Part of some world, I suppose. This one or that one. We've been through thick and thin, etc. (Are there any extant snapshots, something to show our kids? Cut to social analysis, mirrors of lost time, lost self, gone forever). But "The wounded monster utters 'Musica, Friend.' Away, lonesome sensation, away sensational tune. No. I don't mean thinks, I mean feels" (Melanie Nelson). The blues, barbershop quartets, traditional ballads, even the troubadours are felt here, but the story is all, without ever giving up on the line: no shirt shall ever touch my skin, nor comb go through my hair, but I'll think of the bed you're in & wish that I was lying with you there. Perfect fictions, fractured out of a world that can be ours, the moment thrust into prominence, from Raymond Chandler (life has a throat, we learn to grab it, that kind of thing comes automatic in a zone like the one we inhabit); to The Misfits (our rations ran out, our horses were dead, she forgot what gold was & I had to remind her: the lowliest of metals, too soft for serious use, pretty, of course, & warm to the touch, but no longer alluring when you've handled so much...) The refrains never repeat, just transform and shift the time of the tale, tipping the scales to embellish the facets of the events we've been let in on, as intimates. Nostalgia? If anything, then, for the present: "The final page of my notes is about deception, a tree falls. There is the blank face of indifference in the afternoon of staring happily and thoughtlessly into your child, the ultimate learning, there is the face of hardheartedness, the adorned face of the confusion of having been taken away by storm before thought could leap up, take you higher, and there is the face of wickedness, again the face of my education upon which I walk backwards like a devil on a moral precipice to cast off." (Bernadette Mayer). Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Blegvad. - Ammiel Alcalay liner notes
Blegvad (rhymes with egg bad) proves he can write timeless heartbreak songs as well as conceptual puzzles. Produced by dB and fellow Golden Palomino Chris Stamey. Bonus track is muddy cassette dub of Peter Who? promotional CD recorded with Andy Partridge.
Peter Blegvad
King Strut & Other Stories
Silvertone Ore LP 511
01 King Strut
02 Gold
03 Meantime
04 On Obsession
05 Not Weak Enough
06 Swim
07 Northern Lights
08 Chicken
09 Real Slap In The Face
10 Shirt And Comb
11 Stranger To Myself
12 Peter Who?
cd and cassette @ 320
6 comments:
I love pretty much all of Blegvad's work, as he's one of my favorite songwriters. That said, I like both Downtime and Just Woke Up better than this one. Still, it's not a bad introduction to the great man's work.
I'm afraid I'm a sucker for smart polished pop music like Lindsey Buckingham as well as FMP skronk. Having Blegvad's highly literate nature at the root of the exercise blows me away. At the risk of offending legions of dB's cultists, this is probably my favorite Stamey project as well.
I've heard blegvad writes good songs so I'm looking forward to this one. BTW the bitrate is 320.
King Strut is brilliant pop and a bit hard to live up to for the rest of the album.
Yay! I can finally replace my scratchy vinyl LP. Many of my favorite PB tracks are on this disc. Would you happen to ahve "Hangman's Hill" from '98? Tks
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