Milinda’s Questions

First, in the absolutely-must-spread-the-word-about-before-I-forget category: Chin Inteji. That’s a guy’s name: he is, in fact, a musician whom I heard perform a few nights ago at a place called the Media Club. Just walked in there on an open mike night on my way back to the hotel, and discovered this guy. His new CD is called “Daydreamin’”; the title song, which you can listen to a sample of on his website, is a tribute to Aretha Franklin’s 1972 song by that name, and the chorus of Enteji’s song is basically an extended sample of the earlier hit. That’s what you hear on the website; what you don’t here is how Enteji’s lyrics and rhythms “frame” the chorus and conjure up the spirit of the ’70s. Even if you weren’t terribly fond of most “urban” music of that period, as I wasn’t, Enteji brings out the best of it, inspiring a nostalgia for that time that sweeps up and redeems even the cheesier music of the time. In a way, he’s sort of an urban Drive-By Truckers; together, they cover the two sides of the seventies music scene. And Chin and his band finished their set with a blow-away version of Prince’s “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.” Fine stuff. Hope to see him in Austin sometime.