I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ALEXISONFIRE/MONEEN Split EP (2005).

This is a disc in which the Alexisonfire guys play 2 Moneen songs and the Moneen guys play 2 Alexionfire songs. (Plus two originals from each band).  I picked this up when I ordered AOF’s Crisis, because according to MapleMusic, they couldn’t ship it outside of Canada.  I figured it must be some kind of rare thing, until I saw it on Amazon, so I just ordered it there.

The “selling point” of the disc is, of course, hearing these guys play each others’ songs.  However, I don’t know the originals, so it’s hard for me to comment on the covers.  Regardless, this is a fun collection of two bands respectfully playing each others songs (albeit in a fun way).

Knowing what I do about the two bands, it’s interesting to see the different styles that they bring to the songs.  AOF’s growl-y singer brings a hardcore edge to Moneen’s more emo tracks, and conversely, Moneen soften up AOF’s songs with their math rock leanings.  Plus, there are a few surprises as well: “Passing Out in America” (done by AOF) has a great a capella section where the guys sing what I assume is a musical passage in Moneen’s original.

The Maplemusic listing and cover suggests that this is called “The Switcheroo” although my copy doesn’t state that on it.  Maybe that’s what couldn’t leave the Canadian border.

[READ: November 1, 2008] “Opera”

This story feels like an excerpt, although I’m not sure that it is.  There seems to be some things missing, which are only noticeable because of the things that are not missing.  For instance, Michaela is off the boat from Ireland, but it doesn’t say where she presently is or where the story is set. The other character, Lola has no characteristics that mark her as being Irish (it doesn’t say she is, for instance) yet she uses the most general Irish slang when talking to Michaela: calling her “hen,” saying “in wee pieces” and “on you go.”  None of these phrases are as Irish as say “caid mille failte” but they do give a bit of lilt to the character.  But Lola’s background is basically left out, she may be Irish, she may not.

Nevertheless, the story does fill in a lot of current details about Lola.  Lola is a vivacious woman: she has curves; she sings opera in the bath, even if she doesn’t know what language it’s in; she wears bright red lipstick and lives by the motto, “Jealousy kills people.”  Lola gets all the men she wants because she promises them no commitments, which excites them.  It’s only when they come around again and discover that she actually meant it that they get angry.

Michaela is Lola’s lodger.  All she has to do is clean up and take the occasional phone call, otherwise Lola does everything else. She is something of a wallflower, and is somewhat awed and yet disgusted by her flatmate Lola.  Michaela is in this unnamed city in search of a runaway boyfriend.  She believes that she’ll be able to find him, although she thinks perhaps she can use Lola’s help, since Lola knows everyone and goes everywhere.  As Michaela watches Lola, and Lola treats her like a student learning all she can from the class that is Lola’s life, Michaela begins to wonder what Lola would do if she found him first.

And it more or less ends there.  Even though the piece seems to be mostly about Lola and her exhibitionist nature, we ultimately side with Michaela.  Although we are left wondering, as Lola asks her, “What’s so special about the one man?”