Jam of the day: "The Stand"

Artist: Mother Mother
Album: Eureka
Song: "The Stand"
Released: March 15, 2011
Label: Last Gang

I read about music a lot. I don't really know, but I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that a lot of great novelists don't really read a lot of contemporary fiction, or that great directors don't watch many films, and so on. But as a music blogger myself, I find myself constantly reading other music criticism: reviews, recommendations, interviews with bands, and so on. Logistically, there's a lot of music out there to be discovered and reading lots of other blogs helps me find new artists I like and see what others are listening to. Artistically, though, I generally like to know what others are up to, how they structure their websites, how they write, how they share with their readers, and so on. But that's beside the point. All I'm really saying is that I'm glad I listened to We Listen For You and gave Mother Mother a chance.

I'm a little surprised that I like this song (and their latest album, Eureka) but I don't care to assess that. I like it, that's that. This song has an amazing buoyant energy to it; "catchy" doesn't even begin to describe the way the back-and-forth vocals, between a female duo and the lead male, create a delectable tension that the instrumentation, with synths and guitars and drums and bass, simultaneously cuts through and intensifies. That ice cube clink in the beginning is a nice, humorous touch, too. I've had the phrase "It's like paradise / Spread out with a butter knife" running through my head for days on end, and particularly the way that the ladies here shout it out in a crazy harmony that sounds just right in this context. The video itself is interesting, coming across ostensibly as the female singers interviewing the male singer, with some swirling footage of the band playing during the choruses, plus some crazy animation in the backgrounds that makes you think the singer is being portrayed as, well . . . crazy. Maybe he is, but I'm totally with him on the "women on bikes" thing. And the "all of the people and all of their peers", but that's something else. The jury is still out on whether "everyone's fucked and they don't even know".

Check out the video below, and check out the links below that to find out more about the band.


Mother Mother on the web:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Wikipedia
Myspace
Insound
Last.fm
eMusic

Jam of the day: "I Was Meant For The Stage" (and a film theory)

Artist: The Decemberists
Song: "I Was Meant For The Stage"
Album: Her Majesty
Released: September 9, 2003
Label: Kill Rock Stars

I like being reminded of songs in strange and/or seemingly unrelated contexts. Example: I was doing a Sporcle quiz with some friends the other day wherein one must identify movie titles by short plot synopses. The following was included
English professor John Keating inspires his students to a love of poetry and to seize the day.
and as I typed in the answer it reminded me of something. I said, "Have I ever told you guys my theory about that Decemberists song, 'I Was Meant For The Stage'?" and they said "No", so here I am doing just that. In a nutshell, I think this song is a direct reference to the movie Dead Poets Society and, more specifically, a lyrical retelling of one of the major themes and plot points: character Neil Perry's struggle with his family (mostly his father) completely resisting his newfound but completely overwhelming desire to become an actor and the ultimate realization that, since he cannot truly carpe diem and fulfill his dream, his only choice is to end his life after a breakthrough performance as Puck in the school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sorry, spoiler alert! If you haven't seen this film yet, I just ruined it for you, but it's one of my favorites and I really needed to spell that all out to make my theory tenable. Mea culpa.

So anyway, I can't remember when I first made this connection in my mind, but the more I hear the song and see the film, the more compelling I believe it to be. The lyrics are such an overt expression of yearning and fate, but not fate in the sense of just waiting for something to happen to you because it's bound to happen anyway, but fate in the sense of truly believing that there is something out there meant to happen and you want and need to do everything in your power to make sure it happens because if it doesn't then you've failed the universe or it's failed you or something like that and life just wouldn't be worth living anymore. It's about being "meant" for something, specifically created and brought up and cultivated to fulfill this specific role (hah!). And Colin Meloy sings these words so heartfeltly, as if he's telling you face to face that this is what he believes and the passion in his voice keeps increasing as he becomes more and more sure of everything as he's explaining it. The verses repeat and by the time the lyrical section ends and the long instrumental begins, he's already sung a few lines at full volume and you can practically hear him restraining himself, like he really wants to yell these things from a mountaintop but you're just standing at the bus stop and he doesn't want to be seen screaming at the top of his lungs that he really really really wants to be an actor because he'd look like a lunatic, but in some sense he doesn't really care anyway. Just read along with the words below as you listen to the song and tell me you don't feel that passion and tension building and building.

You'll also notice that he mentions his mother and father and how they've reminded him that he'll never earn a living (in the film, his father is obsessed with ensuring he becomes a doctor to bring pride and cash to the family), and he subtly jabs at them when he says something about resuming one's "callow ways", I believe. There are multiple mentions of fate and the heavens and so on, but the ending verse and the ensuing crash-bang instrumental denouement is what really solidified this theory in my mind. He says that he is "fated to reside" on the stage, like leaving it and going back to "real life" isn't even really "living" to him, and he declares it to be his "final bow", referencing that scene where Neil's father confronts him about the play and tells him to quit and Neil says he will but there's a defiant look about his jaw and face that make me think he knew all along that he was just going to do the play anyway and kill himself afterwards if it didn't please his father. (Watch that scene below.) Then right around the 4:30 mark, the last lyrics are sung and the music builds with the trumpets blaring and even the guitars and drums get progressively louder. And it keeps building and building, the crowd is applauding, it was a fantastic performance ... but then reality sinks in around 5:30 and everything devolves, the horns spiral out of control and the piano falls off rhythm and melody and there's total chaos, there are shouting voices, the sudden realization of the tragedy that's occurred, "Nooo, Neil! My son, my son, my son!" It is literally making me shudder right now listening to it and thinking of Neil's mother and father embracing over his dead body, sobbing uncontrollably.

