June 30, 2002

 
I saw The Polyphonic Spree and The Danielson Famile at the Knitting Factory last night. It was a great show - The Danielson Famile were in good form, with a slightly different instrumental line-up than when I last saw them. They played a fun, improvised set focusing on their singalongs for a very enthusiastic audience. The set included a lot of my favorites, such as "Deeper Than The Gov't", "Coolest Lil' Dragon", "Don't You Be The Judge", "Good News For The Pus Pickers", "Rallying The Dominoes", "We Don't Say Shut Up", and "Body English" - I'm forgetting one or two from their first LP.

Before the Danielson Famile hit the stage, a new band called Ursa Minor played a brief set of music from the Fiona/Tori/Sarah McLachlan/Aimee Mann school of unthreatening 'mature songwriting', augmented by a Huey Lewis-style horn section. They weren't that bad, but were very bland and forgettable. I couldn't help but think that Glenn McDonald would have really liked this band.

Since I had to catch the last train out of the city, I could only stay for the first half hour of The Polyphonic Spree's set; but lucky enough for me, the four songs that I wanted to hear the most were among the first five songs played. Though I did technically get what I came to see, I really wish I could have seen the rest of their set. They are a sight to behold - 23 highly enthusiastic people (including the most rocking french horn player of all time) playing, singing, physically emoting joyous pop music on a small, cramped stage. As much as I like the record, I don't think that the recording does this band justice.

I picked up the new issue of Stay Free! and Found Magazine, the latter thanks to a tip off from Margin Walker on Barbelith. I'm really loving Found...I'm just sort of puzzled why the magazine version relies on filler like a crap interview with Lynda Barry, and illegal excerpts from the New York Times, The Onion, and a John Steinbeck novel. I would hope that in the future, the magazine dedicates itself entirely to found items and lets the concept of the magazine/website speak for itself. The newest issue of Stay Free is probably my favorite thus far, it is a theme issue about conspiracy theories, and examines the topic from a number of interesting perspectives - I'll talk about this issue more here or on Barbelith at a later time.

On the way home, I finally got around to listening to The Breeder's Title TK in its entirety and in its intended sequence (well, actually I listened to "London Song" twice over, so maybe not). I can understand why some Breeders fans are let down by this record, but I like it. Having never been anything more than a casual fan of Kim Deal, I don't have any great expectations for her or her bands. As of this writing, I'm fairly convinced that Title TK is the most consistent non-Pixies record she's ever been involved in creating. Don't get me wrong - I really love a lot of older Breeders/Amps songs, it's just that the records have always struck me as terribly uneven. I think that it would be easy for someone to get an impression of unevenness from a casual listen to this new album (I know I did at first), but when listening to the record last night, completely exhausted, it seemed to make a lot more sense.

Every song on the record sounds like it is in a drunken/stoned stupor, some songs having a better composure than others. "London Song" is definitely my favorite song on this album, I can't help but love how wobbly and dizzy the song feels with it's awkward stops and starts, it's sweet melodic refrains, and its confused, incoherant lyrics. "I'm leaking pure white noise." "There's something to believe." "I thought I'd know better." "Misery's fun, I'm kissing everyone. I've got to hold my tongue." Most of the lyrics on this album come off as quietly mumbled nonsequitors, the half-formed ideas of someone who is stumbling around after partying way too hard, Andrew WK-style. Like I said, the whole album feels this way, like it's either sloppy-lampshade-on-head-screaming-"wooooo!" drunk ("Huffer", "London Song", "Little Fury" "Full On Idle"), or about to pass out ("Off You", "Forced To Drive", "Put On A Side"). It's not hard to imagine that this is what it feels like to be a Deal sister given their respective biographies. All in all, it's a good, weird little record; and certainly a lot more interesting than most people are giving it credit for being.