The Repudiated Immortals

Watching the film Upstream Color has brought me back to all this existential Elephant 6 malarkey. I saw of Montreal live in 2007 just as they began to descend from their climactic progression of three straight masterpieces. Not that Kevin Barnes past and present work hasn't been stimulating, but this was the first time I was able to see a band I loved in their prime. Dylan, Neil, Ray were all great, but that was circa '71. All it takes to make a great pop song these days is to create a catchy bass line combined with sexually provocative lyrics, for example this summer's jam, Robin Thick's "Blurred Lines". "The Repudiated Immortals" has a third aspect that being intellectually stimulating. I love being able to re-listen to a song over ten times and still not understand what is behind the blurry lines of each verse. What does Barnes mean when he blurts out?

"It's just the heaviness that comes with knowing you will never die."

Perhaps that is what the immortals felt upon creating us meager humans. Or perhaps it's knowing that in creating the song itself he has a created a ghost in itself and that ghost will live on forever. Whatever Barnes meant I'm sure it's now cliché.

Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)

"Don't worry now what's on TV, it'll just be boring."

So lost are the continual yearnings that bewitch this existence. This constant betrayal of what is in front of our faces for whatever comes next. Is whatever image you're currently pulling up on your smartphone better looking than me? Not to sound cocky but I can entertain you for a good twenty minutes of solid conversation before you'd tire of me. Then again,

"Don't look to me to validate your dreams."

Just try and remember how amazing everything in this world is. The chances of us being anything at all is extraordinary. At times the angst is overpowering, but remember those fleeting momentous moments of happiness.

Upstream Color

The loss of self control is overabundant in this highly original work. Upstream Color could be referring to our constant uphill struggle in life. We endlessly do our best to swim against the current, when in the end, no matter how powerful the rapids, we succumb to it. Plants seem to be taking over our world with reckless abandonment. They dominate our planet and minds without mercy. Yet we refuse to acknowledge much else besides their beauty. This visual treat is filled with real human emotion, along with loads eerie scenes that will make your skin crawl. So regardless of what Shane Carruth was truly attempting to say with this film most viewers should be thoroughly entertained.   

Some Kinda' Love

"The possibilities are endless."

Love is like happiness, it only exists in our memory. We only love the previous incarnations of each other. Few humans still live in the moment anymore. The past is so elegant while the future is full of anxious ecstatic energy. Love is like the color light green in that it exudes a life like quality of ferocious tenacity. A timid being is only capable of a love that excludes determination. To truly be engaged in this emotion we need to pursue to an endless mindless dystopia. Just like all past-times the pursuance of love is filled with a selfish collusion. Nothing in this life is done with complete genuineness. Thus the underlining meaning of Lou Reed's Some Kinda Love track from the Velvet Underground's self titled titillation.

"Let us do what you fear most."

Oddly, or maybe not so much so, every band I listen to these days has blatant similarities to Lou Reed, John Cale's New York experimental journey. The guitar fills and repetition was like all pop music but they had an edge like all the other bands, which is truly what separates them from the other bands of that time period and location.

"Between thought and expression, lives a lifetime."

The Wild Kindness

"I'm gonna' shine out in the wild silence and spurn the sin of giving in."

Everyday upon waking up there are two choices, give up or give in. The finale of the Dave Berman and Stephen Malkmus masterpiece American Water is breathtakingly quaint. Berman asks a wild flower how to be wild yet silent. Ah the duality of humanity.

"Behind the walls of medication I'm free"

Disrupting brain chemistry in order to feel a sense of freedom. If man feels only happiness will time cease to exist?

"It is autumn and my camouflage is dying,
Instead of time there will be lateness,
And let forever be delayed."

The Malkmus solo after this verse is ungodly. Imagine a bud blooming into a beautiful flower. Thank you so much Silver Jews for creating something out of nothing.  

Dig for Fire

Music is best when it is distorted by the clouds. The melody peaks out like the setting sun. Passion oozes from the lightness. Calm repetition of the sea below angles towards the seashell. Trapped between the night and the day, the dark and the light, brief tonality of imperfection within the reality. While an end is certain, the sounds will never stop. And when you move you don't move, no, you don't move.

 

 

 

So come along lads, ladies, and all those immune to the clinically impervious and enter a palace of genuine geniality. Change is the only promise we can offer up to those willing to forget and pine away. Because as the prophet says 

"Nothing happens 'till you try, so come on try"