Is it dead enough yet? It is still enough yet?“Will it replicate inside our bodies now?” That’s the question at the center of a new song from the British quintet called Fanfarlo, and every time I hear that line, it makes me want to go back and listen to the verses to try to discern just exactly what “it” is. And I still haven’t quite got it.
Fanfarlo’s debut album Reservoir was one of the more charming records of the last couple of years – a collection of lyrical indie-folk songs, delivered in Simon Balthazar’s lilting troubadour tenor over all manner of acoustic strings, horns, piano and percussion, roughly splitting the difference between (the band) James’s most bombastic moments and the The Decemberists’ most modest, with a loving nod to the singer-songwriter pop of the 70s. Not only are they an effortlessly charismatic live act, they’ve also put out some great videos, as evidenced by last year’s Twilight Zone-ish “Fire Escape”.
Following some extensive touring behind that first record, the band retreated to a “remote slate quarrying town in Northern Wales” to record its follow-up, and are previewing the album with a video (and free mp3 download) of “Replicate”. The song is a surreal and suspenseful compendium of unanswered questions, sung over tense strings, diabolically playful little organ doodles and haunted house woodblock percussion. Its verses feel like an update on a Bernard Herrmann film score, and after asking one last time – Will it replicate inside our bodies now? – the song comes to an abrupt end without reaching any kind of catharsis or resolution. Just: over.
Over his more than half-century-long recording career, there are few great American songs of any genre that Willie Nelson hasn’t touched (and few American artists that he hasn’t directly collaborated with). So why wouldn’t he collaborate with a restaurant chain, on one of the biggest British rock hits on the last ten years?
Still, it was sort of a surprise to find among the newly available mp3 downloads on Amazon this new Willie Nelson track, a cover of Coldplay’s 2002 single “The Scientist”, accompanied by very un-Willie-Nelson-ish thumbnail art of animated pink pigs in what looks like a pig penitentiary.
A quick search and I found that the track actually serves as the soundtrack for an animated short – oh, whatever, it’s really just a commercial for the Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain – called “Back to the Start”, which demonstrates (rather cutely) how industrial agriculture has led us to despair, and how organic farmers (in partnership with Chipotle Mexican Grill!) can lead us to bright colors and wonderfulness again: Think Farmville meets Koyaanisqatsi, only really short, really adorable, insidiously corporate, and no Phillip Glass. It’s all good until the brand messaging starts to kick in. Luckily, Willie Nelson’s performance not only stands well on its own, you can also enjoy it without having to watch Chipotle pander so shamelessly to your Inner Slow Food Locavore. Go download it now.
Jon Huntsman loves this stuff! And he's a Republican!One of my favorite news items from the 2008 presidential campaign was a story in which bluegrass great Ralph Stanley endorsed then Senator Barack Obama for President. If I remember correctly, Mr. Obama, in thanking Mr. Stanley for his support, mentioned that he had some of Stanley’s music on his iPod, thereby confusing the hell out of the octogenarian banjo-plucker (“What’s an iPod?”). Sadly no one ever followed up with Barack Obama on, say, which of the Stanley Brothers’ songs he liked best, or what initially drew him to bluegrass music in the first place.
That would have been a fun read – it would have been cool to see if the future president was just paying lip service to a national treasure, or if he really had some serious bluegrass cred. We may never know. Thanks be, then, to blogger Dave Weigel. You see, awhile back, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman tweaked his small-ish Twitter following by professing his love for Captain Beefheart. And this last weekend, while Weigel was covering the Republican campaign in New Hampshire, he took a bit of time to talk Beefheart with Huntsman. The verdict: Jon Huntsman Passes the Beefheart Test!
Now, generally speaking, and I admit to some shameless stereotyping here, when I think of the musical tastes of Republicans – especially those of the Presidential candidate persuasion – I generally think country: Toby Keith’s big ol’ boot up the rest of the world’s collective ass, Miranda Lambert’s hybrid of domestic sentimentality and gun-toting girl-power, Lady Antebellum’s popular (and thereby sacrosanct) blandness, or the Charlie Daniels Band’s aggressively Southern take-no-shit-itude.
There’s also classic rock. Ted Nugent, for instance, had been a walking manifesto for the Tea Party’s wild-eyed, take-no-prisoners brand of pseudo-libertarianism for decades before anyone had ever heard of Glenn Beck. Wisconsin’s own governor Scott Walker has been playing John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” at his recent speaking engagements and Sarah Palin clearly [hearts] Heart although the feeling is emphatically not mutual. (Don Van Vliet, the artist formerly known as Captain Beefheart, died last December, and is thus unable to weigh in on Huntsman.)
To my mind, then, loving Captain Beefheart is the sort of thing that only one of the people Sarah Palin sneeringly dismisses as an elitist would ever cop to so openly. Who’s ever even heard of Captain Beefheart? And among those who have heard of Captain Beefheart, who could say that they love his music? I’ll tell you who: rock critics. And people who wish they were rock critics. Only true music snobs love Captain Beefheart. Captain Beefheart is not the music of the conservative primary voter. Then again, maybe Huntsman isn’t trying to win the hearts and minds of Rick Perry devotees. After all, in that same Twitter feed, he admitted to *gulp* believing in evolution and trusting scientists.
I have to admit. I’m no fan of Captain Beefheart. I am a fan of a lot of artists who cite Captain Beefheart as an influence, and because of that, I have tried on numerous occasions to “get into” Captain Beefheart, and on all such occasions so far, I have failed. I’m also not a fan of the current roster of Republican presidential frontrunners, but Huntsman has given me the tiniest bit of hope. Not only does he say he likes Captain Beefheart. He actually does like Captain Beefheart. Also – and again: not a big fan here – but how awesome would it be to hear Captain Beefheart played at a Republican campaign rally?
I’m not typically the kind of guy who votes into office the candidate I’d most want to have a beer with. After all, the likelihood of my having a beer with the President, while not exactly zero, do lie somewhere between winning the Powerball and lightning striking three times. But Jon Huntsman is a Presidential candidate I would love to talk music with, and I have to say, that may have given me reason enough to vote for him in the primary. It’s not like he’s going to win.
