One Too Many Mornings - Dylan (Song)

 

Dylan is too big, too mythic perhaps, for me to try to tackle in his entirety here (not that I would even be qualified for such an endeavor). So instead I have chosen just one out of his hundreds of excellent tracks to cast a little light on. That light, of course, being my opinion about it, as well as the implied (and usually stated) seal of approval that comes just from being on this blog in the first place.

Coming on his third record at the beginning of the fame plateau he was to cross for decades to come, "One Too Many Mornings" has it's place as classic Dylan, but there's more to this song than that. It stands on its own as an interesting example of minimalist folk. It is "folk" in many ways: the lack of dynamics, the simplicity of structure (both lyrically and musically), but perhaps most of all it echos the very heart of folk music's aim: to voice the inner thoughts and feelings of the common individual.

Folk music could be literally interpreted as "people" music, and rightfully so. Dylan knows this and here it shines through perhaps more so than in his (arguably) more influential politically charged songs. This is a song for anyone who has ever felt worn out by life, anyone who has felt tired and sad and impotent. This does not cross political or ideological lines, it doesn't have to. In the universe of this one track the differences in individuals are even more basic than that. "You are right from your side. I'm right for mine," could be a phrase championing understanding and empathy if it were in another context, but here it carries with it a hopelessness--a feeling that the issues will not and cannot be resolved.

It is a lonely song, despite the lover spoken of, despite the mellowness. It offers no answer to these empty feelings, but simply acknowledges and expresses them. It accepts them, end of story. The harmonica isn't really going anywhere, it's just kind of...hanging around, sawing back and forth somewhat playfully but without real aim, filling in the spaces between stanzas. The main picking riff of the guitar does about as much for the song, if not less. It is simply a stage on which this one aspect of life plays out, then quickly fades away. At the end of this acceptance, perhaps we can start looking for ways to be rejuvenated, maybe we can find meaning in our relationships and trials and opinions, but I think the song is suggesting that first we have to just say, "This is how I feel. Other people have felt this way. Okay."

Happy listening.

-MA 6.17.13

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Down the street the dogs are barking and the day is getting dark.
As the night comes in a-falling the dogs lose their bark.
And the silent night will shatter from the sounds inside my mind;
Cause I'm one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind.

From the crossroads of my doorstep my eyes start to fade
As I turn my head back to the room where my love and I have laid.
And I gaze back to the street, the sidewalk and the sign,
And I'm one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind.

It's a restless hungry feeling, I don't mean no one no good.
When everything I'm saying, you can say it just as good.
You are right from your side. I'm right from mine.
We're both just too many mornings and a thousand miles behind. 

Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes - 8bits Fanatics (Video Game)

He's even hotter than Harrison Ford!

I've been wanting to write about this game for a while, but what with the new systems being launched and the relative disinterest in the indie games on Xbox, I thought maybe its time had passed. Recently, however, a friend of mine sent me an article explaining how Aban Hawkins is getting another shot at life on the Wii U, so I had to jump on the opportunity to tell you all I loved it first.

Well, love/hate is probably a more accurate term to describe my relationship with Aban Hawkins. Love, because it is one of the most tightly-designed, true-to-form 2D platforming titles I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Hate, because this game is harder than an ultra-diamond. I don't know what an ultra-diamond is exactly, and maybe that's because I just made it up, but you can bet an ultra-diamond would be really hard.

The dollar I spent on Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes has the special distinction of being one of the most well-spent dollars of my lifetime. You are a treasure-hunter named Aban Hawkins. You have 1,000 lives. Throughout the game I estimate you get maybe 500 more, but that's it. If you run out of lives, the game ends and you have to start over (or simply throw away your Xbox, as the case may be). 1,500 lives might sound like plenty, but once you realize a single level easily can eat over a hundred, you start to realize that it's a scant ration. To give you an idea of this difficulty, I'll tell you how many lives I ended up beating the game with: eight. I've never been so proud. Every enemy, and nearly every obstacle, represents instant death if touched. There are some traps you cannot know about until after they have killed you. You are basically required to memorize the levels in as few runs as possible, executing your knowledge perfectly. One difficult pitfall might be responsible for thirty or so lives. You may need to resist the urge to throw the controller through the screen on occasion.

The game does indeed have many spikes.

The game starts you off in a wonderful Engrish tutorial which explains one of the key functions of the game: two different jumps. You must learn to utilize these two jumps and your ability to throw knives to navigate the ancient temples where Hawkins hopes to make his fortunes. The tutorial is quirky and weird, and gives a glimpse inside the mind of the game's twisted creators. They encourage you to "be the gamer," meaning that you should save every time you are done playing (even if all you accomplished was throwing some lives away). They also explain that "here is no checkpoint" because checkpoints make you weak and prevent you from being "the gamer."

