The Carlsonics - s/t
(Arena Rock)
Aaron Carlson first entered my life in 1997 in the form of I Will Digest You, a cassette of Pollard-by-way-of-K-Recs indie rock, a forest green j-card filled with oblique titles, lyrics that reconfigured the high school experience into a free-associative mix of earnestness and surreality—amateur and derivative, but fun and honest without approaching that emo asymptote. My friend and band-mate at the time was part of the eponymous duo that had made the tape, Kyle and Aaron, and the latter remained primarily the subject of stories Kyle would excitedly spill, Aaron's various drunken adventures at James Madison U. fronting the early version of the Carlsonics or say, about the time Aaron saw GBV in New York and later, at a bar, asked Rob himself to sing a song with him and then told him to skip the verse and go to the chorus—audacious and topered tales that leave me less than surprised that his role as rock bedlamite is finally gaining some attention.
I cannot pretend to know whether Aaron is serious about this or not, whether it's all English major irony or idle fantasy made real, but I can say that regardless, The Carlsonics do rock music extremely well. From the Nirvana-ish feel of "The Leisure Class" to The Dead Milkmen-esque "Ice People" to the general 1970s rock feel of the entire album—The Carlsonics reads like it was created by someone well-versed in music and literary theory, that is, it is full of inter-textual references to rock and roll from the past 30 years which are played off as unconscious nods, but which must be knowing allusions to the tradition. It is rock on a visceral level but at the same time the direct references that are un-ironically used make this more than just another entry into the already bloated market of retrograde Stones knock-offs. While it's not progressive in any way, there is still something of interest here.
My favorite song though is "Senator Trudge and the Clap Division", a re-make of a song that Carlson and drummer Scutari (the Pollard-like prolificant who has released upwards of 60 albums under various names, the best being Matapachuchi and We Are Vikings) had recorded as The Shrouded Strangers, a project entailing that the duo sequester themselves for 18 hours and make an entire album from scratch, the result being a loose concept (created ex post facto) about a futuristic struggle between the peace-loving Whitmanites and some evil, despotic leader—I think Senator Trudge. While I am disappointed sometimes by the actual-rock of the album the inclusion of this song (which points to what The Carlsonics can do) and the lucid fun of picking out the references raises this from the pits of mere tedium.
|
