24 Hour Party Pooper

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
-Ecclesiastes 2:17

<Redacted for privacy>

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Joe Meek wrote “Telstar” in tribute to, and fascination with, the space age excitement of the early 1960′s. It’s simultaneously whimsical and melancholy. A lawsuit (resolved in his favor after his tragic death) prevented him from collecting royalties on the record during his life. I never knew that last part until a few years ago.

Meek had a lot of problems. He was tone-deaf and paranoid. He was gay ( a jailable offense in England at the time) and most likely manic-depressive. He was brilliant but died in a murder/suicide of his own causing. I knew none of this when I first heard “Telstar” as a child. And I hate to make necessary a connection between a persons art and a person’s life. But life informs art and knowing these things about Meek make me wonder how different “Telstar” would sound if it had been written by someone who didn’t  need the hope of another world; someone who was content here on earth.

Men gazed at the stars for thousands of years before Meek but the stars became graspable during Meek’s life. It was with this hope that Meek wrote “Telstar” which makes it as much a love song as anything else.

Generally speaking, things pile up while I’m looking straight at them.

I’ve been pretty busy sorting out things for the Athens PopFest this August but that’s not been so much of a burden that I can really blame it for anything. The heat in Athens, GA is already a’swelter and even after over two decades in The South I have a hard time taking it.

A review I’ve been trying to write for months on The Gary‘s full length Logan is still brewing. I couldn’t be happier,though, that they’re going to make the trek to Athens to play the PopFest as they’re undoubtedly in my top 10 bands happening right now in the US.

I’ve been listening to Cold Wave and Minimal Electronics, Vol 1 nearly everyday as well as the comp of Dinosaur L (Arthur Russell) tracks 24->24  Music that came out in 2007. The first Golden Palominos album, too.

And that’s that. The vids below are samples of all this stuff and that’s all I have to say for now.

(Note: this song by Absolute Body Control isn’t actually on that Cold Wave comp I mentioned but I really like this track so deal. The band’s song “Figures” does appear on the comp, however.)

It’s not like I haven’t been working, you know.

Things may have gone dark around here about 8 weeks ago but I’ve been plenty busy writing Threats & Promises for Flagpole (which I finally decided I’m going to start linking here), maintaining the Athens PopFest website (as well as its Facebook page, Twitter account and horribly clumsy and damn-I’m-about-to-delete-it MySpace account) and generally answering tons of email from bands who were really late on the uptake and are trying to get booked at the last minute. Even though we’ve been booking this thing for almost 7 months.

But, I digress…

I’ve listened to a ton of records during this time, started a YouTube page just to have a place to dump all the video I shot at SXSW , “reorganized” my books, read a ton of 1970′s rock criticism and watched a lot of documentaries. And a ton of old episodes (hell, they’re all old) of Lou Grant.

Mostly, I’ve been thinking.  But that’s cool, too, because I have a degree in thinking.

So, that’s that. Sure, I’m not saying much but writing it out made me feel better about not saying much.

Honestly, it’s writer’s block.

Ever since I returned  from SXSW I’ve had the worst block I’ve had in a long while.  I’m able to get my assignments done for Flagpole and such but other than that I’ve been nearly blank. I’ve got several records piled up on which I really want to do pieces. I’m just having a hell of a time breaking through right now.

Ok, first things first: I was turned on to this by my buddy Sam Williams so I want to thank him publicly.  It’s never been a secret how much Stockton, CA homeboys Pavement love R.E.M.  (“The Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence”, the bands ode to our Athens pilgrims, first appeared on the No Alternative compilation back in 1993 when compilations, especially those for charity, hadn’t yet become largely known as barrel-scraping cash-ins. Fan video of this song is way down there at the bottom of this post). Anyway, some wizard inside the Matador Records press office manufactured (or passed it on from the band) a hilarious  ”biography” of Pavement to coincide with the release of Quarantine The Past: Greatest Hits 1989-1999 which will come out next week. (Visit your local record shop!)

You’ve gotta dig through a little to get to the good stuff and you’ve gotta be versed in both Pavement history and R.E.M. minutiae to get the humor. But if you’ve read this far there’s a solid chance you’re a record nerd (which should be read as distinct from collector scum) and you’ll laugh as much as I did.

I wonder if this was written to take the piss out of  music journalists who never do proper research. I mean, there’s a whole new breed of writers out there now who never got the chance to see the band, were still in elementary school when they broke up a little over ten years ago and are used to getting all their info on old bands at the click of a mouse.  There’s just as many old-school journo-hacks who take bios and press releases and merely reprint them. There’s going to be an absolute flurry of press coverage for the upcoming reunion tour and it’ll be interesting to see who falls for this and quotes  it.

So, with that, here you are:

Pavement mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first EP, Slay Tracks (1933-1969), was released in 1989, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the late ’80s, Pavement brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, Pavement had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground. Throughout the ’90s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-’90s to scores of alternative pop groups in the ’00s, who admired their slow climb to stardom.

