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(04/19/19 3:46am)
Boa is a three-man psychedelic rock band from Louisville, Kentucky. Two of the boys of Boa are brothers, drummer Gaven (who can use as little as a stick and a crushed Pabst Blue Ribbon can for percussion) and guitarist Logan Hopkins. Their brother from another mother is bassist Shane Spader. As per their Spotify description, the band was “forged deep in the dirty basements of Louisville”. This may be true in reality, but on record, they sound like they come from outer space. Deep funk grooves and soulful vocals (singing duties are split among the three members) come together to create a soothing, spaced-out atmosphere that is equal parts relaxing and danceable.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2xcipVrkShrtRRVtv9kuh9?si=VaUlj0qkSiuVCycXVK-pKQ
Songs like “Where Art Thou”, “Loose Lips”, and “Love Summer’s Dawn” show off their ability to craft driving, urgent rhythms without sacrificing their mellowness. “No Bad Days” slows things down, exploring an uneasy and gently melancholic area. Boa is a band that can roll with many tempos without sacrificing their musical identity.
“Invisible Man” is a good tour through the ground they can cover, opening with a sludgy, heavy dirge that shifts into a frantic garage-psych line, before switching gears again into a shot of funk-infused prog. It’s a song that is constantly dancing on shifting ground, not only instrumentally but vocally as well, switching between singers on a whim. One or two members will assume backups while another takes the lead. “Drips” is another good example of how the band can constantly change direction in a song and still keep their heads.
The guitar, bass, and drum work are not confined to a single territory. Prog rock, psychedelic rock, ‘70s funk, and occasionally folk are all played around with, sometimes all incorporated into the same track. The songs can stand on their own when done acoustically as well, the songwriting strong enough to retain its power even without the spacey guitar tone found in their studio work.
Recurring lyrical themes are nature and human behaviors, and the way both can lead a person into dangerous territories. Many of the tracks have bouncy and fun instrumental work, but there is an element found in the lyrics that suggests a darker side to the extraterrestrial exploration as if the band is isolating themselves in space in order to be free of the dangers and worries of life on earth. At the same time, there is a longing to be in and enjoy Earth, to find the magic of creeks and trees, brothers and lovers.
Also, they did a cover of the Monster Mash, which is tight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP8SQM9touo&t=1s
(12/10/18 5:00pm)
Thought Gang is a lost project from the early ‘90s that director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti worked on while Twin Peaks was coming to an end. The Twin Peaks soundtrack was an ethereal, mysterious, and soothing dream of an album. This new project offers a peek into what happens when the citizens of Twin Peaks have a nightmare. The album is comprised of bizarre free jazz and industrial freakouts, with sprinkles of spoken-word poetry and short stories scattered throughout certain tracks. The spoken-word vocal performances could prove a turn-off for free-jazz enthusiasts, but it enhances the atmosphere of quite a few of the songs.
“One Dog Bark” is a brooding instrumental piece with a lot of attitude. It’s easy to imagine it being the theme for a greaser-type character in a Lynch film. “Woodcutters from Fiery Ships” is a manic track with an intense spoken-word story over urgent instrumentation. This song has a massive sound to it and makes for a strange highlight on the album.
“A Real Indication” is a tense jazz track with a sinister vocal performance. It sounds like the agitated narrator taking a stroll in the middle of a restless night. “Jack Paints It Red” is like a bad trip to the carnival. “Multi-Tempo Wind Boogie” is a nice floaty instrumental. Like the song title suggests (or rather promises), there are multiple tempo changes and has a windy feel to it. It feels like getting lost in a forest while leaves blow around you, your heart rate picking up the more you realize you have no clue where you are.
The last two tracks are the longest. “Frank 2000” is a dark, slow-burning ambient track. At a length of 16 minutes, it takes its time exploring an expansive atmosphere. It sparkles, it steams, it crackles, it thumps, it takes you to all sorts of sonic landscapes. This would make a great soundtrack to a short film by Lynch. If you were to listen to one track off the album, make it this one. “Summer Night Noise” is another lengthy mood piece, calmer than the last track.
