I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PALEHOUND-A Place I’ll Always Go (2017).

Ellen Kempner’s voice is a bit louder in the mix so you can really hear the words despite the fact that she is still singing mostly in a whisper.

It’s a logical step from her previous album and every thing sounds a bit bigger and a bit better.

“Hunter’s Gun” is slow and a little creepy with the echo on her vocals and her whispered lyrics.  There’s also some great weird effects floating around in the background–especially by the end as the echo more or less takes over.

“Carnations” starts simply enough with a quiet chugging riff.  But the chorus is a wonderful–louder guitar with the guitar and vocals doing the same catchy melody.  It also has some great lyrics

They’re still in love with their ex
And I’m not feeling my best
This is a bad combination

‘Cause I’ve been dreaming I might
Just up and bail on this plight
And maybe go on vacation

Pack up my shit in the dark
And if the car doesn’t start
It spares us both conversations

“Room” is slower more acoustic-feeling.  It’s a sweetly romantic song with the lovely chorus line “She keeps me…  at night.”

“If You Met Her” starts out kind of sinister musically, but it has a really catchy chorus as well  It’s a wonderful song about breakup and new love perfectly summed up with this ending line

I’m with someone new
And I know that you would love her if you met her

The set up of rocker followed by slower song continues with  “Silver Toaster,” a loose, acoustic song that reminds of a snarky/simple Nirvana song (with a banjo solo!)

“Turning 21” has a big shoegaze guitar sound and a wonderfully catchy melody in the bridge.

“Flowing Over” mixes some good guitar lines and a rocking mid bridge section but its the oh oh oh oh section and the way it changes throughout the song that is the major hook.

“Backseat” opens with pulsing keys.  It’s a dark mediation that segues into the beautiful guitar of “Feeling Fruit, ” a pedestrian-seeming lyric that is much deeper and quite moving.

“At Night I’m Alright With You.” is a quiet moody song with a real Twin Peaks vibe.

These two releases are great but to really get to see how amazing Ellen is, check her out live.

[READ: January 23, 2018] “A Change in Fashion”

When I read this recently it sounded really familiar.  Clearly I had read it back in 2006 and it was so striking that I remembered it 12 years later.

And indeed, it is a memorable story, even if it’s not especially profound or funny–it’s mildly amusing and thoughtful.

Basically, this is an account of the way fashions changed after the Age of Revelation.  Girls and women were happily showing off their thongs but it was as if, after a half a century of reckless exposure, a weariness had overcome women…a disenchantment to invite a bold male gaze.

At first girls were opposed to it–it reminded them of old photographs in boring albums.  But soon it became stylish to wear dresses that brushed the floor–wearing lambskin gloves and rising collars.

The designer with the most creative creations was a man named Hyperion.  He put a gold H on a blood-red circle as his logo and he refused all media.   He started to take things further–pushing dresses towards Victorian crinoline with hoops of flexible steel.  At first people mocked it, but it soon became an expression of liberation from the tyranny of the body.  Teenage girls loved the idea of plunging far down into layers of costume that sheltered them from sight.

Soon dresses began to explore their own inner nature–a body became almost irrelevant.  It was as if the dress was more important than the person in it.  And yet there was a degree of eroticism still there.

Teenage girls held contests to see who was wearing more layers.  But it also appealed to women who felt their bodies were inadequate or repellent.

Cynics said that despite the covering, women’s faces were still exposed.  And so Hyperion responded with dresses that covered the face–with clever openings for eyes and nostrils.  This was eventually replaced by an opaque fabric.

Commentators were divided some argued that it represented the ultimate defense of the female body against visual invasion while others saw in it the final liberation of costume from its demeaning dependence on the body.

This of course turned into a period of pure excess–dresses grew in size and volume, some exceeding the size of the room.  One dress had a red door which led to a room with a bed and a mirror.  Some of these felt desperate, and yet they were purchased.

And then at a party in Connecticut, the dresses were so large and lavish that they stood on the grass without moving.  Men rushed over and realized that there were no women in the dresses–they were back inside the house dressed in bathrobes.

Surely the dresses must come back around, right?

And what of Hyperion.?

I admit that this story pushes itself to logical extremes and pretty much goes right where you think it would, but it’s an enjoyable and amusing read.