Fluxblog Weekly #181: Roxy Music, Hole, Marcia Griffiths, Electric Six
October 11th, 2018
What’s Real And What’s Make Believe?
Roxy Music “Virginia Plain”
“Virginia Plain” is basically Bryan Ferry willing Roxy Music into existence. It’s all magical thinking – he states his desire for success, he imagines a glamorous life, and the song itself makes it all real. Or as real as it could be, anyway. Ferry’s vision of glamour is specific but also quite dream-like and surreal. The lyrics in the second half of the song are like a vision board of cool things and sexy aesthetics; he’s giving us a loose outline of a better world he wants to insinuate himself into or create from scratch.
The song still sounds incredibly stylish and fresh nearly 50 years after its release. I think that mostly comes down to how obviously excited these guys are to be playing the song. Brian Eno plays his synths with the playful glee of a kid breaking rules for the first time, and Phil Manzanera’s guitar parts are loose and gestural, scribbled out with the confidence of someone completely at ease with following their instinct. Ferry’s voice is somehow goofy AND debonair. Everything in “Virginia Plain” sounds like it’s just a bit faster than it should be, like they’re all too excited to get to the next part to take their time. And why shouldn’t they be? They’re all in a hurry to live in the new reality they’re inventing.
Buy it from Amazon.
October 10th, 2018
It Might As Well Hurt
Hole “Use Once and Destroy”
“Use Once and Destroy” has a violent, churning sound and feels enormous in scope, like a raging storm in the middle of the ocean. Courtney Love’s voice sings with equal parts defiance and despair, vowing to rescue someone she cares about but knows she will almost certainly fail. She’s angry, resentful, and emotionally exhausted. She knows she’s about to hurt herself doing this.
I hear this as a love song. This is devotion and passion on a grand scale, and as difficult and tragic as it is, it seems a bit enviable too. What really gets to me about this song is that the love is so unconditional – she hates the mess they’re in, she hates having to try to clean it up. But she’s willing to give up a lot for them, and is trying to find strength enough for both of them. When you consider Love’s biography, and that she was only a few years out from the suicide of her husband, the song becomes even more agonizing and poignant – is this a fantasy about saving him? Is this the person she wishes she could’ve been for him? Is this really just regret?
Buy it from Amazon.
October 9th, 2018
Kiss You Once More
Marcia Griffiths “Tell Me Now”
“Tell Me Now” has such a warm and laid back rocksteady feeling to it that it took me quite a while to notice that Marcia Griffiths is actually singing a sad song. This is basically a song about a woman who knows she’s in a relationship that’s about to end, and she’s just earnestly wanting to hold on just a bit longer. There’s no trace of anger in Griffiths’ voice, just a longing so genuine and pure that I’d always just interpreted lines like “I’d like to kiss you once more” as being about missing someone in the short term, not fearing that you’re about to lose them entirely. This is not to say that Griffiths’ performance is misleading. It’s rather nuanced, and gives us a moment in a breakup where at least one half of the couple feels a genuine affection for the other.
Buy it from Amazon.
October 8th, 2018
Daily Secretions From A Poisonous Toad
Electric Six “(It Gets) (A Little) Jumpy”
It seemed to me that Electric Six had been in a bit of a creative rut for their past few records, an understandable result of their intense self-imposed album-and-tour-every-year grind. But their new one, Bride of the Devil, brings them back to a peppier, bolder sound more like their mid-‘00s peak. (Yes, you read that right – I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being the Master and Flashy are their best LPs as far as I’m concerned.)
“Jumpy” is the one that sounds like a hit, or at least a hit in a world in which there was a lot of money behind this band. There’s some superficial similarity to the Pixies in the hard/soft dynamics and the contrast of acoustic guitar and a vaguely Latin lead line, but the chorus soars in a way that’s very particular to Dick Valentine in faux arena rock mode. The lyrics, as ever, are a treat – it’s mostly about a guard dog that’s been trained to kill, and there’s a terrific goof on both Boy George and Radiohead that’s only just a lead up to a very literal “karma is a bitch” punchline.
Buy it from Bandcamp.