This weekend I threw caution to the wind, literally: I traded in the Austin trademarked heat and humidity combo for the cold temperatures and constant rain (and snow) of Chicago. For those of you looking to be entertained, and especially for those of you from Chicago, I'll spare you the boring details of the landmarks I saw, museums I toured and the sheer amount of Chicago-style deep-dish pizza I consumed. So needless to say, I did your standard "tourist" things. But I did go look at something I think most tourists don't: Marina City. For those of you not obsessed with Wilco, those are the buildings on the front of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Does that make me a nerd, tracking down the exact view of the cover of one of my favorite albums? No I think the Star Trek box series on DVD do that just fine, but it certainly doesn't help. Okay, bear with me while I try to make a real point. See, I don't know what drives me to associate a whole city with a band, or even to think of a band as something greater than a few CD's and seeing them once (or four times) a year. Why do certain bands seem to have such a human element to them? Why does walking around Chicago feel like I'm looking at the source material for my favorite band? Certainly some element to it is how prolific the band is, and Wilco get high marks in that category, which stretches from their albums to side projects like Loose Fur and their stint with The Minus 5 to films about the making of their albums. But it's more than just putting out a lot of music, I mean, I pretty much despise everything Dave Matthews has ever put out, and he's certainly prolific (I know that's the trendy thing to hate right now, but I hated him before anyone else, trust me). That other element is what confuses me. Lots of bands are prolific, but only a few of them seem, to use a used-to-death expression, "real" to me. I think sometimes it might have something to do with film though, that is, being able to see the band make a record, go on tour, etc. That brings me to the first band I want to talk about: The National. They're not exactly vying for the attention of the music world so much as they are commanding it these days, but they're about to release a documentary about the making of their latest album, Boxer. Let's watch the trailer:
Looks pretty cool doesn't it? There's the drama of not knowing where the record is going, or if it's going to succeed at all. There also seem to be a lot of skyline shots, which gives me a feeling that New York City might be a fairly prominent player in the film. I can't stand the music films that don't have a real plot or purpose, which is why when I watched Weezer's "film" a few years back, I vomited most of it up before I could really digest it. I suppose there's something interesting about seeing a band from random and candid perspectives, but it doesn't quite give you an intelligent perspective of the human side of a group of people. This National documentary, I'm hoping, will. Another band I've always considered to have a very human side is Centro-matic, from Denton, Texas. Even though lead singer Will Johnson has been writing almost the same few songs for over 10 years, I still just can't get enough. But like I said, releasing a "shit-ton" of music (which Johnson has) isn't enough to get you featured in my amateurish rant on pseudo-metaphysics. Between Centro-matic, Johnson's side project South San Gabriel (which is all the members of Centro-matic and more), and his solo work, I've always felt that Johnson very accurately draws upon the influences of both southern musicians and southern gothic literature. It makes it such that the band isn't just some guys who are now moderately famous and successful, but something that feels like a continuation of a history I'm already very familiar with. Just like I associate Wilco with Chicago, I associate Centro-matic with the South, at least from a literary perspective. They're releasing a double LP called Dual Hawks this month, which is half Centro-matic music, half South San Gabriel. Unfortunately, the only way to hear the new songs are on the band's Myspace, but I've included one of my favorites from South San Gabriel, off the album The Carlton Chronicles (which is a concept album about a cat, and not as dumb as it sounds). :South San Gabriel - I Feel Too Young To Die: So I apologize for not only talking only about music you probably already know, but also deviation once again from the "column" format I'm shooting for now, but I feel I had to justify to someone my reason for walking 4 blocks out of the way just to see a condominium complex. Next time I'll have something important to say, I promise.
- John Michael
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