Marc
On Perfecting Loneliness:
I've had it for more than a month now ***1***, so I feel like I've had time to digest and get back to you all about this album. It's not great, not totally exceptional, etc. Zach's totally right about this aspect of this album, yet I will say that it has some absolutely stellar moments like "Wish List" for example, during the whole note, sticcato-drumming part nearly four minutes into the song, with Blake singing "Hey, how's your summer going? / It's good to see you again / I'm gonna' make a record / So I'll never forget". I love that stuff. Metarock, I think it should be called. I love hearing artists talk about making the music that they're making, or responding to other's records like Connor Oberst on the one track of his new album where he talks about the Good Life's Black Out album. I'm a sucker for kitchsy stuff like that.
But I digress.
"Further North" is, far and away, my favorite song on the album and has found a place in my heart forever and ever. I can not only play the damn thing on guitar, I can also sing it, too, which, if you've never seen me try to sing, is quite an accomplishment. I've got the vocal chords of an electric sander. "Rocket Boy" I like, despite the fact that it's so damned long, but hate because it has that stupid drum hit nearly thirty to fourty-five seconds after the actual song's over, which instantly relegates it to last place in any mix-cd that it may potentially have gone on. Dumb move on their part.
To be honest, I like the piano songs more than the rockers, like "Cat Heaven" and "Psalm", but think that songs like "Perfecting Loneliness" is JTB hearkening back to their Orange Rhyming Dictionary Days. And, hands down, that song's got the greatest single line on the album, "this list is what went right/your name is written twice" ***4***. And so on.
I'm a tool, I know.
***1*** and even as I type that I realize how hip it seems, but still I don't delete it which makes me wonder why I always feel like I have to be hip, especially considering the fact that I realized (quite a long time ago ***2***) that I'm not hip. Kind of like Lester Bangs' character in Almost Famous -- "Face it man, we're not cool."
***2*** The Slapstick re-union show ***3***, to be exact, when both Scooter and myself were standing on the street, freezing, waiting to get let inside when we saw this kid (couldn't have been more than 12 or 14) get off the public bus in a leather jacket with patches all over it, crusty looking apparel underneath, sneer fully on, etc, and we both look at each other as if to say, "We give up. We'll never be punk no matter how hard we try."
***3*** and again, this is me placing myself somewhere to look like I'm hip, but I reiterate, "I'm NOT hip!" Dammit, people, get it through your heads.
***4*** which you'll remember, if you're a superhardcore Panaphobe nut, that I referenced way back on 9/11/02. I'm only telling you that to piss myself off for being such a tool. Hope it made you laugh.
On Perfecting Loneliness:
I've had it for more than a month now ***1***, so I feel like I've had time to digest and get back to you all about this album. It's not great, not totally exceptional, etc. Zach's totally right about this aspect of this album, yet I will say that it has some absolutely stellar moments like "Wish List" for example, during the whole note, sticcato-drumming part nearly four minutes into the song, with Blake singing "Hey, how's your summer going? / It's good to see you again / I'm gonna' make a record / So I'll never forget". I love that stuff. Metarock, I think it should be called. I love hearing artists talk about making the music that they're making, or responding to other's records like Connor Oberst on the one track of his new album where he talks about the Good Life's Black Out album. I'm a sucker for kitchsy stuff like that.
But I digress.
"Further North" is, far and away, my favorite song on the album and has found a place in my heart forever and ever. I can not only play the damn thing on guitar, I can also sing it, too, which, if you've never seen me try to sing, is quite an accomplishment. I've got the vocal chords of an electric sander. "Rocket Boy" I like, despite the fact that it's so damned long, but hate because it has that stupid drum hit nearly thirty to fourty-five seconds after the actual song's over, which instantly relegates it to last place in any mix-cd that it may potentially have gone on. Dumb move on their part.
To be honest, I like the piano songs more than the rockers, like "Cat Heaven" and "Psalm", but think that songs like "Perfecting Loneliness" is JTB hearkening back to their Orange Rhyming Dictionary Days. And, hands down, that song's got the greatest single line on the album, "this list is what went right/your name is written twice" ***4***. And so on.
I'm a tool, I know.
***1*** and even as I type that I realize how hip it seems, but still I don't delete it which makes me wonder why I always feel like I have to be hip, especially considering the fact that I realized (quite a long time ago ***2***) that I'm not hip. Kind of like Lester Bangs' character in Almost Famous -- "Face it man, we're not cool."
***2*** The Slapstick re-union show ***3***, to be exact, when both Scooter and myself were standing on the street, freezing, waiting to get let inside when we saw this kid (couldn't have been more than 12 or 14) get off the public bus in a leather jacket with patches all over it, crusty looking apparel underneath, sneer fully on, etc, and we both look at each other as if to say, "We give up. We'll never be punk no matter how hard we try."
***3*** and again, this is me placing myself somewhere to look like I'm hip, but I reiterate, "I'm NOT hip!" Dammit, people, get it through your heads.
***4*** which you'll remember, if you're a superhardcore Panaphobe nut, that I referenced way back on 9/11/02. I'm only telling you that to piss myself off for being such a tool. Hope it made you laugh.
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