new favorites. And thanks to The Session, I know there’s a track with the sound of a rock rolling around. See if you can hear it!