Psychedelic Pastoral
Dungeon - 4
by Josh Dill
6.5/10
The band Dungen (apparently pronounced “doon-yen” or “doong-en” according to various magazines) is the project of the Swedish musician Gustav Ejstes. A multitalented musician, Ejstes has worked in folk, rock, and hip-hop. He writes all of Dungen’s music, produces their albums, and even plays most of the instruments on the recordings. Dungen’s music is best described as creative psychedelic rock, featuring many instruments, and foraying into many diverse styles. Their previous recordings include the boisterous masterpiece Ta Det Lugnt (2004), and the more straightforward rocker Tio Bitar (2007).
Dungen’s fifth LP, confusingly titled 4, sees the band moving into a somewhat different style. This album is more holistically coherent, with congruous songs and a consistent warm sound. Although their psychedelic and classic rock influences are still obvious, the new songs are much more mellow, and rely heavily on piano. They are shorter and more contained, and you can even discern the sensibility of a pop song cloaked in the rich atmosphere of reverberating guitar and jangling cymbals.
Unfortunately, some of the songs on 4 are so mellow that they sound dormant. The first three songs, although providing a lush ambience, just seem boring, especially the second one, “Målerås finest,” which sounds like lounge music. This unengaging opening sequence is inexcusable coming from Dungen, whose last album was introduced by an insane, snarling, distorted guitar solo. In general, 4 emphasizes song composition and orchestration over guitar heroics, with some tracks sounding a bit jazzy. Many of the songs are purely instrumental, which is a letdown even though I can’t understand the band’s Swedish lyrics. Luckily, 4 does include rocking, indulgent guitar jams like “Samtidigt 1” and “Samtidigt 2,” and the dynamic “Mina damer och fasaner.”
Although I’ve probably made this album seem unappealing, it’s actually quite good. Ejstes and his band are masters, and 4 sees them creating music with more confidence and fluency than ever before. Maybe it’s this maturity that disappoints me; I admit that I miss the crazed exuberance of their earlier recordings, with their howling, fuzzed-out guitars, and shrieking flutes. This album might seem boring upon first listen, but its sophistication and subtler sound require patience to be fully appreciated. Dungen remains one of my favorite bands, and although I have some reservations about 4, I’ll consider it an interesting development and refinement of their musical style. For people who are new to this band’s music, I would recommend Ta Det Lugnt, which is more immediately enthralling and amazing.
WTF? OMG IRL!
Oh My God @ Mohawk Place 10.02
by Andrew Blake
9/10
My ex-girlfriend was in love with Billy O’Neil. They were going to have angel babies, she told me, as, well, he was an angel. I wouldn’t say I was exactly jealous, but, well, I was. What is the opposite of cringe? That’s what she would do at the sound of his voice. It was the face-wide smile and endless swoon in her eyes that intimidated me. Many mornings I would awake with his harmonious laments echoing through my ears. I could see the infatuation in her eyes as she would join me in bed, cradling our kitten, imitating the singer’s voice in the hazy morning hours. I showed no interest. I was going to destroy Billy O’Neil.
I realized soon that there really was no competition. O’Neil sings for Oh My God, a Chicago-based quartet that has been making music for nearly a decade. Grudges aside, I swallowed my pride to watch my arch nemesis croon his blissful ballads at Mohawk Place on Thursday. I finally understood what she saw in him. A near-fatal van crash sidelined the group for all of last year, but O’Neil and company overcame adversity and finished a new album, Fools Want Noise , this year. Oh My God’s music is practically unclassifiable; staccato drums and upbeat organ drive the songs, and O’Neil’s distorted electric bass lines rip through leads like the dirtiest of guitar solos. It is O’Neil’s voice that makes the band though; it is as close to angelic as you could imagine. His lyrics are delivered in an almost hushed whisper, but the fire in his eyes exemplifies every syllable, not necessarily to the point of mass intensity-- rather hysteria. O’Neil frequently drops his bass onto the monitors and seems to enter another dimension on the stage. Several times he let down his hair, stacked on his long face in a bun, and tied his mane around his neck with no concern, and what looked like no knowledge of his own actions.
While O’Neil drifts from side-to-side of the stage during songs, the prancing sway and demonic gaze in his eyes are absent when the last note rings out. Without his band gleefully churning out their filthy indie piano-pop, he seems lost and quiet. When the songs kick back in, O’Neil hammers out basslines and quickly reassumes his demented persona, which may or may not be an elaborate act. With a homemade v-neck with “Prostitute” scribbled around his torso, O’Neil bellows out songs about love, depression, drugs, and love for drugs. Live, Oh My God transforms even their gentler tunes like “February 14th” and “Volatile” from 2003’s Interrogations and Confessions into a frantic sideshow, thanks to O’Neil’s dazed and confused delivery.
