Knee Jerking: Simon Joyner
Posted on November 28, 2006 by Tito
Simon Joyner & The Fallen Men
Skeleton Blues
Bought: 11/27/2006 @ Haight Amoeba $11.99 USD + Tax
Pre-listen thoughts:
You are here LIVE as I sit down to knee-jerk1 Simon Joyner’s latest, Skeleton Blues, This record cover has a still life painting of a flower pot featuring yellow, blue and mostly green hues. A quick glance of the track listing shows 3 of 7 songs incorporate “blues” in the title. Coincidence? Perhaps.
About a year ago, during one of my pilgrimages to The Antiquarium that accompany my visits to The Big O, I stumbled upon an attic show featuring Joyner & Alex McManus. I think it was $10 for me and my brother. Despite my relative ignorance of both, it remains one of my favorite shows — set in the cozy upstairs gallery it felt like we may have been in somebody’s basement. And the music was outstanding.
So here I sit ready to knee jerk my way through Skeleton Blues….
1. Open Window Blues
Start off with some slow tempo piano & fuzzy guitar-tronics. Not a stripped down folk record, I suppose. Vocals kick in sounding a lot more like than Lou Reed than I was expecting – which is to say I wasn’t expecting it at all. He has a cadence that at times make me think Dylan {demerit to me for dropping Dylan reference. Sorry but it’s true. At times.} The music here matches the lyrics perfectly. I still have to see how the rest of the record goes, but this may be the perfect mood setter for the rest. But if the rest goes a completely different way, this song still is strong enough to stand on its own. It jams on a bit toward the end.
“The light we cannot touch, we choose to feel” (??)
Initial Star Rating: 3.5
2. You Don’t Know Me
A clean guitar opening that sounds like a less-dreamy version of Luna, which has me wondering how much this will sound like a Velvet Undergound distant-cousin.
far from the corn and wheat
far from the swaying trees
i know the wind must have its way
anything that thinks its free
Initial Star Rating: 4
3. Answer Night
While I can’t put my finger on, there is somethign about this song I like. How’s that for analysis. You get what you pay for, internet.
Initial Star Rating: 3
4. Medicine Blues
Sing-talking over the simplest of guitar/drum boom baps.
“my echo said stop me if you’ve heard this one before.”
This song continues on with lyrics that walk on the right side of the fine line between witticisms and triticisms(?).
Towards the end the music has built up to a more urgent tempo/volume – quick without rushing to steal a phrase from John Wooden.
The coda brings us back to more sedate mood as Joyner sings “where’s my medicine? my sweet, sweet medicine”.
The fine folks at jagjaguwar have made this song available in the controversial MP3 format. Lunatics.
Initial Star Rating: 4
5. The Only Living Boy In Omaha
Organ and drums!
If you don’t like this line my guess is you won’t like this album. Let’s call it a a barometer:
You pray in the storm
I’ll sing to static on the radio
I like it.
Better yet, who doesn’t love ambigous pronouns?:
Jimmy says there’s no God in the sky holding him for ransom
he’s doing alright keeping himself hostage down here
6 Minutes left on this track. Here come the violins. nice interlude.
At 3:40 we get the drums I was hoping for a minute ago. Ah, that Joyner is a tease.
This is a really-really good song — and not one bleating of “somewhere in middle america”.
Initial Star Rating: 4
6. Epilogue in D
Epilogue here meaning “second-to-last”. I don’t have a good ear, so I can only trust that the opening guitar is in D. A good song for a rainy day cafe. Today is not that day for moi.
Initial Star Rating: 2.5
7. My Side of the Blues
Back from a quick bathroom break, I am ready to finish strong. I see this song clocks in at 10:03 – a bargain for iTunes shoppers at under 10¢/minute. Ok, now this is more of what I was expecting album wide. Accoustic guitar folk-o-matic.
“i’ll let you stand a while on my side
stand a while on my side
stand a while on my side
of the blues”
A fair enough slow, folksy song though I must admit my attentions wandered. For the first time through I like the shorter songs with more instrumentation. Let’s see how long that lasts.
Initial Star Rating: 2
Th-th-th-that’s all folks.
n.b. – After a jumjp over to the label site, I see they, too, are citing Velvet Underground and Dylan. So on the one hand I don’t feel like a total ass, but on the other hand, maybe I am just a drone tool of the marketing man.
Oh yeah – here’s what the metacritics think.
1I cannot overstate how poor I am at sizing up records up the first time through. Looking back, I think was overly harsh on Boys and Girls in America and wasn’t prepared for HOW MUCH To The Races would grow on me, especially Man O War. Thought, Happy Hollow still disappoints – despite a few tracks that now really stand out. Consider this another chapter in my perpetual chronicle of my lack of taste.
» Filed Under Knee Jerk Reactions, Music
