Skip to main content

Robert Pollard and Richard Davies were COSMOS. At least in 2009. I like to keep up to date.

Image
(Steven J Wilson)
I’ve been such a good lad. Writing almost like a responsible journalist. That’s not a bad thing, but I promised myself (and you) that SPEW would be a place for more dashed off bits. 

Well, here’s one. 

Cosmos. Ever heard of them? Unless you’re a Robert Pollard completist, probably not. Their sole release, Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks was released in 2009 (one of Pollard’s 100+ issues, only about a 1/4 of which are Guided by Voices titles). Cosmos was a collaboration with Richard Davies, Australian pop oddball and auteur behind the cult faves the Moles. The two of them share a certain aesthetic, a vision that embraces early John Cale, the first two Brian Eno records, Pete Townshend’s Scoop demos, bits and pieces of the Beatles, and a dash of early Syd Barrett. 

Some of the songs on Jar of Jam are based on little more than acoustic guitar and percussion, especially woodblock, others are full band janglers. Because of the duo’s shared sensibility it all hangs together and segues not unlike the disparately united flow of the Beatles (white album, to you). Like that fabled collection Jar of Jam includes strange little fragments and fully developed songs. 
Pollard is front and center more often than not. On “For the Whiz KId” he treads toward Big Star, or maybe R.E.M. territory. “Sudden Storms are Normal” features a Lennonesque melodic twist or two. Some of the songs are not only collaborative but feature shared vocals, including “The Neighborhood Trapeze,’ with its Psyc Furs pallor and Robyn Hitchcock whimsy. and the spectral, piano-based trifle “Just By Pushing a Button.” Davies’s turns as primary vocalist are highlights. “Grapes of Wrath” (‘are mine, leave them to me’) is a full-bodied, chiming folk-rocker with a direct, seductive melody. The shambling feel of “Early Chill Early Crow” features Davies in extemporaneous, eclectic mode, shards of Eugene Chadbourne dissonant guitar framing musings about “early rock ’n’ roll.”

Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks isn’t a world beater. It’s a one-off by two like-minded eccentrics. It’s charms are substantial, though, if you are as easily seduced by chamber-rock and unforced melody as I am. 

Comments

Post a Comment

The people have spoken.

Jessica Lea Mayfield's unapologetic "Sorry is Gone"

(Steven J Wilson)
Jessica Lea Mayfield, of Kent, Ohio, released her first album With Blasphemy so Heartfelt ( produced by Dan Auerbach, fellow Ohioan) at the tender age of nineteen. I missed it. I probably shouldn’t have.   Her second Auerbach (Black Keys) produced record Tell Me arrived in 2011 when she was 22, 23 maybe. I listened to it. I heard talent. But somehow the combination of songs, performance and production didn’t really hook me.   Never bothered with her alleged grunge-rock record, the two previous had been loosely in the roots-rock/Americana idiom, called Make My Head Sing . No Dan Auerbach. I don’t know who produced it, but Mayfield described it loosely as dedicated to one of her favorite artists, Dave Grohl. Not being a huge fan of the Zelig of contemporary rock, that dedication probably soured me on the project. Sorry. For me and Jessica it was a matter of timing. The time is now. And the record is Sorry is Gone. Which is pretty great.   Mayfield and pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

SPEW crowns the 41st - 50th best Albums of 2017. Wowzers!

(Steven J Wilson)
Here it is, ladies and gents and humans of all genders and description! Your BEST ALBUMS OF 2017. * Okay, not really. It's 41-50. Hey, pretty damn good records. It's a competitive world.  41.   Chain and the Gang – The Best of Crime Rock (In the Red) 42.   Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent (Domino) 43.   Vivienne – STUD  (Objects Ltd.) 44.   Flamin’ Groovies – F antastic Plastic (Severn) 45.   Kyle Craft – Girl Crazy (Sub Pop) 46.   Bully - Losing    (Sub Pop) 47.   Idles – Brutalism (Balley) 48.   Lee Ranaldo – ElectricTrim  (Mute) 49.   James Elkington – Wintres Woma ( Paradise of Bachelors) 50.   Filthy Friends – Invitation (Kill Rock Stars) Let's have a look: Ian Svenious has been a savvy mainstay of Ameri-indie in the post-hardcore era (you know, like, the last thirty years), with groups like Nation of Ulysses, Make-Up (the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The death and future of punk, pt. 37, THE IDLES

(Steven J Wilson)
The Idles are from Bristol. The one in England, not Connecticut. They’ve been plunkin’ about since 2012, but their first album was released this year. It’s called Brutalism.   The cover features a photo of singer Joe Talbot’s mother, whom Talbot cared for in the last years of a long illness, mounted above a stark shrine constructed by Talbot and his father. These are placed in the corner of a bare room with brick floors and white painted brick and stone walls. It has the barren, but emotionally loaded austerity of Joseph Beuys work. It’s an eerily   perfect image for an album entitled and themed around the notion of brutalism.   Ever seen this movie called My Architect? It’s about the architect Louis Kahn, revealed through the eyes of his sometimes estranged son, Nathaniel Kahn. It’s heartrending, as a dad and lad tale, in its austere, sadly masculine way. The younger Kahn, as a budding filmmaker, with a heavy, still hurting heart find the beauty in his father...
Post a Comment
Read more