Fluxblog Weekly #51: Andrew Bird, Bibio, Margo Price, Pinegrove, PJ Harvey
R.E.M. fans should note that I was a guest on Chris Ott's Shallow Rewards podcast, and you can listen to that episode right here. We recorded a second episode on the topic, and that should be available in a week or two, depending on how long it takes Chris to edit it. If you're not familiar with Shallow Rewards, it's a truly excellent series that is mainly focused on examining music of the past – mostly the '80s and early '90s – in a way that's fresh, honest, and counter to a lot of critical revisionism. I don't think you need to like R.E.M. at all to appreciate our conversation, by the way.
It's all guitar music this week. A bit chill, a bit country. I didn't intend for this to come out like this, but hey.
April 11th, 2016
A Thousand Tiny Suns That Glow
Andrew Bird “Truth Lies Low”
I ignored Andrew Bird for over a decade, and I’m not sure why. Maybe I just thought he was another Sufjan Stevens, and I’ve always had negative vibes about that guy? Perhaps I heard the wrong random tracks along the way? I probably just associated him too closely with NPR and shrugged him off, just as I do with a lot of other artists in that cultural niche. It’s so easy to be dismissive of pleasant, introverted soft rock, even when you like pleasant, introverted soft rock.
“Truth Lies Low” reminds me a lot of Grizzly Bear in good ways – there’s a gentle grace to the melody, and even if there’s a bit of fussiness to the arrangement, it’s not so neat and tidy that all character is lost. Bird, like the Grizzly Bear guys and the full-band incarnation of Iron & Wine, puts his songs together like a hip interior decorator. A low organ riff gently rumbles through the track, and it sits in the center of it like a handsome table made from “reclaimed wood.” The bright metallic pizzicato notes plucked on Bird’s violin and all those soft snare taps are like bits of intriguing ornamentation that draw your attention without being too distracting. The song feels like a shabby place turned into something quite fancy, or perhaps vice versa. I listen to it and feel like I’m about to pay too much for a cocktail. But it’s going to be a good cocktail, and I’m going to enjoy being in the room even if I’m not certain I belong there.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 12th, 2016
Maybe Everything’s A Miracle
Bibio “Town & Country”
“Town & Country” is sung entirely in the second person – “you’re tired of working in the city, you fight for life…,” and so on – and it makes me wonder whether we’re meant to interpret it as Bibio singing to someone else, or to some version of himself. I tend to hear it more as the latter even if it’s not strictly autobiographical because it comes out sounding like a litany of complaints being used in a campaign to change your own mind and break bad habits.
The angst and negative vibes in the lyrics are at odds with the sound of the music, which feels extremely relaxed and lovely in this very ‘70s soft rock sort of way. Maybe it’s the fantasy of being somewhere else, and having an entirely different life. Or it could be like visiting some other place, and realizing how much better you feel, and that positive experience forcing you to reckon with problems you’ve put on the back burner for a long time because you’re too busy to take them seriously for long otherwise. I’ve never personally related to the sentiment of this song, but I know a lot of people who have struggled with this “gotta get out of the city” anxiety, and the way Bibio expresses it in this song sounds very authentic to me.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 13th, 2016
Riding High On Low Expectations
Margo Price “Hurtin’ (On the Bottle)”
Margo Price is, to put it very mildly, working within a tradition. She’s aiming for Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, and for the most part, she nails it. And that, of course, is a success in and of itself – Lynn and Parton are both exceptional singers with big personalities, and their songcraft is immaculate. Price’s songs, particularly this single, are immediately catchy and charming in that sort of casual, low-key funny way that American country music does better than any other genre. Price’s fundamentals are unimpeachable, but it’s harder to get a read on what makes her distinct, and not just the contemporary iteration of a long-established brand. This is a bit like franchise movies – everyone is going to be on board with a competent version of, say, Star Wars or Batman or James Bond, but you always hope that in addition to giving you the core elements you’ve come to expect from those characters, there’s some fresh take on it. I’m not saying Price isn’t bringing that to the table, but I haven’t been able to figure out what that x factor could be just yet. Seriously great song, though!
Buy it from Amazon.
April 14th, 2016
Every Outcome’s Such A Comedown
Pinegrove “Old Friends”
Is the most self-absorbed thing you can do to dwell endlessly on hating that you’re self-absorbed? That’s where this song is coming from. This guy is sulking through his life, obsessing on failed relationships and grief and missed opportunities and not being good enough to the people he loves, but it’s just spinning around in circles. “Old Friends” fits in a weird no man’s land between country rock and emo, but it totally works and melds the best elements of two genres of rock that seem disparate on paper but have a lot in common when it comes to addressing male emotional vulnerability, details about ordinary life, and bitter little jokes at the singer’s own expense. Frankly, this song is better for this guy’s twang, even if it’s a put-on. (Which is pretty likely, given that this band is from northern New Jersey, not too far from New York City.)
Buy it from Amazon.
April 15th, 2016
As The Sky Is Darkening
PJ Harvey “The Ministry of Social Affairs”
I’ve seen PJ Harvey perform twice in my life. The first was an opening act gig for U2 in 2001, and I barely remember anything about it. The second was a solo performance at the Beacon Theater in 2007, and it was one of the most powerful and impressive shows I’ve ever witnessed. A lot of what made that show so captivating was being confronted with Harvey’s full range as a singer, as she performed songs from all the periods of her career up throughWhite Chalk and approaching them with very different vocal techniques. I had always acknowledged that she had a great voice, but up until that point I thought of her mainly as someone who wrote excellent songs. But from then on, it was clear to me that she had a rare gift as a singer, something like being a chameleonic actor. She writes a song, and fully inhabits it. The songs ask her to be different people, and she obliges.
The past few PJ Harvey records have leaned mostly on the high register of her voice, which has been interesting and suitable for the material, but vaguely disappointing in that I think she’s at her best when she’s more connected to the blues and early rock traditions. She’s come back around to that on The Hope Six Demolition Project, and it invests the songs with a level of passion and sense of high stakes that the more fragile or academic songs of Let England Shake and White Chalk lacked. The songs on this record are about desperate people and desperate situations, and so she sings like there’s something to lose. “The Ministry of Social Affairs” is a rock ballad literally built around an old blues song by Jerry McCain, and shambles along while she belts out lyrics about the people who knowingly profit off other people’s suffering. The whole record is about the oppressive institutions that crush the lives of the poor, and this song is essentially the climax of it all, and she just sounds defeated and exasperated. The music isn’t devoid of hope, but it’s bitter and frustrated in acknowledging that the house always wins.
Buy it from Amazon.