It’s not everyday you come across something original. Let’s face it, most indie music out there today is just a rip off from something Pavement did many years back. Think about it: You’re sitting there at work listening to the most recent No Age album or (insert some other nascent indie band name that will be forgotten in 3 weeks time) mp3 to hit the interweb, you’re rocking out, and some L.L. Bean-clad doofus coworker walks by your cubicle and says “hey, isn’t that a Stephen Malkmus riff?” You’re pissed, you send him away, telling him flannel shirts are on sale on Bean’s website, but after a few minutes of contemplating his comment, you realize it’s true. 99.5% of all indie music is derivative from Pavement.
Well not anymore.
Walking home from my local tea shop today, macbook in hand, I heard a stunning performance by Larry, the neighborhood can-collector. His instruments were painfully rudimentary- discarded Campbell soup containers, old soda bottles, a used oil drum, and a mangled tire iron- but Larry proved his mastery of melody and rhythm with renditions of songs such as ‘I’ve been working on the railroad’ and “99 bottles of beer on the wall.” Hipsters abound might be unimpressed with Larry’s song selection, that is until they hear the following: Larry played these songs in 5/4…with his feet.
Blown away? I was.
After a jaw-dropping remake of Big Punisher’s “Still Not a Player,” Larry finally transitioned into a moving original piece: a kazoo-laden ballad about his pet squirrel getting the kibosh during a hobo-knife fight gone terribly wrong. With rambling lyrics, Larry’s vocals hit the highs, the lows, and everything in between during the 7 minute heart-wrenching song, and all the while, his attention to tempo and bass (which he manipulated with a tennis ball in the oil drum) was unfaltering. Larry had finally found that lo-fi sound that Pavement could never touch, not even on their utmost hits.
REVIEW: 9.2 (*please note that Pavement didn’t even score this high)
Well not anymore.
Walking home from my local tea shop today, macbook in hand, I heard a stunning performance by Larry, the neighborhood can-collector. His instruments were painfully rudimentary- discarded Campbell soup containers, old soda bottles, a used oil drum, and a mangled tire iron- but Larry proved his mastery of melody and rhythm with renditions of songs such as ‘I’ve been working on the railroad’ and “99 bottles of beer on the wall.” Hipsters abound might be unimpressed with Larry’s song selection, that is until they hear the following: Larry played these songs in 5/4…with his feet.
Blown away? I was.
After a jaw-dropping remake of Big Punisher’s “Still Not a Player,” Larry finally transitioned into a moving original piece: a kazoo-laden ballad about his pet squirrel getting the kibosh during a hobo-knife fight gone terribly wrong. With rambling lyrics, Larry’s vocals hit the highs, the lows, and everything in between during the 7 minute heart-wrenching song, and all the while, his attention to tempo and bass (which he manipulated with a tennis ball in the oil drum) was unfaltering. Larry had finally found that lo-fi sound that Pavement could never touch, not even on their utmost hits.
REVIEW: 9.2 (*please note that Pavement didn’t even score this high)
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