I Remember The Place And It Was Beautiful

The Dirty Projectors “No More” – I sometimes wonder if you read these posts before hearing the songs and get really disappointed if they aren’t as good as I make them out to be, especially when the writing gets a bit more impressionistic. I’ve bought enough disappointing books and records in my time based on persuasive criticism to know that many times someone’s description of their experience with art is more evocative and interesting than the work itself.

This is also the case for the Dirty Projector’s forthcoming album, which is a virtuoso art-pop record that essentially sounds like nothing else I’ve ever heard, but is an attempt on their part to interpret the feeling of Black Flag’s 1981 album Damaged, a record that I respect but do not particularly enjoy. If you’ve never heard that Black Flag record, I can assure you — their song “No More” doesn’t sound much like this one. Or really, anything like it at all. The Dirty Projectors run with the basic theme, but follow their own tangents to create a peculiar blend of rhythm and harmony.

Perhaps this should be something more artists should try. Why mimic your influences when you can express your impression of their art in ways that don’t necessarily have much to do with their methods and process? Surely getting to the core of why the work affected you is more exciting than just crafting a miniature replica of something that feels very profound. (Click here for Dead Oceans’ Dirty Projectors page.)

Ween “Friends” – Why is that whenever dudes are blessed with impressive technical skill and versatility, they usually end up throwing themselves into pastiche or parody? When you’re forced to view all of music as a set of formulas and modular chord changes, does it all just seem easy and silly? “Friends” is Ween’s version of gay disco (specifically Erasure and the Pet Shop Boys), and though it’s amusing the first time through, by the fifth or sixth listen it becomes clear that it’s not only a fantastic song, but that these guys could probably make an entire album of this stuff without really trying too hard. There’s a fondness for the genre that comes through in the song, but also a bit of condescension in its inane lyrics (“a friend’s a friend who knows what being a friend is”) and its relentless cheeriness. (Click here to buy it from Chocodog.)

Elsewhere: I teamed up with Meg Deans and Erik Bryan to review Nancy Drew over at The Movie Binge. I forgot to get into the randomness of that movie’s soundtrack, but Erik commented on it. The weirdest bit is when Spoon’s “The Delicate Place” plays nearly in full for no apparent reason around the halfway point.