Listening to Thought Gang is much like going through a good haunted house. You’ll experience some thrills and be glad you went through it, but you won’t feel compelled to get back in line once you’re out. The atmospheres created on the album can certainly be classified as Lynchian, but it’s more Lost Highway than Twin Peaks. Quite a few of the tracks are meandering and aimless, but create very memorable atmospheres. Thought Gang is recommended for hardcore Lynch enthusiasts.
https://open.spotify.com/album/774gCEr5XBdqjsS8A2WPdR
(11/24/18 8:20pm)
Sun Kil Moon operates quietly, releasing an album a year for the past four years and randomly showing up on collaborations with other artists (see Sun Kil Moon’s feature on Donny McCaslin’s “The Opener”). 2014’s Benji was a surprise hit, turning millennials onto the despondent music of Mark Kozelek who originally resonated with a gloomy Gen X back in the early ‘90s when he was the frontman for Red House Painters.
This Is My Dinner probably won’t be a big hit with those who only know Benji or RHP. Most of the songs are at or exceed the 10-minute mark and the instrumental work on the album is more jazzy/soulful than folk-oriented. The same lyrical style from Benji is present, but the lyrics are much more self-aware and humorous.
This Is My Dinner is a concept album tracking the band on their 2017 tour. In Sun Kil Moon fashion, the lyrics tend to stray into a pretty bizarre territory, making the album equally about the thoughts felt during the tour as much as the tour itself. There are recurring themes and elements that run throughout the album, the most obvious being each song including a mention of what seat Kozelek’s in on his flight.
Opener “This Is Not Possible” is hilarious. It has the instrumentation you’d expect from a ‘70s soul album, like an Isaac Hayes dirge. It was written when Kozelek was on tour in Germany. Kozelek was asking for rehearsal time to prepare for a show and the promoter kept replying “This is not possible”. The instrumentation in the song comes to a dead halt for the chorus, which is members of the band saying either “This is not possible” or “Yes this is possible” to Kozelek’s questions.
It’s a fun call-and-response gimmick that will either entertain or annoy you. Fans of Kozelek will be amused by the song, but casual listeners will likely dismiss it as stupid. Classic Kozelek lines in this song include “And after I ate my falafel my stomach felt awful” and “Is it possible that the band Berlin wrote a song called ‘Sex’ that gave me a raging boner at 15?” (Answered by the chorus: “Yes this is possible”).
“This Is My Dinner” is another song that deals with life on the road, specifically Norway. Kozelek loves Norway because the country is organized, the movie Trolls was filmed there, and they do Christmas right, among many other things. The bright piano on this track emphasizes Kozelek’s enthusiasm in the midst of Norway’s coldness towards him.
“Linda Blair” is a strange song that must be heard to be believed. Musically it’s more space rock than jazz. There’s three sections in the song: An energetic first section with glimmering guitars and piano, a heavenly second section, and a hellish third section. Lyrically, it’s more abstract than the preceding songs. There’s less of a “wink” to the humor in this song, making it feel more deranged than ironic. For example, Kozelek mimics a girl on a flight whose cough resembled Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist. Kozelek then recreates the coughing noise. Then, us listeners are told to show our local sports heroes love and support. Towards the end of the song, Kozelek lists some songs he loves (He refers to ZZ Top’s “Tush” as “Ain’t Asking for Much”). This song is a highlight.
“Copenhagen” is magnificent. The song starts with an anxious mood to it. Kozelek’s thoughts are racing in the first verse. He’s sad, he’s dwelling on his inferiority complex that developed from his speech problems as a child, he has an awkward flirtation with a married woman.
The mood calms down a bit in the second verse. We learn a fun fact about Mark Kozelek: Copenhagen is the city where he’s had the most threesomes. He goes on to brag about he used to get large quantities of women on the road, only to undercut that confession with an admittance that he has trouble getting it up at his old age. The third verse is what takes this song into godly territory. There's a beautiful piano line and gorgeous backing vocals that make the outro to the song blissful. Definitely a favorite off this album and one of the band’s best.
At thirteen minutes and forty seconds, “Candles” is the longest track on the album and doesn’t stand out. In the song, Kozelek calls it incomplete. Why? He was writing the song on his laptop and the stewardess told him to shut it off. He even spells out the conclusion you were meant to draw from the lyrics: Sweden is more organized than the Americans. Well, part of the conclusion. The song seems to be more about Kozelek’s feelings of incompetence around people that appear to have everything together. Musically, it sounds like a Christmas song, with ringing pianos and soft strums from a guitar. Not surprising, considering Sun Kil Moon has a Christmas album.
