Snailhouse - "The Silence Show"

Bertrand Russell rolled over in his his grave when Snailhouse sent him a copy of his penultimate release, The Opposite is Also True.

Upon receipt of his own promotional copy of said album, Frege had a very different reaction. He decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to invoke his favourite rule of logic: reductio.

Reductio ad absurdum is not only Frege’s favourite rule, it’s also objectively the best rule. It allows you to conclude anything and everything from a contradiction. So if, as Snailhouse claims, and as surely is often the case, the opposite is also true, then so too is it true that you’re not reading this right now, or that I’m a 6’10 adonis with impressive pectoral muscles (true regardless, btw).

“The Silence Show” is a lonely song. It’s about how we necessarily experience so much of life alone, about the limited extent to which we can share ourselves. Mike Feuerstack plays guitar with the reverb turned up, and maybe with just a slight chorus effect, and he sings sweetly, shifting easily between his upper and lower registers. The song might have been unbearably desolate if not not for the accompaniment of a fluttering, tape-saturating keyboard. Feuerstack sings of loneliness not alone, but with company. And songs this pure and gorgeous make our lonely times less so.

Because, though life is lonely, the opposite is also true. From which we can conclude that 3 plus 8 is a million and everything else too. [Info]

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Geeshie Wiley - "Last Kind Word Blues"

One should have a blues to sing for any blue situation that one might find oneself in. Here’s a blue situation: your daddy is conscripted to fight in the Great War, and just before leaving, he requests that, if he dies, he not be buried, but that instead you should let buzzards eat him whole. If, god forbid, you find yourself in this situation, I feel that no blues would be more appropriate than the ominous and winding masterpiece, “Last Kind Word Blues.” [Buy]