Farmegeddon Dr. Pepper Seitan Sandwich Slow Cooked with The Breedings and Jens Lekman

Thursday night I had the opportunity to attend a sold out event at Roosevelt 2.0. The event included a showing of the documentary Farmegeddon, a discussion with the director and sampling of local foods and products provided by restaurants, farmers and foodies. WMNF, the local community radio station, played a large role in putting this event together.

Farmegeddon, as with most documentaries, had some flaws but overall I enjoyed learning through human impact stories that were presented by the film. These were stories of farmers who were producing foods (mainly raw milk/dairy products) to support a niche market that was against USDA protocol. As a result, most of these people found themselves victims of ridiculous USDA antics that caused much hardship and monetary loss. The film, at its core, is simply asking why people don't have the freedom to eat what they want even if there are risks? I mean there are just as many risks drinking soda, eating meat from corporate factory farms or smoking cigarettes as there are drinking raw milk or eating raw dairy products. Yet only three of those things (cigarettes, corporate meat, soda) are legal to be sold in all fifty states.

Taking part in the evening's festivities was a Tampa Food Truck called Wicked Wiches. While I didn't buy anything from them (there was too much free food being passed around) I was inspired by one of their sandwiches. As a result we have a Dr. Pepper Basted Seitan Brisket Topped with Caramelized Barbecue Onions and Cheddar Cheese (make it vegan or don't, your choice). You can get the recipe, in printable form, here.


These sandwiches are urban and rural life rolled into one. This means that while they don't go great with people who have a history of suffering from heartburn, they go great with The Breedings. The Breedings are a brother and sister duo from Kentucky. Willie spent some time in NYC and put out a few solo albums before his sister, Erin, joined him to do the vocal work. The result is a band that isn't completely pop and isn't completely country, but falls somewhere on the spectrum between the two. They have just recorded their debut album, Laughing at Luck, that Willie deems "what I would imagine the Strokes would sound like if they were a female fronted band from 1978." Here's my favorite track "Impatient Love."

The Breedings-Impatient Love by write.click.cook.listen

Also of Seitanic interest is Jens Lekman's disagreement with himself. There's a "Shut up" "No you shut up" which later becomes a "F**k You" "No F**K You" which are surrounded by, amongst other things, accordions. Classic. This is Lekman's first release in a few years and if the rest of the EP sounds like this, I'm captured.

Jens Lekman - An Argument With Myself by DOJAGSC

Artist's Cookbook: Queens-Style Stuffed Turkey Burgers Courtesy of The Miami

When I opened my email on July 2nd I had a new message titled "Attn New Music" from a band called the Miami. I sort of rolled my eyes thinking they were some overproduced hip-hop band that wouldn't interest me in the least. I mean the Miami? When I think of Miami, I think of a culture of clubs, djs, celebrities, beaches and consumerism. But there's another side of Miami, one that is seedier and dangerous, a place where Kim Kardashian won't go after dark (or probably at all). This is much closer to what The Miami is all about.

To start with The Miami is Jesse Alexander and Alex Beaulieu (one Queens and one Upstate New York resident) and they don't do hip hop. Their music can best be described as a melee between experimental blues, folk and noise punk. It is littered with synths and pianos, guitars and drums, vocals and percussion all seemingly sent through a cheap transistor radio. As a result, the grittiness of the instruments comes to the forefront while Jesse's emotionally tinged lyrics rise and fall somewhere in the back. The band's first act, an album released in April called I''ll Be Who You Want Me to Be, was crafted by taking African-American slave songs, gospel hymns and spirituals and reinterpreting them through the eyes of "two middle-class, secular, well-educated college kids." For their second act, which the Miami is currently in the process of recording, the band plans to focus their reinterpretive spirits on slave songs and songs from the Confederacy penned during the Civil War. The album, tentatively titled "New Design," has no release date as of yet. Here are two tracks, "Strange Fruit" and "I Shall Not Be Moved" from I'll Be Who You Want Me to Be:

The Miami-I'll Be Who You Want Me to Be

The Miami-Strange Fruit

Between (or around) recording their two albums the band also created the soundtrack for a short documentary, entitled Dots Into Lines, by New York based filmmaker Darcie Wilder.

dots into lines from darcie wilder on Vimeo.

To accompany their debut LP and soundtrack and to kill time until the next album, The Miami suggest grilling up a Queens-Style Stuffed Turkey Burger.