Sunday, May 4, 2008
 

It's been a good number of weeks now since John asked me to join the team here at Side One, and it's taken me some time to learn how to effectively use this here bullhorn to the world (of blog aggregators).  Today, I'd like to finally introduce a topic that I feel quite passionately about, something I've been thinking about for awhile, and something that's been a source of great confusion for me. I don't know if I mentioned this in my original introduction, but I'm studying English here in Austin.  Naturally, I do a lot of reading, especially American literature lately.  The "genre" I've always been most drawn to, or at least been the most infatuated with, is the Southern gothic tradition perpetuated by authors like Faulkner, O'Conner, and about a hundred others.  For those of you who've perused some of the works of the genre, you know exactly the themes I'm talking about.  For those who haven't, watch No Country For Old Men a couple times, and you'll get a general idea.  I don't know if it's the returning hot weather, or the Kentucky Derby, or the fact that I have about a hundred essays due, but my love for Southern literature was reawakened this past week. Okay.  I know, "Blah blahblah literature."  Before we turn Side One into a amateur literary journal (my master plan of course), let's swing this over to music.  There's always been certain bands that, to me, have seemed to fit in with genres of literature, if only because they have book collections like mine. One of those bands is Centro-matic. Now, they don't have lyrics that scream literary allusions, and their music isn't just an audio representation of the bleak themes and landscapes of southern literature.  Instead, it's a little bit catchy, with driving rhythms and top-notch harmonies, but the music and lyrics always seems to show signs of some grotesque secret, and leave me a bit unsettled, like walking outside to dark looming clouds that never quite rain. Now, as I'm sure you know, Centro-matic has a fully developed side project called South San Gabriel.  Essentially, the band is Centro-matic plus a revolving cast of other musicians, but with less overdriven guitars and more serene "noises."  How do they fit into my literary theories?  Well, if anyone ever made a movie based on McCarthy's The Road (which I pray they don't), South San Gabriel would be the soundtrack: bleak, but still emotionally charged, and full of odd instruments electronic and organic both – an ashen landscape of human emotion (and synthesizers!). This June, Centro-matic is releasing a double LP, Dual Hawks, that's split with South San Gabriel.  Which means, the same guys doing a really long album under two different names. I'd like to share with you two tracks from the album, as well as some old ones from both bands that have become some of my favorites over the past few years. Let's start with Centro-matic:

:Centro-matic - Hercules Now!:  First up, an old track, off 2000's All The Falsest Hearts Can Try.  I think this song is a pretty accurate example of most of the things I was talking about above, except that it's also got a drum machine thrown in there.  Like I said, it's hard not to sing along with Johnson: "Hercules No-ow-ow-oow…"  But just as soon as you start grooving along with the song, you get lyrics like "There's still no invitations, destroy the ones who'd smile."  Like I said, right behind the guitar rock, there's something a little unsettling.

:Centro-matic - I, The Kite:  Eight years later, and we've got something a little different. "I, The Kite" is, obviously, a little more refined than the track above, although the album as a whole shows some of the same low-fi that marked their early years.  My sampler didn't come with a lyrics sheet, but more and more with Centro-matic, it's the "feeling" I get listening to their songs.  By all traditional measures this should be a happy song: open chord acoustic guitars, hand claps, tambourines, badass guitar solos.  But for some reason, it's not.  If you like this, you'll like Dual Hawks.

:South San Gabriel - The Dark Of Garage:  This is a typical South San Gabriel songs – unidentifiable rhythmic sounds in the background, atmospheric noises (here piano chords and guitar) in the foreground, and then eventually very calm multi-part vocals.  Simple as it is, the song creates quite a desolate environment, and precedes to populate it with more and more sounds until reaching the summit, and dropping back off into a quiet murmur.  The rest of this album (The Carlton Chronicles) is simply stunning, even if it is about a cat (seriously).

:South San Gabriel - Trust To Lose:  Honestly, this was my least favorite song on the new album, but it's what the band (or the suits) decided to release as the "sampler" single, so we're stuck with it.  It's definitely a different direction for the band, but still quite interesting.  The strings sound like something out of the soundtrack to The Fifth Element, and there are a couple of extended noise breaks.  Also, and remember this, as it might come in hand later: distortion bass = money in the bank; why do you think Ben Folds Five were so wildly successful?  The song still carries that same odd unsettling feeling to it, but there are other songs on the album that are more traditionally SSG, which I'll post once I'm sure Misra won't sue my pants off.

- John Michael Cassetta -

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