Author Archives: jms

Let’s talk about albums as a whole for a second. Talk about what an album implies to me, just so we can establish a common vocabulary and an understanding of what I mean when I say album. Music is alive, I believe. Music is a living, breathing thing. An album can represent any living being and can transform along with you as time passes. It would be easy, then, to understand an album as a person, and a song as a conversation. It’s a helpful way for me to understand music.

Here’s my point: if albums are people, then one can have relationships with albums. Maybe not in depth relationships with every album you ever hear, but there are certainly some that are going to have long lasting effects on each other. The first two Pere Ubu albums are two of my closer friends, and they’ve been mentors for me. “Dub Housing,” the second one, is a thickskinned old soul, is a free thing as much as it can be without losing all semblance of sanity, and is the host to ten of the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had.

The album actually reminds me of an old high school friend in that way. Earth happened around them, and they just chose to take the bits and pieces of it that they were interested in. “Dub Housing” is a collage of a cityscape glued to a proud alley cat. Certainly aware of how pop is supposed to work, how the world is supposed to work, but disinterested in favor of it’s own little continuum.

It’s an album that could resonate very powerfully these days, given the exclusive tendencies of referential humor and in jokes, of self-constructed worlds. What Pere Ubu built here is a fearsome act of western individualism built with second hand tools and no manual.

WINNER: “Dub Housing” by Pere Ubu

WHY: Timeless, hostile, and otherworldly in the ways rock ought be. Have “On The Surface,” but know that the album is a snake pit that’ll get stranger further inside.

Oh yeah we do individual song reviews. No I didn’t just decide this. Shut up.

This is usually the answer I’d give to any sorts of goofy questions like “what’s the best song of the decade” or “what’s your favorite song,” or even “if you were a wrestler, what would your theme song be.” Well, this or “S.O.S.” by Lightning Bolt. Anyways, the point is that it’s probably my favorite song.

When I bought “Shine A Light,” I went in having only heard this song, and was initially really disappointed. I had listened to this song basically nonstop, and was completely in love with it. I was too young to understand the power it had, but I could see the demonstration of that power, and I felt like I had to own it. Eating a man to gain his powers and such.

Of things that have not changed as I’ve aged, the power this song holds over me is one of them. It’s hard for me to listen to it and not drop everything I’m doing, and not convulse as it courses through me, and not burst into howls along with Bry Webb. It’s hard not to surrender.

The song itself is everything I love about art rock or whatever you want to call this. There’s more than power chords because the song is worth more than that, and the intricacy of the song is meant to fit in with the power the song has over the songwriters. I wonder if they knew how incredible this song is when they were starting to put pieces of it together, because every part of it is perfect. It’s beautiful in the same way films of predators are, and brutal like the empty streets of modern cities. The savage build, short release, and return to the cacophony of pure goddamn rock music is lifelike in a way only a song can be. This song makes me want to fuck something in half and scream through glass, and all of the other feats rock and roll should make you want to do.

So I guess the song is okay.

WINNER: “Nighttime/Anytime (It’s Alright)”

WHY: It’s perfect to my aesthetic.

So today happened. Have pictures. Continue reading →