waterbut77

Okay, so you know how Eminem tells half-truths about his life all the time? And that makes it hard to know what's biographical and what's fiction--and we hate that. It does seem that BPB is intentionally fictional in his approach in this album: We're not supposed to take it as "true." But then there's this other issue: Is he exploiting / stereotyping / ridiculing a genre and type of musician here? "I ****ed my sister, I'm a backwoods hick" etc.

Engine

Did Carolyn Chute exploit / stereoptype / ridicule an entire segment of Maine's population when she wrote The Beans Of Egypt, Maine? I don't think so. In fact, I feel that that her scarred characters are beautiful representations of a particular reality. Chute is a Mainer and I don't know what she experienced but I trust her imagination in regards to incestuous Maine rednecks. And I extend the same courtesy to Will Oldham. I don't know if his sister is also his mother but regardless he has the ability to reach into the minds of his characters. Even though I don't know his background it is intriguing to hear about how Will ****ed his sister, just as it is intriguing to hear that Eminem killed his girlfriend and put her body in his trunk, and sometimes my intrigue is all that matters.

But, no, I don't personally feel that Oldham is guilty of exploiting or stereotyping and certainly not of ridiculing anybody. In the end, I sense mostly love. Also, most of this discussion should only revolve around There Is No-One... because I think that album is his most raw, youthful work and I think that his lyrics have become increasingly personal ever since.

Engine

Tracks:
1. Stablemate
2. A Sucker’s Evening
3. Arise, Therefore
4. You Have Cum In Your Hair and Your Dick Is Hanging Out
5. Kid of Harith
6. The Sun Highlights the Lack in Each
7. No Gold Digger
8. Disorder
9. A Group of Women
10. Give Me Children
11. The Weaker Soldier

Credits:
David Grubbs – piano, organ
Ned Oldham – bass, effected guitar, additional singing
Will Oldham – singing, electric guitar
Maya Tone – drums, percussion

Recorded by Steve Albini

Released by Drag City

In this case you can judge the album by its cover. The stark, half-done line drawing of a riverside wooden mill sits below red block letters that read ARISE THEREFORE like a command or a warning. It suggests isolation amidst beauty, unfinished business and dark, bloody secrets. This album is full of those things.

Musically this album is distinguished from other Oldham albums by the presence of Maya Tone, who is a drum machine that provides all of the percussion, and David Grubbs on the keys, always inching the songs towards avant garde jazz territory. But he never gets too far because Maya pounds forward with repetitive beats and Will’s brother Ned rounds out a typically pounding Albini-produced rhythm section. Sometimes the songs plod and sometimes they swing. It’s up to Maya. Will sings softly most of the time; usually full of remorse or disgust. The overall effect on the listener is hypnotic and somewhat creepy. Arise Therefore is bleak and disturbing but comfortable, like how a murderer might feel when things are, despite everything, generally going alright.

This album is a move away from the rock-n-roll of Viva Last Blues and into a new territory where his characters are morose and guilty. ‘Stablemate’ opens the album with a scathing rebuke of a woman who is stupid and indifferent enough to not realize that he is leaving her – tonight. She just sleeps through it, the bitch. This is followed by a downright evil tune, ‘A Sucker’s Evening’. The sucker, in this case, is a strong man who messed with the wrong man (more likely with his woman). The protagonist and his friend have some horrifying plans for him. The mood lightens a bit on the next song, the title track, in which more dirty deeds are hinted at but the music and the mood are cheerful. You can dance around a bit to a song that may be about something gruesome. The next song is listed as ‘You Have Cum (…)’ on the cover but the full name is written in the insert as ‘you have cum in your hair and your dick is hanging out’. It seems to be a song about a sexual encounter that is secondary to a larger issue in the participants’ life. As usual it is sung from the point of view of a man who may have an Antisocial Personality Disorder. He says “if god could make me cry / I’d run along the water” while his mind seems to be on something more sinister. Maya Tone kicks it up several notches on ‘Kid of Harith’ by featuring a relatively fast and complex beat, complete with cymbal sounds. ‘The Sun Highlights the Lack In Each’ is as soulful as Will gets on this album. This version of soul just happens to include off-key yelps and high pitched moans; it’s still soulful as hell. Like all good American soul, it is about dark subject matter. Here, it is rumination on how being outdoors in the daytime with your friends makes it all the more clear to you what awful people they are. ‘No Gold Digger’ is a story told by a man who had some money stolen from him by a woman as she thought he slept. That bitch is dead now but the story has a happy ending. The dead girl is nothing like the one lying next to him tonight. He knows this one won’t steal from him. She’s no gold digger. ‘Disorder’ is not an admission of mental problems. Well, maybe it is but it is also a description of how this life can make sense. All things live and die and are renewed. There will always be a new woman to fuck and to fuck over. It is the natural rhythm of life.

