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“Savory” – Jawbox
(Words/music: Jawbox, available on For Your Own Special Sweetheart, Atlantic 1994 / Dischord 2009)

For all of my interest in music, I still find that I take a lot of styles for granted.  Specifically, the licks that fall under the umbrella of “post-hardcore” feel natural to me, in part because I’ve spent most of my active listening life hearing bands put these things to use.  Wiry, dissonant guitars, odd time signatures, and oblique lyrics fill many of the megabytes on my hard drive, and while hearing a nimble bassline under a wall of feedback used to turn my head, it gets lost in the fuzz these days.  In a way, I’ve become overloaded and fatigued by the imitators before I got to the original sources.

So when I came across Jawbox years ago (but years after they heyday), the record didn’t stick immediately.  It was only later, going back to For Your Own Special Sweetheart, that I appreciated the songwriting.  On “Savory” in particular, I’m in awe of the way all of these knotted melodic strands, whether guitars, vocals, or bassline, wind together.  It seems like every time one tugs in a certain direction, all of the rest react.  It creates this densely jarring and deceptively melodic fog, and like the fog it gradually rolls out and changes its shape.  It’s this nuance that made me reconsider the band. 

Today, as the reissue of For Your Own Special Sweetheart sat on my porch when I got home the same day that the band reunited for a one-off gig on Jimmy Fallon’s show, I’m curious how many other bands I’ve slept on because of the bands that imitated them.  This isn’t to say that a band is great because they did something first, as there are plenty of “important” bands that don’t inspire the same reaction that others have.  Instead, I wonder how many bands I’ve overlooked (or prematurely judged) strictly because my first impression reminded me of a derivative band.  Optomistically, this just means I have more Jawbox moments in my future – moments where I find a pleasant surprise within my own collection.

More on Jawbox: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: jawbox | 1994 | 1990s | atlantic | Dischord Records | jimmy fallon | I don't need to hear another Thursday record again for the rest of my life thank you very much. |
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“Never Tear Us Apart” – INXS
(Words/music: Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence, available on Kick, Atlantic 1987)

In the United States, the night before Thanksgiving becomes a sort of impromptu reunion.  I’m not really big on the forced nostalgia and awkward reminiscing, so I tend to corral my friends somewhere where we’re less likely to run into hoards of people I haven’t seen since the early part of the decade (tonight I didn’t even make it that far – I stayed in and made an Oreo cheesecake for Thanksgiving).  It all comes back to the idea of reminiscing on someone else’s terms; if I had control over more of the settings – say, knowing which random people I’d run into, or at least setting a playlist – then I might be more inclined to brave the bars on a night like this.

Oddly enough, the first song that came to mind was “Never Tear Us Apart.”  At first, it came to mind as the perfect song to play near the end of the night.  These types of slow power ballads make for great sing-alongs, and I have vivid memories of belting out the chorus with some of my friends when the song came on.  Then, the more I thought about it, it thematically captures these kind of moments where the past and present intersect.  I doubt it’s what Michael Hutchence thought about when he wrote the song, but high school brings up bittersweet memories (or, more aptly, bitter and sweet memories).  “Never Tear Us Apart” describes a collision of two worlds (in this case, past and present) with resolution and a slightly melancholy undertone.  The way he sings the title line sounds convincing, yet the necessity for such a declaration suggests that the union will be fraying soon enough.  In this case, as each year passes, the gap between the shared memories and the new lives we all live widens, and with each passing year the topics of conversation grow fewer and fewer .  At least, if we all had a few drinks and sang the backing vocals to “Never Tear Us Apart, “ we could bond over this implicit recognition of a widening gap.

More on INXS: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: INXS | 1987 | 1980s | atlantic | odd personal reflection |
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“Smiley Faces” – Gnarls Barkley
(Words/music: Brian Burton & Thomas Callaway, available on St. Elsewhere, Atlantic 2006)

In 1976, David Bowie affectionately referred to his Young Americans album as “plastic soul.”  It seems that Bowie used the term (originally used as a critique of Mick Jagger singing soul music) somewhat tongue-in-cheek, yet it seems an apt description.  If soul often centers itself on the groove, Bowie took it as something pliable.  His take stretches parts and bends other to his liking, creating a weirder version of the genre.

Regardless, I wouldn’t call Gnarls Barkley “plastic soul,” but rather “cartoon soul.”  It seems almost too obvious of a label with Danger Mouse getting his name from a cartoon, the series of costumes the band wore during promo appearances, and the general Technicolor quality to the band’s albums and videos.  Rather, I’m drawn to the larger-than-life qualities of cartoons and the abundance of wonder and imagination.  Even “Smiley Faces,” one of the tracks on St. Elsewhere that isn’t crammed to the brim musically, feels elastic.  Where some songs use a “walking” bassline, this one feels like the way a cartoon character struts down the street with long, bouncing strides.  Cee-Lo’s voice fits this type of track perfectly, as he’s able to manipulate his voice without sacrificing its power or soul.  For example, he can hold a note and bend it to his liking.  It’s not that these notes feel unnatural nor is Cee-Lo the only vocalist with this skill.  In this setting, it feels like a cartoon character fluidly shifting forms.  His voice has the same freedom to move unconventionally rather than stay tied down to genre conventions.  Even if the end result sounds like a snappy, soul-inspired piece of rock music, parts of it make it feel like it’s hand drawn, inked-over, and colored in to achieve something brighter and snappier than average.

More on Gnarls Barkley: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: gnarls barkley | 2006 | 2000s | atlantic | david bowie | plastic soul | cartoon soul |
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“Hey Pretty (Drive-By 2001 Mix)” – Poe
(Words/music: Kenneth Burgonmaster, Mark Z. Danielewski, Poe, and Matthew Wilder, available on Haunted, Atlantic 2000 (Reissued 2004))

I had only the vaguest recollection of “Hey Pretty” when House of Leaves took hold of me in college.  What started as an assignment for a modern fiction class grew into a semester long independent study on Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel, and somewhere in the process I realized that Poe is Danielewski’s sister.  Moreover, her Haunted album makes numerous detailed (page numbers!) references to her brother’s book.  When I sought out her album during the week that my paper sent me nocturnal, I never really got much further than the remix of “Hey Pretty” featuring Danielewski reading part of the book over her song.  Even if Poe told an interviewer that the collaboration grew out of a desperate desire for airplay on the testosterone heavy modern rock radio, Danielewski’s reading builds on Poe’s original.

Of course, Danielewski picked a relevant section of the book for “Hey Pretty.”  Rather than use one of his labyrinthine footnotes or detailed explorations of the novel’s mysterious house, he reads from a section detailing a romantic tryst in a fast car.  These sections lean heavily on visual descriptions and sexual tension, pushing the driving-as-sex metaphor awful close to obviousness.  Still, Danielewski’s pacing and eye for detail fit the song well as he balances rhythmic passages (the “fast, slow, fast-fast, slow” sounds better than it reads).  Particularly, the focus on communication in the jazzy breakdown puts the two lovers (for lack of a better word) as physically close yet emotionally detached – a recognition that the narrator acknowledges when he laments that “dark languages rarely survive.”  Even if it’s a little odd to have such an explicit affair in a song performed by siblings, Danielewski’s storytelling and Poe’s chorus suit each other well.  Even if the remix isn’t as darkly complex as either of their other works, it’s a rare bright spot in an otherwise labyrinthine intertextual multimedia web of storytelling. 

(And yes, Poe, we get the gist of the song now. Thanks for asking.)

More on Poe: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: poe | mark z danielewski | house of leaves | 2000s | 2001 | atlantic |
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