Tiny Tunes
By Michael Henningsen
JULY 13, 1998:
Alibi Rating Scale:
!!!!!= Stewart
!!!!= Sure
!!!= Loves
!!= His
!= Pet Sounds
The Grassy Knoll III (Antilles)
Bob Green, the main creative force behind San Francisco-based
sonic revolution that is the Grassy Knoll, is far more concerned
with the pieces of the puzzle than with fitting them together
according to the pretty picture on the box. He's interested in
the randomness of individual sounds rather than their plausibility
with respect to being paired with
others. As a child, one can safely bet that Green preferred the
Spirograph to Paint-by-Numbers. And over the course
of three albums, Green and Co. have shown us that sometimes creating
one's own finished
puzzle out of pieces intended to be arranged in one specific way
results in an image far more curious and beautiful than "serving
suggestions" or "desired results."
Perhaps the most aptly titled Grassy Knoll album to date, III
makes an even more concerted effort to force illogical concepts
into a rock format than did the band's previous effort, Positive
(Antilles), amounting to a sound that can perhaps only be accurately
described as "music for film school students." Like
the documentary photographs that earned him a degree, Green tackles
the concepts of composition and context in music from an almost
visual perspective--his lengthy, intricately detailed instrumental
exercises conjure stop-frame video images and still shots that
burn their way into the listening mind with Kodachrome intensity.
III isn't simply about conjoining trip-hop, free jazz,
ethereal samples and post-rock. Green's genius here, as with past
Grassy Knoll records, lies in his ability to think about music
differently, from all angles. Even the most straightforward musical
concepts he employs sound off with a sort of creepy luminescence
brighter than anything Tricky or DJ Shadow have been able to manage
so far. For Green, there's more to it than the alternate cutting
and pasting of the technological and human element. III
is vibrant proof that he's come closer to melding the two than
ever before. !!!! 1/2 (MH)
The Pernice Brothers Overcome By Happiness (Sub Pop)
Whoda thunk it? Singer/songwriter Joe Pernice used to lead the
alt.country Scud Mountain Boys. But the Pernice Brothers have
nothing other than Joe's reedy vocals in common with the Scuds;
there's not a bit o' twang to be found here.
Overcome By Happiness features a standard pop quintet backed
by an unusual orchestra: violins, viola, cello, harp, three trombones
and flugelhorn. Combined with the downcast lyrics (rarely are
album titles so ironic), the alternately lush and bare-bones music
feels like a cross between the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and
Big Star's Sister Lovers as written and sung by Nick Drake.
"Crestfallen" starts the album with an inviting acoustic
guitar melody before stopping dead for a minute and a half of
wordless moans over minimalist strings, an eerie coda forecasting
the desolate, barely-a-minute-long "Sick of You," the
most overtly Big Star-like song here. The languid, can't-be-bothered-to-keep-from-nodding-out
darkness of this song sits next to the album's only truly upbeat
song, "Clear Spot," which has the same brief moment
of hope function as Sister Lovers' "For You."
After that respite, the album returns to desperation and hopelessness.
Unlike a lot of artists mining similar lyrical territory, Joe
Pernice recognizes (like Nick Drake and Alex Chilton) that dark
lyrics hit harder when tossed off with seeming nonchalance. A
singer like Mark Eitzel would bellow a line like "They
found her car still running in the garage" (from "Chicken
Wire"), whereas Pernice's dry, matter-of-fact tone throughout
the song lets the details of the lyrics themselves achieve their
creepy resonance.
The Bacharach-like trombone solo fading out "Chicken Wire"
encapsulates the other half of Overcome By Happiness' dichotomy:
The arrangements and melodies here are relentlessly lovely, to
the point that songs like "Shoes and Clothes" or "Wherein
Obscurely" wouldn't sound the least bit out of place on the
most conservative AAA radio playlist. But they're never so pretty
that they obscure the bitterness of the lyrics. Listening to Overcome
By Happiness is like knocking back a glass of what you thought
was apple juice and having it turn out to be straight bourbon.
!!!! (SM)

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