Just looking at this shot is giving me PTSD-style flashbacks.

Anyone who is a game purest will find their home here, and not just because of the quaint 8-bit graphics, but also in the way these levels have been so carefully crafted. The creators know where your head is, it seems, and push you (as a potential "the gamer") to the very edge of what you would be willing to put up with. The reward--a shower of coins you can't spend and gems you can't sell--comes at the end of the game. But the real reward, of course, is just having conquered the thing. The beast.

Good luck!

-MA 6.11.13

She & Him Volume 3 - She & Him (Album)

In doing my research for this week's post, I learned a little about Matt Ward: There is always something interesting going on to his right.

She & Him is the stage name of musical duo Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward; perhaps you've heard of them. I was a fan of both celebrities before they formed this group, and I remember being surprised when I first found out they had teamed up. I liked Deschanel because I thought she was pretty (although that attractiveness lessened severely with each new terrible film she was in), and I was basically in love with Ward (artistically speaking, of course) for his inspired albums. Maybe one day we'll look at Hold Time on here, which (interestingly or otherwise) also features Deschanel. What I'm trying to say is, I've been a fan of She & Him since their first album. Really I could have done any and all of them.

Am I right?

I hate to say this, but I just can't get behind Deschanel as an actress. Not that she isn't capable, but her talents are largely wasted. She's in too many shallow and dumb-A movies/TV shows. You can disagree with me if you like, but I figure if you're reading this blog you are entitled to my opinion. I was pleased to find that I could stand behind her 100% as a song writer though. Aside from the covers, she writes all of the She & Him songs, and I think they're top notch. Ranging from catchy and fun (I Could Have Been Your Girl) to having real depth (London, Take it Back.)

Or am I right?

I'm reviewing only the third album, however, because I believe it is the most fully realized of the set. The songs are likable, but you may notice upon first listening that they sound a little off kilter or even lackluster. This is because--unlike so much of the music that comes out today--this album is not "tuned" for modern ears. A lot of albums that come out these days jump on on the bandwagon of "right now" engineering. This has a few effects: 1) it causes new music to sound "preferable" to many people, and 2) it makes that same music eventually sound dated*, sometimes in as little as five or six years. She and Him Volume 3 is something of a revolution against this idea. This is not an album written for today, or (possibly even worse) for tomorrow; this is an album written to be timeless. There is an effortless quality to the singing which may sound to some listeners like Deschanel lacks energy. Please see this as a deliberate stylistic choice, meant to allow the song to breathe and live for itself. It is art like a painting or a fine poem, not merely a performance of music.

Right...

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: it does sound dated, but maybe in a good way. Is that possible? What you probably mean is that these songs harken back to a "classic" era of music, namely the acoustic pop songs of the late fifties to early seventies, and of course you'd be correct. But the influence of these songs is not so much what I'm talking about. What I mean is more subtle, and will probably only interest people who pay close attention to how albums are recorded, and not only the structure of the songs, the lyrics, and the vocal style. Not everyone realizes how big a difference a recording style can make. The percussion, the rhythm and lead guitars, the vocals, bass, keyboards, everything that's in a song--all these things have been recorded in certain tones and timbers. In high budget recordings (meaning basically everything that's not a demo or made by a local band) these tones can be laboriously engineered, agonized over even. They are as much a part of the sound as anything else. Consider, for example, the difference between this and this. These are both songs that start with power chords, which in theory should sound pretty much the same since they are just fifths, but they clearly sound quite different. Obviously there's other stuff going on here--the riffs are very different--but the tone is a big part of what you are hearing.

Right right**!

This is why I've chosen Volume 3 over either of the others, or all three in general. This album speaks to the best of my recording sensibilities. I know that tone is something Ward considers to be vital to a good recording, and that's clear here. I could provide copious examples track by track, but I won't. Just listen to the horns in Together and maybe you'll start to get my drift. The album isn't trying to pandering to the 2013 you, instead the album wants the real you to try to get to know it better, even if maybe right at first you kind of don't want to.

Or, if you require another simile, it is like a very hot hot tub. You know it's going to be good, but it takes some easing into. I'd take that over an album that feels good at first, but leaves me chattering my teeth ten minutes later, just wanting to get out and towel off.  Man, I don't know where that analogy came from but am I good or what?

-MA 6.3.2013

*For a wonderful example of how this trend can make even the most respectable artists sound like dog crap, see Leonard Cohen's "Closing Time." Throw a chair!

**Needle-nose Ned, Ned the Head, c'mon buddy! Case Western High!