Transfigured/transcripted
Hey There.
I turned 48 on Sunday and it's Tuesday morning and I cannot sleep, so it's you I turn to, neglected friends. Another month, and I am wondering about why I slowed down: I got busy, I started using facebook again (why? I was clear! Except I wasn't, obviously).
I had a lot of articles to write as well. I think perhaps writing was less fun that it should be and I need this to be fun, and right now, in the delicate phrase that is 4:36AM in a cold Tasmanian winter, this is fun.
I went out and saw some bands on Sunday.
I was rather tired as I'd gotten the most beery as I had allowed myself in about six months the day before for a celebratory feast. Still, I wanted to look at this stuff, and some dear friends had come from New Zealand (and turned up at my tiny shindig, bless them) so to the pub we went: I drank soft drinks and ate a counter meal.
Bands were great.
Ragtime Frank is an interesting fellow who does this kind of blues hollering stuff mixed with feedback and a few strange sonic devices. It's hard to say what it really is so I won't beyond saying he has a singular character and is really good at yelling melodically. Most of his songs are takes on blues. country and even folk traditions, and he used to be in a very weird and lively act called The Lost Domain up in Brisbane. They were a band as family or social unit, and they had something very special indeed, but that's long gone now and one of the other key members has died. Ragtime Frank is the keeper of the flame though; and he had my attention. He particularly nailed down a version of Stagger Lee, which was screeched in horror of textured slabs of feedback. Frank is rad; he's kind of an acquired taste but if you want to see and hear music that simply doesn't have any relation to the trends of the modern world this would be it.
The Curse were up next. I'd not seen this band in a long time and they've changed who does what and written a lot of songs, and gotten an excellent drummer and seemed pretty drilled now. I'm not sure where I am in what music I really dig but I am bit over the DIY punky thing that these people are doing, but a good band's a good band, and what's great about The Curse is it's so fresh and uncynical. There's been a wave of shimmery Go-Betweens-lite in Melbourne and everyone went on about how great it was but I didn't buy one iota of it - it wasn't awful, but not a thing about Dick Diver or The Twerps really spoke to me in the end. I'd seen that done better a decade earlier by Panel of Judges to be honest. The Curse are the good version of that and might have something to do with them being buddies in a genuine way and also being supremely daggy. I mean holy mother Mary, so daggy. I loved that aspect of them.
They had a moment at the end where they swapped instruments and that song was magical, and they are pretty fine. It's not you it's me; I just don't know how many more bands like this I need to hear now. Still they held my attention and have some material that is beyond stellar, and they are Melbourne trendies and are far better than any thing else in this ballpark. I'd buy a cassette. I hop they put one out. I want to drive to the beach in summer listening to The Curse.
Moe Grizzly were an odd proposition. This act finished a few years back and they were right to do so: quit while you're ahead. They could do with some more releases of recordings, especially a proper record, but it's also time to move on; everyone in this act is a terrific musician who will make good new stuff, so dwelling in the past is questionable. The show was for fun though, and it was a bit silly as a result, with the drummer dressed as Ophelia and one of the guitarists as a genuine redneck in a Hank Williams shirt. Glorious.
Yes, here they were again, and they turned on a show, and I did wave my hands around at a few points. There are good songs built from great riffs in there, churning riches from the ground and making towers to heaven. I can't help but enjoy the varied song approaches, the instrumentation and the arrangement. I'd always enjoyed the rolling riff of I Own Your Feet but this evening, their slow number, Tom Dooley, dragged me underwater.
It formed an odd bookend with Ragtime Frank's Stagger Lee, and was probably the best moment of the whole evening. The four people turned into a mist of despair and melancholy, and there was a sense of loss in the air. It had been fun and even sweet and Lordy, Moe G can rock, but I was tired and sad, and slunk off into the night.
It took me a few days really but it was a great night. I was sober and reflective, thinking too much perhaps. Moe Grizzly are a fine band, or rather were once: I can't tell anyone what to do and reunion shows are fun (this was) but there's also something of the past here that needs to be let go. It must be hard though: here's one of the best bands you'll ever be in and it's done; the songs look so fun to play and the material shines with a sweet beauty at times.
Someone wrote on facebook 'best Hobart band ever' and they were quite right, Moe Grizzly were for that chunk of time. It's just that the chunk in question is gone and I saw another band that might end up being the greatest ever (again) earlier in the year, and I thought about how we lionise and dwell on our moments, and I wonder if that's a good thing or not. It's probably okay. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley.
Linkery:
GROWLING SWALLET.
John Carpenter's 10 best Movie soundtracks. With clips.
A sculpture controlled by bees.
Homophobia at the library.
An open day at a brothel in New Zealand.
Tolkien during the first world war.
A wikipedia entry about a remarkable peace protestor
A short story disguised as a facebook post
bears catching fish. I had this one on for a whole day and it was riveting.
The Prince Online Museum
Cunning Folk Wikipedia
Frightening reading about the RNC: I'm with the banned.
Music: Dispossessed are getting a bit of publicity and so they should - they are pretty much without precedent as a band in Australia, or maybe anywhere (the nearest thing I can think of like this is the Mexican Black Metal kvlt cabal The Black Twilight Circle).