Sending Money and Stems is the new release from Santa Cruz-based singer-songwriter Joe Kaplow, out 30 April via Fluff and Gravy Records. The new single, “February Prorated Rent”, taps into frustrations the California-based musician has experienced with gentrification in the Bay Area.
“In the eight years I’ve lived there, I’ve seen so many artists and musicians move away,” he says. “Hundreds of them. The song also confronts my attachment to the Bay and how I’m the lingerer who’s left living in a garage to make ends meet.”
Joined by the rhythm section of Elliott Kay (bass) and Jeff Wilson (drums), multi-instrumentalist Kaplow delivers a loose, Neil Young-style track with easy rhythms and a memorable melody that belies the more profound sentiments in the song. Sakari Sanker’s harmony vocals add an ethereal, Harvest Moon quality to a profoundly haunting and affecting song. Mixed by Mike Coykendall (She and Him, M. Ward, Old Joe Clarks), the track speaks to the frustrations of people at the edge, who see a way of life and a beloved place vanishing before them. It is perfect in its understatement and moving in its execution.