Frank Black - "I Burn Today"

“Yesterday I will burn/for the times I did not learn,” sings Frank Black in his warm and wide voice. Probably because he never learned about tenses in school, or maybe because his friend the “tarot maid” taught him that tenses are an artificial human construction (will be a human construction, were a human construction, are being one, etc.). Or maybe he was just distracted by the beautiful playing of his pianist, who finds hidden aspects of the melody and brings them out with a single note or a few sparsely timed chords. [From September's Paste Magazine sampler]

***

Listing Ship - "Baise Ca"

“Baise Ca” can be understood as a suicide note of sorts, but its macabre elements extend beyond that interpretation. I’m reminded of the stark black and white images of the bayou in “Down By Law:” the anxiety inducing stillness of the water, a boat cutting through the green surface cautiously, mist and mazes. I’m also reminded of galleys and fires and war in muddy trenches. When I wrote about Think About Life about a month ago I flippantly referred to Heart of Darkness, and now I wish I hadn’t. Because above all, when I hear the tribal click and thud of the percussion and the funereal fiddle, when I hear the singer’s voice emerge, breathless and resigned; I think of Marlow sailing down the banks of the foggy Congo, losing his grasp on reality, seeing a harlequin waving eagerly in the distance. [Buy/Info]