I don't know about you, but I'm emotionally drained just thinking about it. Time to stop typing.




I was meant for the stage, I was meant for the curtain.
I was meant to tread these boards, of this much I am certain.

I was meant for the crowd, I was meant for the shouting.
I was meant to raise these hands with quiet all about me.
Oh, whoa ...

Mother, please, be proud. Father, be forgiving.
Even though you told me, "Son, you'll never make a living."
Oh, whoa ...

And from the floorboards to the flies, here I was fated to reside.
And as I take my final bow, was there ever any doubt?
And as the spotlights fade away, and you're escorted through the foyer,
You will resume your callow ways, but I was meant for the stage.

The heavens at my birth intended me for stardom.
Rays of light shone down on me and all my sins were pardoned.

I was meant for applause, I was meant for derision.
Nothing short of fate itself has affected my decision.
Oh, whoa ...

And from the floorboards to the flies, here I was fated to reside.
And as I take my final bow, was there ever any doubt?
And as the spotlights fade away, and you're escorted through the foyer
You will resume your callow ways, but I was meant for the stage.

The New Classics: Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

There's a new post of mine over at Draw Us Lines on of Montreal's outstanding album Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? It's one of those albums I wholly enjoyed on first listen and have played periodically since then with monotonically increasing enjoyment. I had a lot of fun writing the piece; I listened to the album a few dozen times over the course of the week, dissecting little snippets of music and lyrics, trying to figure out exactly what it was that appeals to me so much. I ended up with a lot of ideas and actually had a tough time trying to mold them into a cohesive essay that wasn't 5 pages long. Here are a few stray observations and thoughts that I could have easily expanded on ad nauseum:

• Wow are these lyrics great. Every time I thought about a song, I would hear the melody and rhythm in my head, but my main thoughts jumped right to, "What is he saying here? What does it mean?" Kudos to Kevin Barnes for accomplishing that.
  
• The major theme I touched on in the article was the concept of change and transition, most notably the transformation into Georgie Fruit in "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" and the exploration of that persona in the latter half of the album. But part of the idea of morphing into another person is the concept of plurality; there's a multitude of personalities underneath everything, and that part of the existential quandary is referenced nearly as often as is the change vs. stasis dilemma. For instance, in "Cato as a Pun":
  "I can't even pretend that you are my friend / What has happened to you and I? / And don't say that I have changed / 'Cause, man, of course I have"
  This is only track 3 on the album, so it's ostensibly about Kevin's relationship with his wife, but that little "man" throws me off, and it makes me think that it's also about him talking to another part of his personality, the slowly-emerging Georgie Fruit, struggling to decide whether he's willing to let it bubble to the surface. Or maybe at this point he's only just realizing he has internal problems (since this song immediately follows the "chemica-a-a-a-a-als" of "Heimdalsgate...") and is battling to suppress a faceless, nameless alter ego-to-be.
  Other references to this might be the multi-multi-multi-layered vocals in "Faberge Falls for Shuggie", like when he says "I don't know" over and over, each one offset by a split second. And later, in "Labyrinthian Pomp", he does the same thing a few times with "I can't" and since they're so quick and layered I sometimes think he alternates between saying "I" and "you", like he's talking to two parts of himself.
  Okay, last example of this. Track 5, "Gronlandic Edit", just two songs before the transformation, we sense some anxiety about it: "So, am I erasing myself? / Hope I'm not erasing myself..."
  
• I was totally surprised when I paid super close attention to the end of "Faberge Falls for Shuggie" and heard Kevin declaring the names of the follow-up albums to this one! He says coolly: "Skeletal Lamping, The Controller Sphere, False Priest..." a couple times and, in case you didn't know, Skeletal Lamping and False Priest were the immediate successors to this album, save for a small EP of tracks from this session. It makes me wonder when we should expect The Controller Sphere.....
  
• Small lyrical quibble: in "Labyrinthian Pomp" he apparently says "She's so meta, references Stendahl", which sounds neat and all, and makes reference to a 19th century French writer (Kevin's favorite time and place for literature, it seems) and, implicitly, his corresponding syndrome. However, what I've always heard and what makes a bit more sense to me, even if it's less literary or whatever, is: "She's so meta, referenced and all", like she (whoever it is) is meta and multi-layered and referenced. Makes more sense, you know?
  
• What in the world is going on with the cover art? It's amazing and full of detail, like all of David Barnes' stuff, but . . . they always leave me baffled and looking for little significances in the fine print, so to speak. Maybe that's the point. I dunno.
  
• Polyvinyl released a special 12" vinyl version of "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" earlier this year (on super cool-looking marbly sky blue vinyl, no less!). The A side is the original track, and the B side is an alternate version, as performed by the nonexistent band of robots named The Lost Trees (not to be confused with the extant band of humans named Lost in the Trees). You can still buy the digital version, if you'd like, but the limited pressing of 500 is now out of print (really glad I got one!). The "robot version" was recorded to be used in a short film by Spike Jonze, "I'm Here". It's about a robot, naturally.
  

Anyway, like I said, with an album like this there are always so many angles to take on it and so many ideas to process. Enjoy the article, and share your own thoughts, please!