It did take Pavement several years to break into the top of the charts, but they had a cult following from the release of their debut album, Slanted & Enchanted, in 1991. Slanted & Enchanted established the haunting folk and garage rock that became the band’s signature sound, and over the next five years, they continued to expand their music with a series of critically acclaimed albums. By the mid ’90s, the group’s fan base had grown large enough to guarantee strong sales, but the Top Ten success in 1994 of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and “Cut Your Hair” was unexpected, especially since Pavement had only altered their sound slightly. Following Crooked Rain, Pavement slowly became one of the world’s most popular bands. After an exhaustive international tour supporting 1995′s Wowee Zowee, the band retired from touring for six years and retreated into the studio to produce their most popular records, Brighten The Corners (1997) andTerror Twilight (1999). Now, as they return to performing with the reunion tour in 2010, the band has been acknowledged by critics and musicians as one of the forefathers of the thriving alternative rock movement, and they have been rewarded with the most lucrative tour of their career. Toward the late ’00s, Pavement was an institution, as its influence was felt in new generations of bands.

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It’s probably been years since I’ve written anything about Of Montreal on here.  The band’s popularity outside of Athens wasn’t ever surprising to me but since I’ve known everyone involved (past and present) for well over a decade it’s still a case where, when our paths cross in person, it’s just a case of me seeing old friends. I’m still slightly surprised when fans travel to Athens for a rare Of Montreal performance and speak of the band breathlessly. (It’s cool, though.  There’s definitely bands I love this much.)  I’ve got nothing but total respect for Of Montreal and I know for a solid fact they’ve worked like mad to get where they are.

Here are a couple of  trailers for the new Of Montreal documentary shot by Athens homeboy Spenser Simrill. The first one has already been posted every-single-where you could imagine but I really do want to pass it along just that much further.

If you’re in Chicago (doubtful) on March 5 then go see the premiere.

Simrill is doing a Q & A after the screening.

PS: Below is a video from Of Montreal’s James Husband (Jamey Huggins) off of his years-in-the-making album A Parallax I. To be honest, when I heard he had a solo album coming out I wasn’t blown away by the idea simply because so many “solo” records are just half-executed ego trips. This is the opposite of that. I found myself listening to it quite a bit in the months surrounding its release. Totally worthwhile and enjoyable.

New trailer for The Runaways movie. Have no idea how this one will turn out. Not even sure if I can say it’s looking good based on this. But Joan Jett likes it. Yeah, she likes it quite a bit.  So, you know, that’s something.

The movie opens March 19.

The big deal, and rightfully so, this weekend in Athens is the two-day Vic Chesnutt tribute shows at The 40 Watt.  Look at the lineup! Kelly Hogan, Guy Picciotto, Mark Linkous, Tenement Halls, Howe Gelb and more…I mean, come on!  There’s gonna be so much love in that room you won’t be able to walk straight. Probably gonna be more than a few tears shed, too.

There’s a lot of folks who will write about the whole event and what it means, etc. And that’s great. Vic deserves every shred of tribute available. I already told my story here so I’m not going to rehash it now. It’s also not my goal to take any attention away from the reason everyone is getting together.

It is, however, my intention to convince you to be inside the 40 Watt at 9:15 PM on Saturday, February 20. That’s when Mercyland will play again for the first time in 16 years.  (Although they broke up in 1991 they did indeed play one small reunion in 1994.)  I hardly have words to describe how important this band was/is to me. They easily occupy a permanent spot in my always shifting top 5 list of Athens bands.

My first exposure to the band came from the 1987 Twilight Records compilation LP Make The City Grovel in Its Dust. (The title came from Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell which remains, even 137 years later, the best thing ever written by a 19-year-old.) Anyway, there was a track on the record named “Western Guns” by a band named Mercyland who was from Athens and this was really my first exposure to an Athens band that wasn’t one of the Inside/Out bands.  They didn’t seem particularly artsy or distinctively Southern but they had a sound similar to Husker Du, were unbelievably catchy and hooked me but good.

Allow me to quote myself:

“Among the many things this writer is thankful for is the fact that I was lucky enough to move to Athens before Mercyland played its final gig.”

That was the opening sentence in a piece I wrote over 3 years ago (which was a full 16 years since the band had played) and was about the easiest one I’d ever written because I’d said it to so many people over the years already. It’s still true, too.

If you had told my 16-year-old self that’d one day I’d be counting Mercyland’s David Barbe as a personal friend I may not have laughed but I probably wouldn’t have believed you.  And if I did believe you then I could have only imagined the future as an awesome one.

(Side note: I just read over the stuff written above and realize how much of a fan boy I’m coming across as. Well, I’m coming by it honestly and I apologize that this post doesn’t exactly have the same  tone of so much of the other writing here at 24HPP.  Although there’s definitely a place in the world for a solid analysis of Mercyland’s lyrics this post is not that place.)

Look, just get yourself to the 40 Watt by 9:15 PM on Saturday. That’s when they’re playing.  It’s been 19 years (and I never thought we’d get that first reunion) and this really, honestly could be your last chance.

We’re lucky to have it, too.

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Related materials for further convincing:

The Mercyland retrospective I wrote in 2006. (Full biography, discography, etc.)

Killer Facebook group for Mercyland. That’s where the photos in this post are from.

A few tracks from Mercyland’s LP No Feet On The Cowling (1989):

MP3: Mercyland-Proceed With Discretion

MP3: Mercyland-Rotten On The Vine

MP3: Mercyland-Guessing Time Is Gone

(Photos:Top-Lee Strum. L-R: David Barbe, Joel Suttles, Andrew Donaldson.

Bottom-Amy Barbe. That’s Vic in the middle with David Barbe in the dress at left.  Circa 1986.)