I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MEGAFAUN-“Find Your Mark” (2008).

After listening to the new Megafaun track, I checked the NPR archives.  They have this one song from their debut available for a listen as well.

It’s hard to believe that this is the same band.  Or perhaps I should say that a band can change a lot in three years.  This song begins as a three-part near-a capella barbershop/bar trio.  It reminds me in many ways of a Fleet Foxes track, except they seems more rowdy.  The song merges into a delicate guitar picking section with all of the voices “ba ba ba” ing.  Then, that guitar melody expands to an electric guitar and full band sound.

The introduction to the track (from the NPR DJ says that the album may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  But I like this track so much (even though it is so very different from their 2011 release), that I need to listen to more from this band.  Spotify, here I come. [Actually the album has some pretty crazy noises on it!].

[READ: August 20, 2011] “The Losing End”

This is a strange story about a man named Lamb.  The reason it is strange is because the middle of the story–the exciting part, the part I most enjoyed–is not really the point of the story, at least if the ending is to be believed.

As the story opens, Lamb has just been to his father’s wake.  He is feeling adrift so he goes to a parking lot to sit and think.  In addition to his father, Lamb is also thinking about his wife and his girlfriend.  I’m a little unclear exactly what is happening with his wife (Cathy) but he definitely trying to get time away from her to spend it with Linnie. While he is sitting there lost in thought, a young girl in an ill-fitting tube top approaches him.

And this is where the middle/exciting part begins.  She’s in seventh grade.  He sees that her friends have put her up to it and they are probably teasing her (she’s not very pretty).  He plays along, keeping an eye on her friends the whole time.  After he assesses the situation with the girl, he decides to play a trick on her friends.

The trick is pretty good (although in hindsight it is incredibly stupid), and I would love to see what her friends thought of it, but we never find that out.  Indeed, after the trick is over, we leave the girl and her friends behind completely.

When the trick is over, we stay with Lamb for a few paragraphs while he ponders the state of his life and the state of his affairs.  It’s probably a reasonable ending to the story, but after the coolness of the middle part it was kind of a let down.  I guess like life.