J. Mascis + The Fog – More Light

 

J. Mascis + The Fog – More Light

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

 

You’ve led a successful indie/alternative band for 14 years. You’ve toured with your heroes, and inspired legions of young musicians with your guitar heroics and slacker aesthetics. And then you decide a change is needed.

So was the story of J. Mascis in 1997. His band Dinosaur Jr. had just released Hand It Over, an album which Mascis still considers to be one of his best. But problems with their label, Blanco y Negro/Sire – they were dropped – meant that the album was under promoted.

As a result, very few copies were sold, and fans seeing them on the tour – now featuring bassist Mike Johnson and drummer George Berz – were surprised to find out that a new record was even out. With Mascis being the only original member left, and an overall loss of interest in alternative rock, the writing was on the wall.

So, after a show at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA in November 1997, J. Mascis quietly put the Dinosaur Jr. name to rest. To paraphrase the track “Gettin’ Rough” from Hand It Over, the charm was gone, and it was time to move on.

Mascis coped with the change the only way he knew how – he retreated to his home studio, Bob’s Place. Named after his beloved bulldog – the same one which graced the cover of Dinosaur’s Whatever’s Cool With Me album – it was a sanctuary of musical equipment and inspiration.

Mascis built the studio in the mid-90s after, in his words, “staring out the window [of a recording studio] and realizing how much money [he] was wasting.” It was better to spend the recording budget on something to own and be able to spend as much time as the songs need.

Some of the new songs sounded like they could’ve been on late-period Dinosaur Jr. albums, while others were written on keyboards instead of the guitar – Mascis’ trademark instrument. And like those late-period Dinosaur albums, Mascis once again handled most of the instruments – Johnson and Berz only played on a few Dinosaur Jr. studio tracks.

Mascis did however receive some help along the way. Longtime engineer John Agnello was again handling the technical aspects. A talented producer in his own right, Agnello can be credited with helping Mascis and Dinosaur discover a cleaner sound during their 1990s major label period.

Engineer Andy Wilkinson was also on board the project. As engineer for shoegazing bands My Bloody Valentine and The Boo Radleys, Wilkinson built up a reputation as a mixer who could sort through layer and layer of instrumentation to see the bigger picture of what the song needed to sound best.

Speaking of My Bloody Valentine, Kevin Shields played his signature glide guitar style on three tracks. The tortured, reclusive guitarist had been through the ringer, trying – and failing – to create an album to follow up 1991 masterwork Loveless. He had only recently re-emerged as a member of Primal Scream when the Mascis project gained his involvement.

Shields also worked on Hand It Over, but his thumbprints are all over the three tracks he contributed to here. His woozy guitar tones gave the songs a distinct dreaminess, in contrast with Mascis’ warm, major key leads played at ear-splitting volume.

Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard was also involved, singing co-lead vocals on three songs with Mascis. Pollard’s melodic vocals worked wonders with Mascis’ playing and gave the tracks a poppier appeal.

The resulting album was billed to J. Mascis + The Fog. Titled More Light and released in October 2000, it was a long time in the works and had a lot to live up to, given the status of the players involved.

The album opens with the exuberant, optimistic “Same Day.” One of the more distinctly Dinosaur Jr. sounding tracks, It was no doubt picked to ease fans into the new style. Pollard joins in the chorus, after Mascis plays one of his most complex leads in the bridge.

The overall sound has all the marks of an Agnello production job, with big bold drums, stereo panning, and plenty of room for the guitars. In this sense the record sounds halfway between 1993’s Where You Been – the first Dinosaur album with Agnello’s involvement – and 2007’s reunion of the original trio Beyond, which featured an even more direct, in-your-face feeling.

More Light splits the difference by including mellow, graceful numbers such as “Ground Me To You,” which features Mascis on keyboards sounding his coziest. The melody rises steadily and falls throughout the verse, making the song a slightly different kind of Mascis earworm. With the gentle whirring of Shields’ tremolo guitars in the chorus, this is musical comfort food at it’s finest.

Shields also pops up on “Does The Kiss Fit.” He again uses his tremolo/glide guitar sound, but in a different style. His playing mirrors the melody line Mascis performs on a mellotron. With the magic of mixing, Shields’ guitar fades out in the bridge and is replaced by a rip-roaring Mascis solo. The track is a sonic masterpiece and one of the melodic highlights of the album – as well as Mascis’ career at large.

Not everything on the album is as focused on melody, however. The title track – and album closer – is much more like the sonic experiments found on side two of My Bloody Valentine’s eventual follow up to Loveless, 2013’s MBV.

Walls of overdriven guitars and Mascis’ distorted vocals keep the track going for an earsplitting five minutes, chugging along to a motorik drumbeat. While not typical Mascis fare – save for the volume – it is well executed, and worthwhile listening for any Dinosaur or MBV fan.

Another weird track that appears towards the end of the album is “Can’t I Take This On.” Featuring an off-kilter piano melody, funky start-stop drumming, falsetto vocals, and a guest “vocal” by Bob the bulldog (yes, really), it is likely to leave listeners scratching their heads. However, it is a fun diversion, and may also elicit a smile.