While the music itself is something to behold, catching Oh My God in concert might make you really reconsider your take on live music. It was during the enchanting crowd-pleaser “Better Than That,” that I saw the passion in O’Neil’s eyes and was starkly reminded of the glare my ex had projected toward me months earlier atop my disheveled bed. O’Neil’s devotion toward his music is strangely contagious when it is perfected live, as if the emotion of his words have the power to seap right into the crowd. Whether it’s the group’s errratic keyboards, bouncing bass or the comely coos of Billy, there is something in Oh My God that transcends the music into another dimension of passion. Just look into his eyes and you’ll see it.
Redbone Hits a Blue Note
Leon Redbone
by Joe Stevens
10/10
Leon Redbone doesn’t look a day older than 60, but his personal history is a mystery. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1974, Redbone claimed his birthday as July 10, 1670, while other times he’s claimed the date as October 29, 1929: the infamous day which sparked the Great Depression. He has also cited Italian composer Paganini (died 1840) and Jerry Lind (died 1887) as his parents, and what’s more, he claims his trademark glasses were inherited from ragtime guitarist Blind Blake, who died in the 1930’s.
Of course all of this is myth, but self-invention is a prominent theme in American musical history: take Robert Johnson at the crossroads, or Ramblin’ Jack Elliot in the rodeo. Indeed, whatever his true origins may be, Redbone has picked up this tradition and triumphantly reinvented himself as Leon Redbone: rag-time, vaudeville, blues, and Jazz king. September 28, at The Tralf Music Hall, a hundred or more people are entranced by this cultural hero as he interprets the songbook of Jelly Roll Morton, Gene Austin, and other largely unremembered but brilliant American songwriters. And when he does it so well what else really matters except that he keeps on playing?
“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The Satchmo scream blares around the room and elicits a holler from the crowd. The piano jumps out of a quick refrain as the high wisp of the clarinet descends over Redbone’s ragtime riff as the two run together for a while. Redbone strokes a quiet and subtle pattern while the clarinetist spins a yarn around the whole thing. All the while, a man introduced as Fritz the Baker bashes his brushes on a suitcase and taps a muted cymbal on every eighth beat.
I feel a rumble on the floor as the audience taps their feet, yet no one dares to clap and impose upon the sound that’s coming from those four old-timers on the stage. Leon Redbone sits at the center in his trademark outfit: a 1920’s suit, Panama hat, and sunglasses. His backing band, consisting of a pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist, and percussionist, is also dressed in period clothes, but it’s Redbone who is the most striking, especially when he mutters allusive comments such as “I’m sure there are plenty of sinners in the room.” Occasionally he leans forward to sing, but he mostly leans back and lets his voice collect in the microphone and purr out through the PA.
Throughout the performance, Redbone comments on the obscurity of his music, “I don’t think I mentioned, that was the sing-a-long,” he jokingly states. But despite their obscurity, the songs are accessible and even feel vaguely familiar. Songs, which were crafted almost a century ago, sit comfortably with Redbone’s own compositions and resonate with the same nostalgic familiarity that characterizes much of Redbone’s work. Indeed, he plays with this feeling of familiarity, idly toying with blues standards and ragtime riffs in between songs.
But there comes that Satchmo scream again: the scream the band thrives on; the scream which speeds them up, slows them down, or most frequently jilts them into a round of instrumentals. The subtle tinkling on the piano, Redbone thumping on his bass strings, the saxophone and the clarinet tying the whole thing together. It’s perfect.
Jenny Lewis Drops Acid Like It's Hot
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Natalie Schnorr
8.5/10
Jenny Lewis has swindled the Fates. As a former kid actor, she should have ended up spending her adult life caked head to toe in Wet n’ Wild make-up sliding down a stripper pole in Nevada, or rushing her daughter to a beauty pageant so she could live vicariously through her via spray-on tan. Instead, Jenny Lewis has what every kid actor dreams of—success after the age of 12, without a sex tape in sight.
Acid Tongue, Lewis’ latest release, is the follow up album to her first departure from her full-time group Rilo Kiley, 2006’s Rabbit Fur Coat. If the acoustic gospel folk vibes featured on that album didn’t really fit your secular bag of tricks, don’t rule out Lewis’ latest effort just yet.