Despite the insane genius that I have just described, the album is not great because of the literary heights that Will Oldham reaches here. The greatness comes from the way the album sounds. It is sparse, cold, and loose but still envelopes you with emotion. Albini's production places all musical elements on equal footing and makes sure that each one sounds crisp and clear while Grubbs adds en existential element with his piano. Arise Therefore is an album about an earthly paradise. It is a place where the sinner can feel safe here and now.

9.6/10

Engine

A part of me doesn't want to stop the Will Oldham reviews - he's made so much great and varied music and I'd like to talk about it for a lot longer. But this is not his thread so I'll leave him alone for now. Anyone interested in learning more about any Will Oldham project can find incredibly detailed information at The Royal Stable which is a website dedicated to all things Will Oldham.

Next up:

The Sea and Cake are one of the most interesting of all 90s indie rock bands and they have continued to make relevant music with their rare combination of sincerity and talent. This is a group of highly skilled and trained musicians who could have had succesful careers in far more commercial music (from pop to classical) but instead chose to play in a rock band in Chicago back when indie still meant independent. They do their own thing. Their thing is laid-back, jazzy, lounge rock with a fast precise beat courtesy of the Squirrel Bait family's percussion genius, John McEntire. The band also includes the prodigous talents of Archer Prewitt (mainly guitar) and Sam Prekop (mainly vocals).

This is another band in the Squirrel Bait family who deserve an entire historical analysis but here they will get 3 albums reviews:

Engine

Track List:
1. Jacking the Ball (3:50)
2. Polio (5:24)
3. Bring My Car I Feel to Smash It (4:25)
4. Flat Lay the Water (4:51)
5. Choice Blanket (5:10)
6. Culabra Cut (3:02)
7. Bombay (3:59)
8. Showboat Angel (4:37)
9. So Long to the Captain (5:04)
10. Lost in Autumn (4:37)

Players:
Sam Prekop – vocals, guitar
Eric Claridge – bass
John McEntire – drums
Archer Prewitt – guitar

Recorded by Brad Wood (also sax, percussion, organ, backing vocals) at Idful Music, Chicago in 1993

Released by Thrill Jockey in 1994

In the early-1990s many journalists and other cultural commentators often used the word “slacker” to describe people who were born within a certain parameter of years and they latched on to it as if it could be as descriptive as the term “hippie”. There was of course a contemporary backlash to the word because, as everybody with a brain could see, the word was far too vague and anecdotal to describe a generation or even particular members of one. It got worse when the term was applied to musicians and artists. After all, is it fair to describe anybody who has the motivation to create art as a slacker? The philistines didn’t bother to think about that and they went ahead and erroneously called bands like The Sea and Cake “Slacker Rock”. I suppose their justification was that they were hearing a stylistic looseness that was not previously popular even among the “alternative” acts. While The Sea and Cake certainly did make music that has a lazy swing, it was anything but slack. In fact, they were one of the tightest bands around.

In the beginning, The Sea and Cake was a bunch of art students who also played music. Prekop, Claridge, (and producer Brad Wood) played together in Shrimp Boat while Prewitt was playing lounge music in The Coctails. They got together and recruited drum wunderkind McEntire to form one of my favorite bands of the whole mislabeled slacker era. I could be mistaken but I remember reading that the band got together to record their self titled album just for fun without clear intentions to continue making music together. But the result was too good to ignore so they never stopped. That may be a bit of mythology but I like it because it explains the pure joy that is expressed in their first album. Like all members of the Squirrel Bait family, they seemed to approach their music with nothing but the urge to create which I like to believe is a recipe for success and fulfillment. It won’t guarantee any financial rewards but, as everybody knows, music that is made for a paycheck is highly likely to suck. So The Sea and Cake simply went at it – and it was good.