“David Cassidy” starts a three-song streak that is an identifiable low point for the album. The first song is about the titular singer who did songs for TV show The Partridge Family. It’s more of a countrified tune, a love letter to Kozelek’s childhood heroes who got him into music, AC/DC in particular. Kozelek is really into David Cassidy, urging you to buy his autobiography. Kozelek even makes the listener sit through following song “Come on Get Happy”, a cover of the theme song for The Partridge Family.
After that, the band launches into a cover of AC/DC’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer”, something Kozelek promised to do in “David Cassidy”. Sun Kil Moon has always been hit-or-miss with covers, mostly miss (See Tiny Cities, their tribute to Modest Mouse). This isn’t that exciting of a cover. There are some noisy riffs in tribute to Malcolm Young. Kozelek’s overextended “ROLL” yell is weird and not in a good way.
“Soap for Joyful Hands” brings us back to the good stuff, which is already weird enough as it is. This is another high point of the album. Kozelek contrasts his tendency towards irritability and melancholy with his appreciation for life and his passion. Naturally, this is the song Kozelek sings with the most passion on the album. He strips the ironic/humorous pretense the album’s been littered by and just lets go. He asks us who else could be able to find poetry in cheap hotel soap the way he does (Jonathan Richman, Kozelek admits). This is a great track and among the band’s best in their catalog.
“Chapter 87 of He” is a decent closer to the album. The lyrics are word-for-word taken from chapter 87 of English comedian Stan Laurel’s biography He. The lyrics and intonations of the vocals give a hint of what Kozelek was feeling when he read the chapter. The steady percussion and soothing bassline devolve into a full-band freak-out when Kozelek sings the word “chaos”. The line “He does not trust in reincarnation alone to reunite him with Babe” is repeated multiple times in the song, as if to indicate that Kozelek saw something profound in that line and had it resonate within him. “He” works as a closing song because it’s a wind-down. It’s the end of the tour and Kozelek wants to relax by reading a book instead of going to soundchecks. Maybe he’ll find inspiration for a song by reading the book.
This Is My Dinner is a fine album with a couple of dud tracks. The album is an hour and a half long, so cutting out the sixth, seventh, and eight tracks would make the album flow better. The album’s highs rank among the band’s best songs yet. If you don’t have the time or patience to sit through the movie-length album, listen to the songs “Copenhagen”, “Linda Blair”, and “Soap for Joyful Hands”. The other tracks are good but don’t particularly stand out. Listen to “This Is Not Possible” too if you want a laugh.
I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s not a fan of Kozelek’s works, but fans who thought Kozelek’s self-titled solo record from earlier this year was a let-down will be pleasantly surprised by This Is My Dinner. The minimalist jazz instrumentation and Kozelek’s singing match well. At first glance, the lyrics look little more than unfiltered inner monologues but reveal middle-aged wisdom to those who dig a little deeper. This Is My Dinner is a solid record dragged down by a self-indulgent streak of filler (and that’s saying something considering Sun Kil Moon are often elevated by their self-indulgence) and will make for a great winter soundtrack when the snow starts falling.
(11/10/18 6:30pm)
Released October 26, 2018
RATING: 3/7
Psychedelic garage rock revivalist Ty Segall is a lo-fi gift that keeps on giving, boasting five releases in 2018 alone, with cover album Fudge Sandwich among them. It’s an album composed entirely of cover songs, with Segall’s take on the selection of classics ranging from strictly faithful to wholly unique. Segall did this album as a fun side project, so expectations are to be set low. It should appeal to fans of Segall, but it would be difficult to recommend it to fans of the bands he covers.
“Low Rider” is an industrial take on War’s iconic funk song (AKA the “George Lopez” theme song). It sounds like a lost Marilyn Manson tape from the Antichrist Superstar era, with the sinister vocals and blaring synth drawing out the dark side of a cheery song. It’s hard to imagine Cheech and Chong bumping this in the Love Machine, unless they ditched the ganja for crack rocks.
“I’m a Man” is much more faithful to the original than the “Low Rider” cover, albeit this one is drowning in distortion. Segall’s vocals are manic, and the guitar work elevates the cover into noisy glory. The outro guitar solo/freakout is (predictably) much more over-the-top than the Spencer Davis Group original. Outside of the outro, not much is special about this.
John Lennon’s “Isolation” is covered next, with Segall swapping Lennon’s calm melancholy for a playfully dark tone. The piano in the original is now a heavy guitar crunch. Segall’s vocals are a fun take on Lennon’s delivery, making it the standout element of the track. It’s fairly close to the original, just with a fuzzed-out, guitar-driven approach.
