Lincoln Hill
Continuing with my rather transparent Mark Kozelek fixation, the new w/trem track Lincoln Hill features jangly DADGAD guitars (I mean jeez, Mark, get a new tuning…), a jaunty shuffle in the rhythm department, and somewhat mournful lyrics about being all introspective, ect.
It does not sound anything like Scritti Politti, which is perhaps a pity as I have discovered that Scritti Politti sounds absolutely wonderful.
When I have finished reading Lacan’s Écrits, and written moreover a 100,000 word treatise on the role of consonants in the proper delivery of breathy high-tessitura vocals, then maybe I will be ready to make a tune that sounds a bit like Scritti Politti.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Rather hard for some to avoid a Mark Kozelek fixation at one point or another.
On a short trip to NYC last year, I effectively had one Red House Painters song on autorepeat (Void from San Ramon) for the entirety of my visit.
I love your prescription for approaching the Scritti Politti sound. Rather hard to avoid a Green Gartside fixation at one point or another either.
September 1st, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Dominic,
I should also say the song is lovely. (I finally downloaded the software necessary to play it.)
September 1st, 2006 at 8:38 pm
It steals from about three or four different pages of the Kozelek Songbook o’ Doom, so it would be pretty pathetic if it didn’t manage to cop at least a little of the gloomy loveliness of his oeuvre. But thanks, all the same! One of these days I will get over being ashamed of being good at pastiche; after all, pulling off a successful Scritti (circa Cupid and Psyche) pastiche would really be something to be proud of. Maybe it would help if I called it bricolage instead.
I made some comment a few posts back about how “Tiny Cities” is an interesting response to the dilemma of what to do after the apotheosis of “Ghosts of the Great Highway”, but not an adequate one. After listening to it some more, I take that back.
“Tiny Cities” moves into some quite different harmonic territory, static and suspenseful where previous Kozelek stuff tends to go for swooning chord changes (albeit endlessly repeated…). Another way out might have been to move away from the diatonic changes, typically anchored in the drone strings at the top of some open tuning, and try something more chromatic; a bit like Kevin Shields’s notion that MBV after “Loveless” would get a bit jazzy, a bit D’n'B (it’s kind of obvious in retrospect that this was never going to work; but I’d still love him to surprise us…).
Also, the sheer verbal density of Isaac Brock’s lyrics forces Kozelek to sing quite differently – fewer chances to hit that long, looming note and let it float – so again he’s pushed out of the comfort zone, unable to reproduce the satisfactions of past performances. The result is pretty menacing in places – as I’ve suggested before, there’s a streak of sadism and perversity running through the RHP back-catalogue, and Brock’s writing brings that more into focus.
It’s not possible to predict what the next Sun Kil Moon recording will sound like (not something you could ever really have said about RHP), and I think “Tiny Cities” is the main reason for that – so contrary to what I said before, it’s a pretty ingenious response to the problem of artistic success.
September 2nd, 2006 at 6:45 pm
I’m all for bricolage pastiche. What else are mere mortals to do in the face of genius/greatness? (Not that geniuses don’t do bricolage. They just seem to do it at a higher level.) I feel that at a certain point MBV was no longer a band but also became a genre within which lots of bands (Flying Saucer Attack, Medicine, The Swirlies, etc.) made worthy records.
My Kozelek fixation centers on Old Ramon which by sheer dumb luck I only came across while quidditching. ( http://theimpostume.blogspot.com/2006/07/nice-to-see-that-simon-reynolds-lovely.html ) I also like Rock and Roll Singer, another quidditch find, and am just now listening to Songs For A Blue Guitar all the way through for the first time which I know because I am hearing that Long Distance Runaround, All Mixed Up, and Silly Love Songs are not simply borrowed song titles but, in fact, terrific cover versions.
I foolishly managed to avoid RHP for its entire existence even while sharing a hometown. All those sadcore/slowcore pieces in the local music press failed to tempt me despite my abiding love for AMC.
I confess I have not yet heard Ghosts of the Great Highway but listened to a few songs from Tiny Cities via Napster this morning and agree that this seems to be a good move from within the dilemma you describe.
I imagine you’ll be pleased to know that my three-and-a-half year old son just asked me to play Lincoln Hill again from your MySpace page!