Overall, More Light is a fun departure from the usual Dinosaur Jr. fare from Mascis. What it lacks in consistency is more than made up for in sonic textures, diversity of style, and collaborative inspiration. While Mascis may have had the final say on the resulting work, the inclusion of Shields and Pollard make this more than just a Dinosaur Jr. album in disguise.

Ultimatum Music/2000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Mould – Patch The Sky

 

Bob Mould – Patch The Sky

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

You’ve led two critically acclaimed and highly influential groups. You’ve inspired dozens of groups to follow in your footsteps. And now you’ve made two recently acclaimed albums about aging as a punk musician. Where do you go from here?

So was the story of Bob Mould in 2016. The former Husker Du and Sugar leader had felt rejuvenated in the wake of his 2011 memoir See A Little Light. And writing the book seems to have greatly influenced his style of songwriting in the years following it.

If 2012’s Silver Age showed Mould making sense of the challenges of aging, 2014’s Beauty & Ruin was even more specific. Songs like “Let The Beauty Be” read like letters to Mould’s younger self. “Hey Mr. Grey” turns middle-aged cliches into a rock anthem.

Like his hero Pete Townshend before him, Bob Mould is always best when working within a specific concept. So, when Mould announced Patch The Sky for release in March 2016, fans had high hopes it could measure up to both of the albums preceding it. But how does it stack up?

Leadoff track “Voices In My Head” features a rising and falling melody, and warm (slightly fuzzy) electric guitars. But the lyrics tell a slightly darker picture. Mould sings of “strange hallucinations” and shutting out the outside world. He also broaches the topic of suicide.

The song ultimately has a positive conclusion, however. Towards the end, Mould sings of “getting on with life instead” and letting go of all his “ghosts and demons.” It’s atypical subject matter for a Mould opener, but one which stirs the thoughts of the listener.

Elsewhere, Mould is in more familiar territory. The powerpoppy “You Say You” and “The End Of Things” again show Mould’s affinity for loud, up-tempo Who-styled rock. “Daddy’s Favorite” could have fit on Beauty & Ruin with Mould again addressing his younger self. With both of his parents now deceased, Mould was able to fully reflect on his upbringing.

I would be remiss not to mention the band chemistry at play on this album. Drummer Jon Wurster of Superchunk is a force behind the kit as always. His muscular fluidity, sheer power, and tight fills bring the songs to life. It is tempting to say that he is the best drummer Mould has ever worked with. (No offense to Grant Hart or Malcolm Travis.)

Bassist Jason Narducy plays with a melodic heaviness that blends with Mould’s fuzzy leads. A strong guitarist in his own right, Narducy’s role is almost that of a rhythm guitarist – similarly to Lou Barlow’s role in Dinosaur Jr.

Of course, Mould is the star of the show, playing and singing his heart out. He is in fine voice throughout, singing (and occasionally shouting) his way through melodically. As the singer and songwriter, he is naturally the emotional center. But his performances are indeed commendable.

“Black Confetti” is perhaps the best song of all. A blurry, fuzzed-out shoegazing track, it displays Mould’s love for My Bloody Valentine. Mould has made no secret of his love for that group’s 1991 opus Loveless. He wrote extensively in his memoir of how it felt like a distillation of all he had wanted to achieve with electric guitars in Husker Du.

Here, he is finally able to capture the sound in one song. A whirring, droning minor key guitar melody with barre chords and plenty of tremolo gives the track a hazy feeling. And the tight mid-tempo drumming of Wurster holds the entire thing together. The cumulative effects of the production, sonics, and arrangement are hair-raising in their meditative qualities.

With Patch The Sky, Bob Mould proves again that getting older can be a great inspiration in the right hands. While some artists may be limited by their advancing age, Mould isn’t afraid of the ghosts of his past or the voices in his head.

Merge/2016

 

 

 

 

 

Circus Devils – When Machines Attack

 

Circus Devils – When Machines Attack

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

Doing soundtrack work for film or television is a difficult enterprise. Oftentimes, a musician will only see a rough cut or workprint of a film while he or she works. It’s not for neophytes. Making soundtracks for fake horror movies is even harder.

When Circus Devils released two albums on the same day in October 2013, fans had to be anxiously waiting for what creepy sounds were to come. The trio were comprised of instrumentalists – and brothers – Todd and Tim Tobias, as well as vocalist Robert Pollard.

Pollard is best known as singer/songwriter for the Dayton, Ohio band Guided By Voices. But his work with Circus Devils allowed him to stretch out into more experimental territory. Their debut 2001’s Ringworm Interiors got positive attention, not only for how well it aped horror movie soundtrack sounds from the 60s and 70s, but how it expanded on them.

With Todd Tobias assuming the role of producer, an endless array of found sounds were at the band’s disposal. Sure, there was a Lynchian and Polanskian feel to the material, but there were also echoes of the noise rock and experimental music put out by Chicago’s Touch and Go records in the 80s and 90s.