Next up is Funkadelic’s “Hit It and Quit It”. It’s a hard task to add any energy to the original song, having already being a psychedelic freak-out track. The only thing left to do is to just play faster, which Segall does. Segall puts a fast-paced, punk spin on the original, a trick he’ll repeat more than once on this album. However, it’s not a very successful trick because the original songs tend to lose their identity in the noise and pace of Segall’s playing.
The fast-paced punk song “Class War” by 70s punk band The Dils gets an acoustic treatment from Segall. Segall transforms the Dils’ noisy call-to-arms into a folksy political protest out of Woodstock. Not a standout track, but entertaining based on the side-by-side comparison of the original and this cover.
Neil Young’s “The Loner” is the next target, a song already punctured with distorted guitar lines. What’s Segall to do? Louder, faster is the answer. Much like “Hit It and Quit It”, Segall takes a song with a preexisting edge and speeds it up to being nigh-unrecognizable with the original. This isn’t a bad thing, but it doesn’t make for an entirely memorable cover.
Gong’s somber ‘60s track “Pretty Miss Titty” has muted vocals, a midtempo pace, and a little bit of noise accompanying it. Segall keeps the pace and gives the song a “bigger” feel. He brings the vocals to the front and lays off the noise. The cover sounds like a cut off of The White Album, feeling more like a Lennon cover than “Isolation."
Much like “I’m a Man”, Krautrock band Amon Düül II’s “Archangel Thunderbird” is ripe for Segall to cover. It’s a heavy rock song with the “I am a golden god” vocals typical of ‘70s singers (Robert Plant, Geddy Lee). Segall doesn’t try to mess with the formula too much on this one, staying faithful to the original. Of course, the instrumental is much more fuzzed out. The vocals here are pretty close to the original, too. An enjoyable cover, but it’s hard to not just spring for the original since nothing too unique is offered by this cover.
Segall’s cover of ‘80s deathrock band Rudimentary Peni’s “Rotten to the Core” offers better production value than the original, so you don’t need to crank the volume all the way up to feel the power. Segall’s vocals closely capture Nick Blinko’s wailing. Not much new is offered outside of sounding better than the original.
The hippie dream in Grateful Dead’s “St. Stephen” turns into a nightmare in Segall’s version. Faster and louder, naturally. Much like “The Loner”, it sounds more like a regular Segall song with someone else’s lyrics. Not very memorable, but it goes hard.
Gentle rock song “Slowboat” from Sparks stays gentle when Segall does it. Probably the best “faithful” cover Segall does on the album. Segall adds a bit of a floaty country twang in his guitar work, which elevates the song. This may be the best song on the album, having a more “epic” feel than the original.
Fudge Sandwich is a fun album, but not a good one. There are a couple of successful covers in here, and a couple of duds. The biggest factor in determining the quality for Segall is the approach, and whether or not the song welcomes that approach. The songs that take the “up the tempo and distortion” approach like “The Loner” and “St. Stephen” don’t stand out at all. “Low Rider” and “Class War”'s unconventional and detached approach from the originals are entertaining. His faithful covers are hit or miss, shown by the incredible “Slowboat” and the uninspired “Archangel Thunderbird”. Of all the songs covered, “Slowboat” feels like the only one to outdo the original one.
A few high points dragged down by too much distortion, Fudge Sandwich is recommended to those who are already fans of Segall and fuzzed-out garage rock. Segall's choice to offer a variety of approaches to covering songs is admirable, but he more often than not leans on the uninteresting approaches.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3DSA6rDV2HqxmPnjngocEw?si=Nv_7TMGVQTywmVUFTm050Q
(10/31/18 3:40am)
Released September 28, 2018
RATING: 4/7
Los Angeles group The Marías’ new EP Superclean, Vol. II is a solid, laid-back twenty minutes of jazz and soul-pop. It’s enjoyable, but nothing too special, making decent late-night driving music. María’s (just María, no last name) vocals are what makes the group stand out from other melancholy/contemplative pop bands. María sings in both Spanish and English, effortlessly switching between the two throughout songs.
https://open.spotify.com/track/1mbuSss0OVqfS00y7yCNCZ
1. Opener “Ruthless” has a synth arpeggio that conjures images of a busy city at night. The intro leads into an upbeat pop song with dreamy vocals, a bouncy drum beat, and joyous horns. It’s a “floating on clouds” type of pop song, full of wonder and optimism.
https://open.spotify.com/track/16gJmoOqRt2lKmlXtDpWgH
2. "Cariño" is a standout track. The lo-fi intro explodes into lush instrumentation with acoustic guitar strumming, gentle percussion, and ascending bass lines that work together perfectly, like gears in a watch. The song is fast-paced, but much more mellow than preceding song “Ruthless”.