It’s difficult to describe the band on a less than holistic level because while each member’s contribution is essential, the overall result is something far bigger than each of them and it is the blend that is important. That’s not to say that each part of the whole is impossible or even imprudent to describe because all of these guys are quite talented. Prekop’s voice is the most instantly notable aspect and the most confounding. He does the usual melody-making that most singers do but somehow he always keeps a tight cap on the energy level and this is certainly the biggest reason that The Sea and Cake were called slackers. I hate to describe a singer with mentions of other singers but…Prekop sounds to me like Stephen Malkmus tempered by Lou Reed. That is, Prekop’s voice soars into falsetto and also descends into monotony but it always stays melodic and low-key like a proper lounge singer. I can’t tell if Prekop sets the energy level with his voice or if he matches the band but, in any case, his voice blends in perfectly and also stands out strongly. He switches between mumbling and soulful crooning throughout the album and unlike a lot of his 90s peers he also stays on key. Prekop also plays guitar next to Prewitt and together they form a precise but hazy backdrop to the vocals. The atmosphere is usually reminiscent of a smoky jazz lounge as the guitars use soft tones and plenty of arpeggios to relax your soul and provide a cushy retro sofa for your reclination. The combination of Prekop and Prewitt is an excellent one but the band would go nowhere without its rhythm section. Claridge and McEntire drive the songs forward with rare precision. The rhythms of this album are exhibit A of why anybody who ever called this band “slack” is ignorant. McEntire takes control of the steering wheel throughout the album and shows off a side of his playing that got lost in his other bands (Bastro, Gastr Del Sol, Tortoise). The Sea and Cake is where he gets to let his machine-like ability shine with jazzy, poppy beats.

Here is where I'm tempted go into detail about each song on the album. I have done that before on this thread because I feel that the albums I am reviewing are valuable as whole albums and that each song is a significant part. The Sea and Cake is no different but the songs don’t need to be described singly because they flow together so evenly. It’s better just to say that the album has two poles; one is the upbeat pop of songs like 'Jacking the Ball' and 'Flat Lay the Water' and the other is the expansive almost traditional soulful jazz on songs like 'Culabra Cut' and 'Lost in Autumn'. The band wanders between the contrasts over the course of the album.

Interestingly, the band members are also visual artists. Prewitt and Prekop are involved in the world of independent comics (Prewitt also worked for Marvel at one point) and Claridge is a successful painter (his painting of Charles Mingus is printed on the album insert). So The Sea and Cake is truly an art band. That’s not to say that their music sounds bizarre or experimental and, in fact, it is very accessible. The album was clearly made by skilled artists who like to color inside the lines. Slack my ass.

8.7/10

Jacking the Ball


Flat Lay the Water


Culabra Cut

Farfisa

Ever wonder what happened to the bass player?

http://www.stites.com/attorneys/242/clark-c-johnson

Engine

I actually had never wondered.
But that is the most interesting piece of news that I've read in a long time - thanks. I wonder if any of his clients would be surprised to know that their lawyer was the bassist for Squirrel Bait and Bastro. If he was my lawyer I'd let him charge a premium for regaling me with stories of the old days

jackhammer

Great review of the album. I must admit that I have only played the album a couple of times which needs to be rectified.

