Rubin Recommends

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

Kevin Morby is a guitar/bass playing extraordinaire from Kansas City who now shreds locally in Brooklyn. In addition, he’s pretty much universally recognized as the “Nicest Person Alive”. He’s full-time bassman with Woods (Family Creeps) (obvious patriarchs of the Woodist family empire) and co-singer/guitar in The Babies. Both bands are great and definitely worth your undivided attention. Did I mention that Kevin is the Nicest Person Alive?

Lane: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Morby: The Babies are recording next week, Woods (Family Creeps) is teaming up with our buddy Pete Noland from Magik Markers for a two hour set at Monkey Town on January 19th (two days before the venue closes down forever) and I just played some percussion on the new Vivian Girls record. I was in Spain last month and it’s inspired my new kick/twenty-ten resolution of learning some Spanish. Slowly but surely, I’ve got a few phrases up the sleeve at this point.

The Babies just played a FaderBowl Party with Real Estate at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. It was the most fun I have had in a long time.

Lane: Where have you traveled this month or recently?

Morby: As far as this month goes, only from mom and dad’s in KC to here in Brooklyn – and thank god.

The last 6 months of ‘09 I did a life time’s worth of traveling, mainly on tour with Woods. We did 6 weeks in America, 3 weeks in England, Scotland, and Ireland, a week in Spain and even played a show in Moscow. Now I’m back in NY ’til March when we tour down to Austin, so the only traveling I plan on doing is from my bed to the corner store, heh.

Lane: What’s your favorite music right now?

Morby: The Mantles from San Francisco have a new record out on Siltbreeze and that’s gotta be my favorite jam right now.

Also been rockin’ Sonny and the Sunsets (thanks Kelly, thanks Mike), Lee Hazlewood Cowboy in Sweden, Animal Collective Fall Be Kind, Kurt Vile Childish Prodigy and Ducktails Backyard.

On our last tour I got really into Golden Dawn Power Plant and The Witch Lazy Bones. Find and download those! They are such gems!

Lane: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Morby: I love this question! I recently had the best Pho ever at this new Vietnamese restaurant on Bedford and North 9th in Williamsburg. I am so bad, and don’t remember what the spot was called but it was so good! I had some outstanding mashed potatoes at Diner in Williamsburg, I eat a Chipotle Chicken Torta from Jesse’s Cafe (Bushwick and Montrose) close to 4 times a week, and the Fish Tacos from the Endless Summer truck on Bedford are a pretty safe bet. I also highly recommend the Caracas Arepas Bar.

When I was in Spain I ate the most romantic and exotic food of my short 21 years. I had octopus, fried baby squid, razor clams, mussels, anchovies, whole fish, red pepper stuffed with tuna, chorizo, sausage lentil soup, so many good cheeses, and torrone.

Lane: Anything else you want to mention?

Morby: Absolutely. There is 60-something-year-old woman who lives below me named Evette. She is a grandmother and a cancer survivor, and lives with her husband and grandson. She never minds when Woods plays music or whenever we have parties/BBQs in the yard during the summer. In fact, whenever we throw big parties she comes out and smokes cigarettes and introduces herself to our friends and tells us stories of when she was our age and living in Puerto Rico, going to the beach with some sort of pink alcohol in plastic cups and telling everyone that it was only milkshakes.

Once, sometime ago, on a chilly October night I was sitting in our courtyard eating oatmeal for dinner when she came out, saw what I was eating, waved her finger in my face, said “uh-uh!” and disappeared back into her house with my oatmeal. Moments later she came back out with my bowl overflowing with chicken and rice.

A few weeks after that, when it had gotten real cold, Woods was playing music and being loud way after dark, which we always get nervous about because in a perfect world we would want to respect our neighbors as much as possible, but sometimes once we get rolling we just can’t seem to stop. Anyway, as we were playing there was a small knock at the door and we all knew who it was: Evette. We had finally done it. We had finally broke her and she was coming to yell at us and tell us to cut it out. But of course, when we opened the door, she stood on the other side, holding Tupperware full of that night’s leftovers, probably scared to death that all we could afford was oatmeal.

Every time I return home from tour and run into her in the yard she is standing up, leaning against a wall smoking her Newports, and when she sees me her eyes light up and she says: “I been asking everyone, where’s my guys?!”

God bless you Evette!