“Ruthless” sounds like you are gearing up to go on an adventure while “Cariño” has the feeling of being satisfied at the moment. María’s blend of Spanish and English lyrics flows so well it’s sometimes not noticeable what language she’s speaking. It is a strong contender for best track on the EP.
https://open.spotify.com/track/5P9PQR7CM5YPEU2I3EypWM
3. "ABQ" “ABQ” is a downtempo, mellow dream pop track. María’s swirling vocals and the standing-still instrumentation makes you feel like the rush of wonder and excitement from the first two songs has come to a halt, like sitting on a leather couch in a dark nightclub, sitting and observing. It’s not exactly melancholy, it’s more of a comedown.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3XCpEFU4uXsBq5WmVQQKC9
4. “Loverboy” is a pleasant interlude track. It sounds a bit like a lounge singer sang over an Adult Swim bump. It’s only about a minute long, so it’s not one that really sticks with you.
https://open.spotify.com/track/02wNtFxlr9dLmZXKT5TIF5
5. “Over the Moon” has a mellow synth and steady percussion that lulls you in. María’s vocals in the intro sound distant and a little obscured as if listening to an old record or home movie. The song moves the EP into a more melancholic territory. Lyrically, it’s a love song, but the music and vocals give it a dejected, tired feeling, as if getting off the leather couch and leaving the nightclub.
https://open.spotify.com/track/4pnXcQSeFwrr3GPHEmeS7m
6. Closing song “Clueless” is the funkiest song on the album. It has an infectious bass line and up-tempo vocal delivery from María, which is a change-up from the more drawn-out vocal delivery on the rest of the EP. Along with “Ruthless”, this is probably the most modern sounding song on the album. While “Ruthless” feels more like finding the wonder in what the night/future may bring, “Clueless” more like walking back from the nightclub a little sad, but also motivated to search for better things, which is seen in the line, “You’re telling me ‘I can’t take this shit no more baby’/How does it feel every time I let you down?” My pick for best track on the EP.
Superclean, Vol. II is consistently solid with some great mixed in that warrants multiple listens. The EP isn’t terribly memorable outside of standout tracks like “Cariño” and “Clueless”, but there are no bad songs on it. The vocals are great and the music has it’s high moments. At only twenty minutes long, there’s no reason to not give it a listen. Recommended for those who like lounge singers and relaxing synth-pop music.
(10/06/18 8:00pm)
Donny McCaslin is a saxophone player who has been creating jazz albums since the late 1990s. McCaslin played saxophone on David Bowie’s final album Blackstar. “The Opener” is one of the singles from his latest album, Blow, and it features an unusual fusion of genres as well as artists. It features Mark Kozelek, of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, rapping a story about a bizarre series of events that happened after one of his performances.
The video for the single is shot with the late '80s/early ‘90s VHS-thetic that is commonly seen among indie artists nowadays, specifically the SoundCloud rapper types. The style of the video matches the mood of the song: playful and funny, but venturing into the edge of the uncanny valley leaving you a little disturbed. It's a little reminiscent of the songs you’d see on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! The aesthetic also fits because the story of the song takes place in the early 1990s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EJxr9KHrT4
The song seems to be a joke at first listen. Mark Kozelek "rapping" seems like a recipe for a novelty track that only a minority of indie kids would find amusing. The campy hip-hop style beat with Mark Kozelek’s trademark late-career monotone vocal delivery and stream-of-consciousness lyrics makes for an odd combination. “Recount what happened to you today while interjecting intrusive middle-age-man thoughts.” Not to mention, there is comedic value in the fact that a collaboration between two respected 50+-year-old artists with careers spanning multiple, one a jazz musician and another a slowcore and folk musician, end up with a rap song with a beat that sounds like something a paranoid Jinsang would come up with. However, those elements combine to make an enjoyable song whose appeal goes beyond the novelty of hearing Mark Kozelek rap.
