(Editor’s note: Those dudes above built the Hoover Dam. Sometimes I wish I lived in a tent and poured concrete in a desert. Those cats up there didn’t have the internet or cell phones or laser beams, but they look happy, content in their knowledge that they’re building something they can stand on. I probably would have gotten dysentery or something and my beard is nowhere near as cool as the guy on the left’s but I can still dream.)
I’ve written more than once that the best part of this gig is hearing bands that I wouldn’t hear if I didn’t write for a blog. My musical horizons are constantly expanding because talented people share their work with us. I’m lucky. The most recent act to blow my mind via an unsolicited submission is Darren Gaines and the Key Party. (It’s a great band name, by the way, but, strangely not the best one today. It’s a rare post where we have a band name that is better than the classic “somebody and the something” approach paired with a reference to creepy suburban wife swapping, but this is that post.) “Where Were You Last Night” is the first release from an upcoming project; it is the truth. It starts with the yearning vocals of the titular Gaines in front a simultaneously spare and chunky guitar riff that manages to recall “Sleepwalk” and “Clash City Rockers” at the same time. It gets better from there, layering the ethereal and vaguely sinister vocals of Sara Syms as a rag-tag brass group starts up. (Aside: anytime a band has a designated flugelhorn player, I am in.) The song’s finish is operatic and thrilling. As the horns soar, Syms and Gaines swap the song’s title with increasing intensity; you could listen to the last minute or so over and over and be in pretty good shape. 2009′s My Blacks Don’t Match offers material of equal quality and emotion. We’ll have our ears on Darren Gaines and the Key Party’s next release and will pass along relevant information. In the meantime, enjoy “Where Were You Last Night?” and check out more songs at the band’s myspace.
Darren Gaines and the Key Party – “Where Were You Last Night?”
The Well Presented Beaver’s first record is called Placenta of Attention. Soak all of that in for a minute. One of our pet causes here at Citizen Dick is effective and efficient band naming. I’ve been offering my services as a namer of bands from the outset. (We don’t need to suffer through blandly generic band names like “Iran” or borderline grammar nightmares like “She and Him.” We can do better people! Here’s one off the top of my head: Latency and the Modern Man. Name your band that and fame and fortune will follow. Just saying.) The Well Presented Beaver is one hell of a name for something. Past that, the music is good. “Tuk-Tuk Took Me Home,” written, according to the band, during a drunken backpacking trip through Southeast Asia has the feel of (in the words of our own Justin) “the bastard son of Arlo Guthrie.” I love the mouth harp, the weirdly out of place space rock guitar solo and, more than anything, the lyricism. Who can’t relate to getting wasted and rolling home in one of these? (For the record, I originally thought a Tuk-Tuk was the same as a Ton-Ton, but that was the wrong conveyance.) If you dig this, you’re definitely going to dig “Dog Shit Taco” at the bands’ myspace.
The Well Presented Beaver – “Tuk-Tuk Took Me Home”
We’re closing this week not with live tracks but with an extended musing on the appeal of “Two Weeks” from the inimitable Grizzly Bear. Everybody knows that I can’t stop gushing about Veckatimest. (This is the third time I’ve written about that record in this forum. It might not be the last.) Further, I contest that “Two Weeks” is the fourth or fifth greatest song ever recorded. Essentially, there’s “God Only Knows,” “Dirty Frank,” “Androgynous,” “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais” and “Two Weeks.” That’s the list (in no particular order) of the best we’re ever going to do for rock songs. (I’m only partially kidding,) One of the critical knocks against Veckatimest was that it was elitist in nature, a record for masturbatory music bloggers to tout so that they could prove their superiority over the “common” music listener. They get the “overly intricate chamber pop that doesn’t appeal to dudes who still listen to the radio” rap. The implicit message, even in positive reviews is this: bust Veckatimest out when you’re impressing the cognoscenti, but leave it on the shelf when your Levi-clad brother-in-law is over. I say bullshit. Animal Collective makes records for douchebags; Grizzly Bear makes records for all of us. Craft, care and skill, assets Grizzly Bear have in spades, are, essentially, middle class values. Give the masses something that has been created with mind-numbing precision and they’ll eat it up. It is not the average Joe or Jane’s fault that Veckatimest didn’t go platinum, but the fault of the cultural media. There is no meritocracy in music; for most of us somebody else (radio, our friends, that dude at the jukebox) calls the shots on what we listen to. I’m coming around on the whole Grizzly Bear + Twilight thing only because I want every man woman and child on earth to hear “Southern Point.” If whoring out is the way to do that, I’m down.
The deepest confirmation of my suspicion that Veckatimest as a whole (and “Two Weeks” in specific) is populist in nature is the repeated appearance of “Two Weeks” in remixes and mash-ups. Lil Wayne is about as mainstream as they come (sold a million records in one week, won a Grammy, makes “music videos) and “Two Weeks” makes perfect sense behind one of his hits. Dead Prez, while less mainstreamy (they’ve still had a record in the top 25 this century) sound great in front of “Two Weeks.” Kidz in the Hall, relatively unheralded but still working in a popular vein, adapt “Two Weeks” to their needs with aplomb. There is no rap song that wouldn’t sound great in front of “Two Weeks.” (Mash-up folks: please get to work on more “Two Weeks” remixes. I’d like an Ice Cube song jammed into “Two Weeks” by next Saturday. Thanks.) All this to say that the appeal of “Two Weeks” extends far outside the myopic indiesphere. I’ll admit that tracks like these are probably created cynically, with the indie snob in mind, but that doesn’t necessarily detract from their quality. “Two Weeks” is a track that taps into something big, something universal. I’m going to keep beating the “Two Weeks” drum for as long as it takes. I’d like this thing to chart, if possible. We’ve got the relevant “Two Weeks” remixes below (and a live version of the original track); if you’ve got one I missed, hit up the comments.
Lil Wayne x Grizzly Bear – “2 Weeks Til Prom”
Kidz in the Hall – “The Grizzly Man”