Since then, the band had gone onto all kinds of fascinating territory. They made concept albums about fictional characters (2002’s Harold Pig Memorial), double albums (2007’s Sgt. Disco) and even ventured into acoustic territory (2009’s Gringo.) It seemed like the musical possibilities for Circus Devils were endless.

So, on that fateful day in October when two Circus Devils albums were released, anticipation must have been high for whatever concepts would be followed next. One of the two albums was titled When Machines Attack. It was a sort of concept album about a dystopian future where technology rebelled against its creators. But how did it stack up?

Turns out, pretty well! After a so-so opener in “Beyond The Sky,” the listener is treated to the brilliantly unhinged noise rock of “You’re Not A Police Car.” Pollard shouts cryptic lyrics about a car chase as a siren wails. The Tobias brothers cook up another sizzling instrumental with pounding drums and thin trebly guitars.

It sounds both apocalyptic and cathartic, not unlike David Yow’s work with The Jesus Lizard. Speaking of The Jesus Lizard, “Bad Earthman” evokes their early noise rock sound with Pollard’s growling vocals and Todd Tobias producing in the style of Steve Albini.

With stop-start drums and bass, and a mean guitar, Pollard almost croons in a bass range while spooky sound effects pop in during the chorus. Once again, Todd Tobias is in fine form. His drumming is inspired, alternately sounding tight like John Bonham, and freewheeling like Keith Moon.

“Idiot Tree” is something completely different. While the previous two tracks had a sort of “controlled-chaos” approach, “Idiot Tree” is tight post-punk in the spirit of The Fall. The drums, bass and guitars even echo the rhythm and riff of “Totally Wired.”

Pollard is prolific in the same gargantuan proportion that Smith was, so the comparison is not just musical but also philosophical. Writer Jeff Gomez compared Pollard’s approach to that of an athlete, writing that “athletes are great on the aggregate, and so is Pollard.” It’s a fitting comparison, as Pollard once pitched a no-hitter.

Elsewhere, we have the trippy but heavy electronica sounds of “Blood Dummies.” Amazingly the Tobias brothers manage to keep things fresh production wise, sounding a bit like early Gorillaz but wholly their own.

Jungle sounds percolate from both speakers while synths screech. Sequenced electric piano and electronic drums are joined by the psychedelic sounds of marimba. It is both evocative of being lost in a rainforest and chilling in a dark club.

If there is one knock against the song, it’s Pollard’s vocal. It sounds a bit too much like drunken rambling, but thankfully his contributions to the song are minimal. He is in fine voice elsewhere on the album, so one bad vocal can be forgiven.

The title track is goth-y post-punk with tribal drumming resembling “The Hanging Garden” by The Cure. In fact, the apocalyptic vibe of the music and the lyrics evoke the “hell on earth” feeling of the entire Pornography album. However, unlike Robert Smith – who sang about chemical dependence and fractured relationships – Pollard goes for the supernatural.

The song is central to the concept of technology taking over the human race – with machines that literally attack. And the music matches the desperation of the theme. The bassline is interesting in particular locking in with Todd Tobias’ furious pounding. The mix also offers a claustrophobic effect with the left and right stereo channels closing in on the listener.

“Johnny Dart” is a fascinating number. It features a stop start rhythm guitar with compressed, distorted bass. Thundering drums by Todd Tobias crash around the chaos, and Pollard – oddly reserved – speak-sings the title ad nauseum. Although it never overstays its welcome, it’s not worth repeated listens. It is a lot of fun in the context of the album though.

A strange song that works better is “Doberman Wasps.” It features a crunchy guitar riff, flanked by electronic percussion and real drums by Tobias. Pollard’s vocal in the chorus is almost percussive itself. He repeats each word several times (i.e., “me me me me”), and it has the feeling of a man-made echo/delay effect.

Perhaps “Wizard Hat Lost In The Stars” is the most sentimental song on the album. A slow detuned arpeggiated guitar plays a beautiful melody. Pollard sings in his sweetest upper register, and his lyrics are just as moving as his delivery. They are charming in their stark simplicity.

“It’s going nowhere” he repeats in the key of e major. It has the vibe of a mid-70s heavy metal ballad. The kind of song where a loud band shocked its listeners by displaying a talent for playing quietly. Not the highest of highs – as we will see – but definitely a highlight.

The mostly instrumental “The Lamb Gets Even” is another highlight. It’s trippy arpeggiated guitars and spooky Moog synthesizers make it sound like the intro to a Roman Polanski film. The ambient noises Todd Tobias conjures makes it easy to picture an establishing shot of a haunted apartment building or creepy woodlands.

But “Centerverse” is where it all comes together. It is almost a hybrid of the early tracks’ sounds with the sound of “Lamb Gets Even.” (Pounding noise rock meets spooky synths.) The passionate shouted vocal from Pollard towards the end really makes the track. The track proves he could front a heavy metal band if he wanted.

With When Machines Attack, Circus Devils turned in an album equally as fascinating as Ringworm Interiors, Gringo, or Sgt. Disco. It may not have gotten the attention of those records – AllMusic didn’t even have one of its writers review it – but it proved that the Tobias brothers and Pollard could still come up with unique and exciting ideas.

Happy Jack/2013