The music itself has a floaty lo-fi hip-hop sound, complete with ringing piano loops and drum breaks. McCaslin’s saxophone creeps in and out throughout the track, giving the track a contemplative, semi-melancholic feel with an edge of paranoia and distress. It’s as if the beat is beckoning you to fall asleep while urging you to keep one eye open at the same time. The sax parts are what elevate the beat from a laid-back study beat to an eerie reflection on an odd night.
The source of the bizarreness of this track lies in the inclusion of Sun Kil Moon’s Mark Kozelek. The beat and sax playing create an uneasy atmosphere, but it’s Kozelek’s delivery and lyrics that drive the track into uneasy territory. Anybody familiar with Sun Kil Moon (specifically their 2014 album Benji) will recognize that Kozelek isn’t doing anything different from what he does on his Sun Kil Moon records, for example, “Ben’s My Friend” off of Benji. Kozelek could have put his vocals on this track over any of his folk songs and it would sound like any other Sun Kil Moon song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMuo7GFXa0k
The lyrics, like a lot of Kozelek’s lyrics, don’t seem primed for analysis, but it welcomes and rewards it. It’s a straightforward retelling of a real experience Kozelek had in Tampa while on tour in 1992. Kozelek steps off the plane and rides to a motel with a promoter and a random fan who is “along for the ride”. Seeking to avoid conversation with the two, Kozelek reads a boxing magazine. Kozelek offers old recluse wisdom: “If you appear to be immersed in something people will leave you alone if they know nothing about the publication you appear to be immersed in reading”, he sings. Not exactly the insight offered by Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting, but a solid piece of advice nonetheless. Kozelek goes on about how he ditched dinner with the promoter and fan to watch a Manfredy fight.
The lyrics continue with wandering thoughts: Kozelek wonders why the bar doesn’t have a P.A. system, what type of beer Floridians would drink, why the fan from the car ride is lingering. Then Kozelek meets the opener (whom this song is titled after): “A thin guy who resembled a young Peter Murphy”. Kozelek notices the opener’s smug aura and unwillingness to talk. Kozelek doesn’t bother to watch the opener perform. Kozelek says the show that night was awful, comparing it to “awkward sex when you’re having trouble keeping it up” (Kozelek showing his age here)
Despite the show’s quality, Kozelek goes back to his motel with two women. One of them reveals that the opener doesn’t like Kozelek. They get back to the motel. Before they can have awkward sex someone knocks on the door. When Kozelek asks who’s there, they answer “The cops”. It’s not the cops. It’s “four big rednecks with cat hats”, who turn out to be the women’s boyfriends and a couple of friends. Instead of a brawl breaking out, Kozelek and the rednecks talk about how the rednecks got the address. As it turns out, the fan from the car ride with the promoter gave it to them. The rednecks and women laughed, drank beer, and then left. Thus ends the song.
So what can be drawn from this? The song has themes of one’s self-image contrasted against others’ interpretation, boredom, and hostility and its consequences. Kozelek brushes off the fan, and the opener brushes off Kozelek. Kozelek doesn’t seem to think too highly of the fan, hence why he ditches his invitation to dinner and is annoyed that he lingers around at the soundcheck. The fan is enthusiastic to be around Kozelek, just as Kozelek “greeted (the opener) warmly”.
Kozelek wonders why the opener doesn’t seem to think too highly of him, and the fan likely thinks the same way about Kozelek’s attitude. Kozelek doesn’t watch the opener’s act, presumably because of the opener’s smug attitude. The fan tells the rednecks where Kozelek was staying, presumably because the fan felt that Kozelek was smug (reading a boxing magazine instead of talking, declining a dinner). Kozelek isn’t smug, he’s just withdrawn and shy. The opener may be the same way, but Kozelek saw him as smug. Both the opener and Kozelek are shafted because of their unwillingness to be open to others, and they see the results, the opener is ignored, Kozelek is cockblocked.
The song is great if the listener is able to look past, or just embrace, the inherent bizarreness of the song. At first, the music seems like a simple beat, but the clever loops and inclusion of the sax makes it memorable. The lyrics seem simple and shallow, but there’s something deeper being said beyond just a 50-year-old guy telling an old story. This song is not the expected result of the two artists’ collaboration, but it is able to subvert expectations while staying true to both artists’ sensibilities. Overall, a good song that rewards multiple listens.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5V6p9MIj78xUXOEXR6IzMw?si=iyooc3adR0qlssfzmxnCaw