Paul and the Patients – To the Lions

Paul and the Patients are lobbing a five song EP into the ether on May 26th.  The Brooklyn-based quintet, fronted by the eponymous Paul Holmes, have been rattling around New York for about a year, honing Holmes’ jangly, but tuneful  pseudo-punk songs on the stage.  The EP, To the Lions, offers a ton of insight into what these lads have been listening to (Television, Citizen Dick favorites The Walkmen, The Libertines and so on), but, perhaps more interestingly, it says a lot about what they’ve been thinking about as well.  There’s some incisive commentary on the album about the nature of celebrity and the culture that produces it, which is a bit stunning from a band that the masses have not yet embraced.  The song we’re passing along today, “Blogspot,” is where the rubber meets the road lyrically, and is a track that ought to incite some discussion from our peers in the internet-based critical community.

“Blogspot,” roughly, follows a band that breaks into the public consciousness through the blogosphere.  The lyrics are worth quoting at length: “You’ve done you’re very best, we’ll put it to the test and everyone will tell everybody else.  You’ve got a very different sound and word will get around.”  This initial optimism gradually gets more jaundiced, and the song ends abruptly with the final lyric, “tell lots of people, but not too many.”  The notion that the unknown band pours sweat and talent into a record which will be consumed by the listening community, not because of its inherent merits, but because word spreads through the hipster grapevine is a bit of a poke in the eye at the designer jean clad, holier than thou indie rock cognoscenti.  That final jab, that something stops being good when too many people know about is particularly biting.  Essentially, I (and my blogging brethren) listen to records and then tell you to listen to them; I have zero musical ability, no relevant journalistic experience and, essentially, credibility that’s only based on your perception of the music that I endorse. While we try to fight against it here at Citizen Dick, we still, to a degree, have to write about acts that are perceived as cool.  I’m not a fan of, say, U2, but, if I were and that last record was any good, it would have been strange to read about it here, right?  Is the same thing true for Paul and the Patients, and their musical stand-in in “Blogspot?”  Nobody knows about them now, they’re snappy dressers and the EP is good.  If enough blogs say nice things about To the Lions and the band sells enough copies, will their inevitable full-length follow-up be too far from obscurity to be raved about by the “tastemakers?”  I’m fairly sure that the probability on this one is pretty small, but if Paul and the Patients evolve into the biggest band in the world, would Pitchfork pan their third record?  Can a band maintain any level of credibility if they have any level of success?  (Oh, and, on the eve of the publication fiftieth anniversary edition of Elements of Style, how many prescriptive rules did I break in the above paragraph?)  These are heady questions on the nature of art, consumerism, perception and criticism that are being raised by a band that’s just releasing their debut EP.  This seems to bode well for their future.

Musically, “Blogspot” provides a good sense of what the EP as a whole sounds like.  Trebly guitars, punchy beats, half slurred, mildly affected vocal delivery and anthemic, shouty choruses are all over the five tracks on To the Lions. “Complaint 15,” the EP’s opening song is (I think) a breakup song (although it might just be about a shit day) that pounds the listener into submission, with Holmes’ lyrics spit out in a hung-over rasp in front of a shuffling beat and bright, but angry, twin guitars.  When he howls, “my face is a mess and there’s gum in my hair,” and then repeats that line, there’s legitimate angst in the air.  (Which is kind of a neat trick, given that that line could verge on the parodic in the wrong hands.)  If “Blogspot” wasn’t so strong, “Complaint 15″ would be the song I’d hit the most.  The remaining three tracks work in the same vein and are generally successful.  While “Blogspot” and “Complaint 15″ steal the show, “The Other Side” is brusingly catchy worth the sticker price as well.  The general impression after listening to the EP a few times through is one of longing; the songs are good and five of them aren’t enough to really satisfy.  While I’m glad that Paul and the Patients didn’t opt to pack in any filler, I wish this was a full length.  I like the sound and I want to hear more of it.

Overall, Paul and the Patients show a lot of prowess and promise on To the Lions. Assuming they’re not on the cover of Rolling Stone anytime soon, we’ll both anticipate and write about their next record.  (That was a joke.  At least ostensibly, we don’t give a shit if you think we’re cool.  As long as they don’t follow this thing up with a 12-song, all-electronic rock opera, about  a telemarketer or something, we’re pretty sure you’ll see Paul and the Patients on Citizen Dick again. (Even if they sell out a little.))

“Blogspot” – Paul and the Patients