Soiled Mattress and The Springs - Someone's Drinking Water
Avi Cohen, drummer for Soiled Mattress and The Springs, once mentioned to me that he read the Mike Bones post on this blog. "You sure like words," was his only comment.
He's right, and when I'm acting overblown and boring I tend to make really dramatic blanket statements like "I only listen to the words" or "I don't like guitar bands" or "the Anne Briggs LP on Topic is my favorite record of all time" [1]. And it's true that I have always been pulled towards lyrics, that I remember all four verses of "8 Ball" but have a hard time humming the melody; but if you ask me what the brightest, most life-changing absolute moments in my relationship with music are, every one of them would be wordless. The part in "Catholic Block" right after he says "come back to me awhile" and the guitars breathlessly leap up and down the stairs; the light skip of the Isaac Hayes studder gliding over the grimy lurk of "Mind Playing Tricks on Me"; the willful, pin-sharp electronic tones that stab up and derail "In the Singing Box"; and for sure, the way that the Hill Street Blues theme song broke my tiny 9-year old's heart with emotion, even as my parents chased me out of the living room and up to my room, "way past bedtime!!"
So there is a tremendous sense of justice in the realization that Avi's band is one of the great new examples of any of the emotions conjured above: in the way they make me feel untethered and nonchalant and then they annihilate my bliss with a sudden dark turn; the way they build finely-textured, unified landscapes and then suddenly, gleefully, skip a pretty bit of sound across it, just barely disturbing the surface; and, most of all, the way they work right into my heart with a mysterious nostalgia, like I'd heard these songs my whole life and hearing them again brings back every heavy, beautiful and important emotion I'd ever felt.
The first time I saw Soiled Mattress and The Springs they were touring the west coast with No Age, playing all-ages D.I.Y. spaces and sleeping on people's floors. The kids that go to these kinds of shows have a sense of what to expect, and even seeing keyboards and saxophones just signals some kind of no wave or whatever band. Definitely not this. And so the band just dives into their first song, and people can't tell if it's a put on, some kind of ironic joke or maybe a prelude to something else? The old-fashioned lettering on the bass drum spelling out the band's name, the keyboards strolling and warm like a roller skating rink, and then the guy with the saxophone jumping in the air and zipping from one side of the room to the other, just as breathless from playing as he is from running around. Everyone in the room asking themselves, how did this get here?
But the songs are remarkably sincere, played with more conviction and bravery than one hundred heartbroken singers or rebellious songwriters. The band clearly loves to play this music, and once the audience realizes, they're trapped. And the songs are brilliant.
It's a thing that you don't ever have to notice, how well-structured and clever they are, because that's a part of their deftness. It's like Dr. Dre or something, how you're never conscious of the interlaced themes, the sounds that vanish and reappear with a calm, strategic genius. You don't have to be, because it's better just to feel great about them.
The second LP by Soiled Mattress and The Springs, "Honk Honk Bonk", features two songs called "Someone's Drinking Water." They're both live favorites, and each one has its own brightness. The first one has this really dark-sky minor passage about a minute in that kills me every time, but I wanted to write about the second one because, besides being one of the boldest, most unabashed jams on the record, it also shows what a great job they did recording the LP. During the song, Matthew Thurber switches from saxophone to xylophone during one section, giving the middle of the song a resonant, distant coolness. Keyboardist Peter Schuette gets into some heavy sound effect territory during this part, and the entire transition feels like some exotic distance, like seeing the beach for the first time. Live, this section signifies most in the steady economy of Avi's drumming, a work-hard focus that tethers the helium sounds of the keyboard and xylophone. On the record, the section is unified, diamond edged and above all poised; it makes the energetic explosion that follows a heart-leaping joy, a grin-filled celebration. The LP catches every little sound and weaves them all together with an unfelt precision.
Not only is the newest LP Soiled Mattress and The Springs available now, but the band is also on tour if you really want a chance to join in the fun:
Dec 5 2007 Tampa, Florida @ New World Brewery
Dec 6 2007 Backyard Bash in Tallahassee, Florida
Dec 7 2007 Miami, Florida @ NADA Art Fair Party
Dec 8 2007 Miami, Florida @ NADA Art Fair
Dec 9 2007 Atlanta, Georgia @ The Drunken Unicorn
Dec 10 2007 Athens, Georgia @ Caledonia
Dec 11 2007 Asheville, North Carolina @ Gourmet Perks
Dec 12 2007 Chapel Hill, North Carolina @ Night Light Club
Dec 13 2007 Charlottesville, Virginia @ Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
(endnotes)
-A lot of people have written about this, but really, Pimp C R.I.P. This one's a total heartbreaker, I mean, I can't really think of a sweeter friendship between two men than Bun B and Pimp C. After five years spent apart, it really hurts that they've been separated again in less than two years.
-I am really proud to be a part of this. Please come if you can.
[1] Actually true.
No comments:
Post a Comment