Monday Mixtape is another path towards music discovery, featuring people whose taste I admire answering a series of questions and prompts with songs (which might change from time to time).
This week on Monday Mixtape, we've got our first Australian1 (I think?). Grace Cummings is a Melbourne-based singer-songwriter with an absolutely devastating pair of pipes and a spicy pen (My god is a devastating creep is just one of the fabulous lyrics off her new terrific new album Bloodhorse!). There’s a theatricality to her music that feels more Nick Cave than Glee (she was a former theater kid, more the kind who did Shakespeare monologues than Annie Get Your Gun) but it’s Cummings’ voice that is really the star of the show. She’s been compared to Nico and Nina Simone, amongst others. It’s throaty, commanding, somewhere between Dylan and a hymn. Listening to her music feels a little like going through an emotional exorcism (once again, I am FINE).
I’m thrilled to have her do a Monday Mixtape for us:
Grace Cummings
Libra
AustraliaHow do you find/discover music?
The radio, talking to friends… Stumbling across people by chance at festivals. Recently discovered YHWH Nailgun ‘cause they were playing in a concrete pit in a park in London. That was the best way to find music.
What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?
Morphine “Bo’s Veranda”
What song have you listened to more than once this past week?
Serge Gainsbourg “Melody”
What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?
Alex Cameron “Jesus Never Had No Porno”
A song off your workout playlist:
….. ummmm. Hahaha. Don’t have one but I’d chuck George Michael “Freedom” on it probably.
What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?
Lots… I get stupid at karaoke and usually try to sing shit that I can’t come close to
Song you associate with being 13 years old:
Captain Beefheart “Ashtray Heart”
What song reminds you most of home?
The Beatles “Two of Us”
What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?
That is my literal worst nightmare.
What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?
Music is the opposite of wallowing, So if I wanted to indulge it would be nothing at all.
What song do you use to renew your spirit?
The Gloaming “Samhradh Samhradh”
What is your favorite cover song?
Hmmm I don’t know… Elvis Presley’s “Unchained Melody”
What song would you like to hear just before you die?
Everybody I love singing anything they want all together.
All of the song’s on Grace’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE
I interviewed her back in 2024 and she was very charming and funny and also graceful (nominative determinism) about me being lightly (heavily) derisive about Australians
Bo’s Veranda! Ok, Grace has my attention.
What is yr thing against Australians? Is it in response to our universal disdain for Americans?