Fluxblog Weekly #69 (nice!): AJJ, Of Montreal, Miya Folick, Field Mouse
August 15th, 2016
A Special Kind Of Way To Be Cruel
AJJ “American Garbage”
If I were to make a Girls character quiz at BuzzFeed, I would go in assuming that very few people would want to get Shoshanna as a result. She’s strange, awkward, and extremely abrasive. A lot of people hate Marnie, but would still like to be told that they’re like the show’s most conventionally attractive woman. A lot of people think Jessa is a sociopath, but would still like to be told that they’re sexy and charismatic. Up until around the fifth season, Shosh is mostly portrayed as this strange cartoon character and her sexuality is typically played like a joke at her own expense.
And yet AJJ’s Sean Bonnette has written this song declaring that he’s a Shoshanna, and identifies with her two defining qualities: confused and rude. He goes on to compare himself to other unflattering things, and the album this song comes from is essentially a litany of Bonnette’s flaws and failures. It can be hard to tell whether his goal is to self-flagellate, to preemptively counter criticism, or to display his worst qualities with a perverse pride. Maybe it’s a little bit of all of those things. I can’t imagine Shoshanna doing any of that, though – she’s more about trying to seem normal and failing in her attempts to obscure her weirdness. Oversharing your worst qualities is more of a Hannah thing, you know?
Buy it from Amazon.
August 16th, 2016
I’m Just “Illuminations” And “Flowers Of Evil”
of Montreal “Gratuitous Abysses”
I’ve been following Kevin Barnes’ career closely for about 12 years now, and in some ways it’s like being heavily invested in a hysterical psychedelic soap opera starring someone I feel like I know extremely well but have only ever met in passing. Innocence Reaches is a strange record, mainly in that Barnes’ stated goal of making something open-hearted and positive fizzles out after the first couple tracks, and then “Gratuitous Abysses” comes along and throws the rest of the album off on a very different set of textures and themes, most of which won’t be surprising to fans of post-False Priest of Montreal.
“Gratuitous Abysses” mainly concerns Barnes’ struggles with establishing a new relationship with his ex-wife, and his fears about over-mythologizing their past while worrying that they’ve become boring. This fear of being boring and predictable comes up at other points in the record too, and it’s both sad and funny that he’s doing everything but straight-up declaring himself to be amessy bitch who lives for drama. (Not sure how he feels about robbery or fraud, though.)
There are other songs on Innocence Reaches that address other relationships and flings since he’s been divorced, but the songs that are most obviously about his marriage are the most potent. Maybe it’s because Barnes’ darkest sentiments have become so blunt over the years, and he’s so merciless in the way he picks at his own flaws, and those of other people. It’s very compelling to me, and it’s particularly difficult when I relate to what he’s saying. He’s holding a mirror up to himself, but a lot of the times you just see the worst of yourself in the reflection.
Buy it from Amazon.
August 17th, 2016
Just A Feeling In The Room
Miya Folick “Pet Body”
Miya Folick sings with a passion and flair that sometimes reminds me specifically of Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker. Not so much the aspects of Corin’s voice that could blow a hole through a mountain with their volume and intensity, but certainly the times when her phrasing becomes more playful and deliberately camp. Folick leans into this approach when she’s conveying sarcasm and irony, which is to say, a lot of “Pet Body.” She’s singing about feeling alienated from her own body in humorous terms – “I’m just a brain with a pet body,” “I’m just a sack of flesh, don’t take me so seriously” – but it’s a dark joke at her own expense. This is extreme self-deprecation to the point of self-negation, and her emphasis on the fragility of this body that’s just incidentally tethered to her mind makes every part of her life seem arbitrary and precarious. Folick nails a very tricky balance of comedy and terror here, in large part because she commits so fully to her performance.
Buy it from Amazon.
August 18th, 2016
You Want To See Ego?
Field Mouse “The Mirror”
Field Mouse give you exactly two guitar strums to get your bearings before blasting into the circular riff and propulsive beat of “The Mirror,” the opening song from their album Episodic. The spiraling sensation and violent momentum reminds me of Sunny Day Real Estate, but Rachel Browne’s vocals are a lot more…well, let’s say more stable than anything Jeremy Enigk ever sang. Browne is singing a break-up song of the “no, fuck you” variety, and starts with indignation before building up to bitter sarcasm on the chorus. She doesn’t sound quite as vicious as her words get, but I like that effect – smiling and composed while tearing into whoever it is for whatever the reasons might be.
Buy it from Amazon.