Acid Tongue marks Lewis’ transformation from a pseudo Patsy Cline to a full-blown saucy, ginger Jezebel. The album, which against all odds makes country rock sound cool, is a definite showcase for Lewis’ abilities as a songwriter. Tracks like “Acid Tongue” and “The Next Messiah” are mature, and yet simple and sincere, like Bob Dylan with estrogen injections.
The album opener is “Black Sand,” and I’d be lying if I told you it was one you’re going to want to replay the second time around. But fear not, because once those three minutes are up, your ears will orgasm. “Pretty Bird” is the song Jenny Lewis should have released years ago. It’s final proof that this girl’s packing a pretty pair of soulful pipes, which is kind of a downgrade for the rest of us because there’s no way to sing along in the car without sounding like an asshole. It’s also the song you know will evoke a wave of awkward hippie hip-swaying amongst the audience when performed live. When you hear “Acid Tongue,” you’ll know why Jenny Lewis made the album. “See Fernando” is probably the most like Lewis’ previous work in its vivaciousness, and its western influences will have you saving up for a six-shooter. “Godspeed” is really just one of those songs that says, “my glass is half empty, so I don’t have enough to get my Prozac down.” Lewis’s collaboration with Elvis Costello is strategically placed to overshadow the mediocrity of “Trying My Best to Love You,” but “Jack Killed Mom,” which is brilliant Oedipus Rex incestuous funk, is a more-than-sufficient apology for the last three minutes. The album wraps up quite nicely, with only one major flop in “Bad Man’s World,” which would be better off played over a public service announcement about polyester and pedophiles.
It seems as though Acid Tongue will be enough to eclipse the fact that Lewis once appeared in an episode of Just the Ten of Us called “Puberty Blues,” and if that isn’t success, I don’t know what is.
Pessimism Never Sounded So Good
Eunomia - amconmag.com/larison
by Josh Dill
10/10
Eunomia is the outstanding blog of Daniel Larison, a PhD student at the University of Chicago. Formerly on its own website, the blog is now hosted at the website of The American Conservative, an unusual magazine that provides traditional, paleoconservative, and antiwar counterpoints to mainstream Republican politics. In addition to his work as a contributing editor at this publication, his exceptional work on Eunomia establishes Daniel Larison as one of the most compelling voices in the political spectrum.
Larison maintains a shocking level of productivity, writing several large posts every day. His output is consistently at a very high level of quality, written professionally and coherently, which stands out in the anything-goes atmosphere of internet writing.
Larison’s views are informed by many different sources, including conservative statesmen like Edmund Burke and Bolingbroke, the Russian Slavophiles, and libertarian-leaning thinkers like Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn. He possesses impressive knowledge not only of his specific areas of interest (Russia, Byzantine History, the Caucasus, and the Anglo-American Constitutional tradition, to name a few) but also of world history in general. He also draws inspiration from Orthodox Christianity, a religion he converted to as an adult. It’s hard to classify him in one ideological position, especially in today’s political climate, where the meanings of terms like “rightist,” “conservative,” and “liberal” are so distorted and incoherent. A few main principles of his political viewpoint are deep skepticism of state power, localism and decentralism of government, non-interventionist foreign policy, and criticism of mass democracy.
The strength and consistency of these political principles are what sets Larison apart and makes his writing so interesting. He admits that his views are unconventional and unpopular, but says that this is not necessarily a bad thing, as consensus views are often wrong and misguided. You won’t find any political favoritism in his judgments. Politicians of all factions are criticized with equal scrutiny.
This makes his comments on the current election very interesting. Far from being a revolutionary agent of change, he says that Obama has accommodated himself to the political system at every stage of his career, and holds views that are dangerously mainstream, especially in foreign policy. McCain’s spurious conservative label doesn’t spare him any censure—in fact, McCain might be one of Larison’s least favorite politicians. He argues that McCain is reckless and dangerous, basing his decisions on visceral emotions, and reflexively hostile to numerous countries. Since Larison’s political views are so uncompromising, he considers the difference between the two candidates to be “paper-thin.”
For anyone who is weary and disgusted with the state of American politics, Eunomia is an oasis where you can always find opinions that are strikingly different than the norm. It’s an indispensable find for dissident conservatives, Ron Paul supporters, and other critics of government power. Even if you have nothing in common with Daniel Larison’s viewpoint, his blog is still a must-read because of the intellectual rigor and coherent criticism he brings to the subject of politics.
