Yasu Cub – picking at grass (2026)
Jacob Oki Ahearn’s reflections make a song about our place in the universe feel empowering on his band Yasu Cub’s latest single, ‘picking at grass’. Off Yasu Cub’s new album, my early years, your spiral arms, ‘picking at grass’ has Ahearn roaming with a childlike courage to explore, over the slow movement of guest guitarist Ilia Kanuhin’s gentle melodies and blues-y bass line of his own.
He begins with a memory: “You were picking at some grass/ And you asked if the universe gets lonely/ Spreading open like an orange peel/That never runs out of where it’s going” With a poetic rendering of this memory, the past becomes a way to send the listener into thinking beyond linear time and to contemplate the circularity of existence.
Yasu Cub gets us to think of our place in the universe through holding together philosophy, relatable emotions, and our connection to the material world in the lyrics. This contemplation feels digestible through the soft, crepuscular atmosphere created by the arrangement and Ahearn’s endearing delivery. The band’s Pacific Northwest indie melodies and band member Rory Hoffmeister’s shimmering piano keys render the serene spaces and times in our world where the quiet and all beings exist unbothered by expectations and narratives. That’s the time when the vastness of our inner world can feel most tangible.
It’s in this place where, with the line, “And with us inside/ We go unnoticed like somewhere in our bodies”, the band helps us understand that nothing living is insignificant. For Yasu Cub, there are worlds within us and in everything around us. There are connections, memories acting as travel, and understandings and experiences that complicate and change our plans and view of ourselves—a mirror of the universe.
On the hook, Ahearn makes the philosophical feel humane, singing, “Yeah, our bodies, they may disintegrate/ And they break away, but again they collect in those mothers’ bellies.” Within lines like these and others, and the warmth of the country and blues influences, an encouraging spirit flows through the track and lingers afterwards.
Yasu Cub’s ‘picking at grass’ makes plain that we’re always becoming.
Find out more about Yasu Cub on his official website, X, Instagram, Bandcamp and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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