Two weeks ago (Apr 8) Sam Seeger released a new video. This is "Paper Planes" and is a cover of a song from hip-hop artist M.I.A.. The song came out in 2008-2009 and is a satire on society's attitudes towards immigrants, written in part as an expression of M.I.A.'s own experiences as she fought the U.S. government.
I asked Sam how he came to do a cover of this song, and he said that part of it was for the challenge! I love everything about M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”. I just wanted to play that riff on slide, and see if I could do the gun and cash register sounds with my guitar.
Challenge met! Here is Sam Seeger's version of "Paper Planes".
It's rare that an event comes along that gives a new context to a song that's already been written. And maybe even less probable that the new context will be opposite from what the writer might have intended. ... ... all while keeping his original meaning intact.
Such is the case with Asbury Park band Wetbrain's song "Pilot", the first track on the band's 2018 album, "Things You Think You Thought You Knew". The song opens with the words If some sort of a natural disaster ripped out my rug from beneath, and the song's main character thinks about his decision to respond to either "spring into action", or "just keep watching tv". Through the song he weighs and balances and finally comes to the conclusion that taking action is useless, he'll just watch tv. Apathy en masse is not so much a question of people not wanting to take a stand, but that taking a stand would be to no avail. And I probably should add that he seems to have some misgivings about taking this position.
The song was written in 2018. Fast forward to April 2020, and we're in the middle of the coronavirus epidemic. We're being told that, to control the spread of the virus, we should self-isolate and stay at home. >>> So that's where the contradiction comes in, that to take action to control the spread of the virus, we should stay home and watch tv! Not what the writer originally intended, I'm sure.
It was my final night out before everybody was grounded due to the virus that I saw Wetbrain do a show at Century Bar. A highlight of the show itself was some amazing guitar special effects that I had never seen or heard before. ...
Since the show, I've listened to a lot of their work on line. The band employs some very unusual song structures, or maybe they should even be called non-structures. They're more akin to incidental music one might experience in a film, where the instrumentals follow particular lines that are occurring in the dialogue on screen rather than the words wrapping themselves around a pre-set melodic line. It's also more akin to opera, where the instrumentals sometimes follow and catch the nuances of the thoughts being expressed, phrase by phrase, rather than the words' fitting in to the instrumentals and more traditional structures of verses and refrains.
A lot of the songs in the album deal with personal relationships, and the introspection reveals some complicated entanglements not only between the characters in the songs, but also with the integration of outside concepts such as "free will" as well.
The main character in "Pilot" says, "I don't need your commentary", so I guess I better end my comments here. This is the link to the song "Pilot", where you can read the words as they're being performed. "Pilot" by Wetbrain (CLICK HERE).
Yesterday Philly punk rock outfit Trash Boy released a preview video of their show on "Musicians 4 Bernie Livestream" which took place later in the evening and featured several bands. From the org website : Musicians 4 Bernie (M4B) is a coalition of musicians, songwriters, and composers who are fervent advocates for change. As artists who have dedicated our lives to creating music, we are often underpaid, uninsured, and unappreciated by society at large. Inspired by Bernie Sanders' lifetime work fighting for working class people, M4B will not stand by and accept the status quo. Musicians 4 Bernie’s mission is to inspire people to vote through music's unique capacity to bring people together in public spaces, while simultaneously using the platform to advocate for single payer healthcare. A link to the org page is below.
Trash Boy sang "Hellaware", which is the closing track on their newest album "Who Will Take the Trash Out When We're Gone?"
The Electric Mess just released a new video on March 5th.
Everybody has experienced the flood of emotions that can come at "Last Call", and New York band The Electric Mess pretty much captures them all in their new video by the same name. This is a video of a single that is part of the band's new album, "The Electric Mess V", to be released on April 17.
"Last Call" means literally last call, but maybe it's also a metaphor for "last chance" in relationships or in forming relationships. There's a sense that maybe we coast, repeating what we're not really into, hoping things will turn out well in the end, not being proactive when we have the opportunity, and suddenly it's too late, we're at last call. In the video we meet a bunch of characters who have acted / may not have acted / may have regrets / may not have regrets / but all come crashing into the ultimate question at Last Call "What are you going to do now"?
I've seen The Electric Mess do a live show only once, and that was six years ago at Mercury Lounge. While I've been aware of some shows they've done in the meantime, their dates and my nights off never seem to be parallel.
I like that the band also shows a cool sense of humor in some of its work. And I like garage and psych. Here is the band's own description from their Facebook page ::: Since forming in 2007 in New York City, The Electric Mess have developed into an exciting and tight rock n' roll band, led by a dynamic lead singer, Esther Crow, with Dan Crow (guitar), Oweinama Biu (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Derek Davidson (bass), and Alan J. Camlet (drums). Their sound combines elements of 60s garage, 70s punk, psychedelic pop, and high energy rock."
Here is "Last Call", video from the upcoming album :::
Whoa!You've Become A Witch!
Very different from the above and WAY over the top, The Electric Mess's video, "You've Become A Witch" was mainly what got me interested in the band and pulled me into seeing their show at Mercury Lounge that night six years ago. Probably the funniest music video I've seen.
Check this out now!
Watch it to the very "The End" in the credits!
Thursday I went to Century Bar and saw Philly solo outfit "Elbowache" do a good opening up of the evening. Elbowache has several albums on line on Bandcamp, and I've been listening to the work over the past week since the show. There are textured instrumentals and nuanced tales of the human psyche.
A case in point is "Breakup Song", which is the seventh song on Elbowache's 2018 album, "Zero Fantasy". We're jolted right from the beginning with a loud dissonant bass sound, that's then followed by some other parts joining in, but together they're always churning, always bubbling, helping to create a feeling of upheaval. The song structure has some choppiness in it with some unexpected breaks ... except when there aren't. The instrumentals keep the main character in the song as well as the listener off balance.
The character in the song has plenty of mixed emotions; he's happy for the breakup / not happy for the breakup / looks back / wonders what happened / wonders what's happening.
And what upheaval! He wants to talk about it:
all the time
but not all the time
only some of the time
but not all the time
