SOUNDTRACK: TREY ANASTASIO-One Man’s Trash (1998).
This is Trey Anastasio’s first solo album. It is a 30 minute collection of odds and ends (hence the title) and experimental pieces. There are some kernels of real songs and some simple noise experiments (most of which are shorter).
The first three songs are kernels of songs. “Happy Coffee Song” is a simple blues riff with a guitar solo and scatting lyrics. “Quantegy” is three minutes long. It’s got a bass line like Led Zeppelin’s The Lemon Song but with Trey just narrating about quantegy and materials with synths behind him. “Mister Completely” sounds like a Phish song with intertwining lines and a catchy riff.
“A Good Stalk” is the first of the experimental noise tracks. Feedback and backwards drum sounds make a 50 second soundscape that does indeed sound like a “A Good Stalk.”
“That Dream Machine” is a fast looping guitar pattern that sounds like it could be a King Crimson melody from the 80s. “The Way I Feel” introduces a funky bass line (with cowbell). “Rofa Beton” is almost three minutes of soft but fast echoing drum patterns.
“For Lew (My Bodyguard)” brings lyrics into the songs again. This song is about two minutes long, primarily keyboard washes and synths that follow the vocal line for
‘Cause Satan is real on the fainting couch,
I can feel my curved back sink into the hot orange light;
Feels good against my arms.
Mustard walls surround me like soldiers face to face
At the Battle of Trenton.
I can feel my curved back sink into the chapel pew.
While Maurice stands guard outside, no one can defy me.
No one can get by me with Maurice standing guard outside.
‘Cause Satan is real on the fainting couch.
Satan is real inside me,
From my head down to my kidney bean.
Yup.
It’s followed by three way experimental pieces. “At The Barbecue” is a kind of free jazz saxophone/trumpet experimental piece. “Tree Spine” is similar to “Stalk” with pulsing deep sounds and what could be the sound of insects eating a tree. “Here’s Mud In Your Eye” is a minute of splashing sounds–made by mouth?
“The Real Taste of Licorice” returns to proper songs with a lively three minute acoustic guitar piece.
“And Your Little Dog Too” is the longest piece at 4 minutes. It’s echoing drums and sound effects with Trey yelling in the background. It sounds like it is meant to be almost a savage dance.
“Jump Rope (fast version)” is thirty five seconds of meandering keyboards and what sounds like fast whipping loops (yes, like a jump rope). “Jump Rope (slow version)” is not a slowed down version of the above. In this one the looping sound is like a slow moving UFO.
“Kidney Bean” closes the album. The phrase kidney bean appeared earlier (in “For Lew”). The return is an elliptical 30 second song with the loud monotone recitation of “Now we’re talking kidney bean.”
There’s not a lot here for the casual listener. Or even for big fans. It’s the kind of thing that would be released for free if that was something that could have happened in 1998. I suspect people were kind of pissed to have paid money for this.
But it is kind of fun, if you like weird Phish nonsense.
[READ: May 1, 2019] “Child’s Play”
Alice Munro is a master of the short story. This story is utterly fantastic. They way it is written and the stunning ending are mind-blowing.
The story more or less begins with an introduction to Marlene and Charlene. They were not twins as people might have guessed (from their names). They were not even related. But they were at camp together and they bonded over their similar names. They bonded over their physical similarities and differences. They bonded over the camp counselor they didn’t like (Arva, “she even had an unpleasant name”).
Camp was religious, but it was United Church of Canada, so there wasn’t much talk of religion, exactly. Mostly it was talk of being nice. But Marlene had a story of being not nice.
There was a girl in Marlene’s neighborhood named Verna. She was described as her neighbor’s granddaughter, but there was no evidence of Verna’s mother. Marlene had an aversion to her right from the start. She told her mother that she hated Verna.
Her mother’s standard reaction was “The poor thing.” Marlene’s didn’t think her mother liked Verna either rather it was “a decision she had made to spite me, she pretended to be sorry for her” She said “How can you blame a person for the was she was born?” (more…)
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I have seen Trey Anastasio once solo at Newport Folk Festival (amazing) and with the Trey Anastasio Band (super fun). I didn’t expect him to tour so soon because Phish is playing in Atlantic City this summer. So it was great to see that he was going to do two shows this summer.
I Just Read About That... 