__________________

Engine

Track List:
1. Nature Boy
2. Parasol
3. A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl That He Doesn’t Love Her A Little Bit
4. The World Is Against You
5. Lamonts Lament
6. Soft and Sleep
7. This Cantina
8. Earth Star
9. Alone, For The Moment
10. I Will Hold The Tea Bag

Players:
Sam Prekop – vocals, guitar
Archer Prewitt – guitar, organ
Eric Claridge – bass, piano
John McEntire – percussion, EMS VCS3, organ, electric piano
And occasionally:
Poppy Brandes – cello
Marnie Christensen – violin

Recorded by John McEntire 1994

Released by Thrill Jockey 1995

I imagine that the 1990s Chicago music scene was good to The Sea and Cake. Independently produced and ill defined music was well loved so the band must have fit in nicely with the burgeoning independent rock and jazz scenes. Whatever the reason, the band stuck together and made a second album, Nassau. It was their first album that I heard and it holds a special spot in my brain. It’s an idyllic spot where I lounge on a beach and listen to truly interesting and pleasant music; paradise.

Essentially the album expands on the ideas expressed on their debut; Lazy precision, drunken melodies and pure freedom. Here they have added more instrumentation on some of the songs and developed their sound in several directions. The pop songs are poppier and the experimental ones sound more like the math/post rock that was in vogue. In comparison to the previous album, Nassau delivers a deeper musical experience. The first one relaxes me but this one sinks me into the floor several inches.

‘Nature Boy’ opens the album with farfisa driven sounds of a 1960s California beach party. You can almost picture people doing the The Monkey. But then Prekop’s voice staggers in and clears your mind of the Beach Boys. He mumbles, moans, and makes lazy falsetto stabs. Energetic is not a term that I would use for any of his singing but he seems to have abandoned the lethargic, almost-spoken delivery of the previous album. Next is a pretty song called ‘Parasol’. Here we have string-enhanced choruses that are rich with melody. The deep low end and loungy guitars tossed in the mix provide a cushy atmosphere – here’s where you begin to sink into the sand.

The album takes a drastic yet smooth turn on the next song which is an instrumental and essentially a long drum solo by McEntire. Not the traditional Keith Moon type, though. This is more like a simple song where the percussion takes center stage while simply providing the beat. This is The Sea and Cake’s first real post rock song. The percussion is pounding and repetitive, the bass forms an ephemeral melody and the guitars exist only for ambiance. But it’s more than that; it’s a showcase for Mr. McEntire. If this guy had existed as a drummer 40 years previous he would have done battle with Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich.

‘The World Is Against You’ is a return to pop driven by Prekop’s low-key yet pleasant voice and Prewitt’s lounge background. This is a song for your first drinks of a sunny day on a Caribbean beach. ‘Lamonts Lament’ lets the guitars lead with a groovy arpeggio and a funky riff. This is more good-time rock. Prekop goes wild with some muted screeches that somehow remind me of Prince. ‘Soft and Sleep’ is a lullaby for those who are not ready to go to sleep just yet. Maybe one last drink around the campfire is in order and this is the song for it. If McEntire would slow the beat down it would instill rest but his forceful rhythm makes you want to keep going. He gets even more riled up on the next song, ‘The Cantina’ which feels like a parasailing rush. ‘Earth Star’ is some more instrumental post rock where McEntire really plays around with sound. It’s like he took lessons from Jim O’Rourke. ‘Alone, For the Moment’ is the true lullaby. Prekop is as breathy as ever and the guitars are as laid back, the drums even slow down to offer a break from the percussion onslaught. The album finishes up with ‘I Will Hold the Tea Bag’ which is open musical territory. It gives me the feeling that this is what happens when The Sea and Cake just jam. A defined song still comes out but it sounds improvised – like post rock dipped in avant-garde jazz. The longwinded ending of the song reminds of a mellowed-out Bastro move.

Why do I love The Sea and Cake so much? I think it’s because albums like Nassau allow me to listen to easily digestible pop music and still indulge my taste for experimental songs. Nassau is where The Sea and Cake experiment with happy sounds. If I could take only one album with me to a deserted island, it wouldn’t be this one because I would already have all the sunshine, solitude and good vibes that I needed. If I could only take one album with me to a cold, dark place where I would need a lift – Nassau would be a contender.

8.9/10

Nature Boy


A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl That He Doesn’t Love Her A Little Bit

__________________

Like an arrow,
I was only passing through.

Farfisa

I'm downloading "Nassau" as we speak. "A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl That He Doesn’t Love Her A Little Bit" has some damn good drumming.