Lambchop - Cmon My Selector
--------------------
In these high-fallutin' times, it's worth pointing out that there's only one letter's difference between concept and conceit; that lofty ideas, as often as not, teeter on a knife-edge between well-intentioned ambition and mawkish pretentiousness. So when news emerged that Nashville country/soul/lounge/kitchen sink aesthetes Lambchop, fronted by supremely affable, deadpan everyman Kurt Wagner, were to release two separate "themed" albums simultaneously in 2004, the sound of eyebrows raising would've been deafening if eyebrows made any noise.
The albums in question, called Aw Cmon and No You Cmon (City Slang), are due to be packaged as one release. But it's not a double album, oh no: it's two albums, released at the same time but sold as one, so any talk of Use Your Illusion-style cluster marketing is way off beam. Confused yet? So, it would seem, is Kurt Wagner, as the following amusingly exasperating exercise in verbal knot-tying demonstrates.
"It was the idea of putting out two records that would, y'know, be separate from each other…Unfortunately, record companies have to figure out a way to package it. What they came up with was this idea of including them in this little pack but keeping them as separate records…" Still with us? Keep up now.
"The idea being that there are two records, there's no reason to feel that you have to absorb them both together…" So they don't have to be listened to in any order? "No! My idea was to simply put out two records - you buy one, you buy the other, buy 'em both, it's all wonderful. We had a lot of music, and we wanted to make sure [both albums] were released in a timely manner, so they're still relevant to what we're doing."
At the time of writing, it's still not clear how the albums will be presented; it's possible that Stateside audiences might have to buy them separately after all. What is clear, however, is the wealth of fantastic songs on offer across the albums' 24 tracks - a result of Wagner's strict "write a song a day" plan and self-imposed quality control.
"I hadn't ever given myself that discipline before," he admits, "but it was something I'd always wanted to do - it sounded like an interesting idea. I had a month when I started it, and then a month when I didn't, and then a couple of months on, so I accumulated quite a bit. Unfortunately, a lot of the songs were really bad! I was fortunate to have as much as I did."
"The whole idea about trying to complete a song in a day was that it would force me to make certain decisions and judgements in that small period of time. I was forced to scour around and come up with something that was…worthy. In a lot of cases, I failed!" But the successes are all here for us to hear, and Wagner attributes much of this success to "writing on a multi-track format - I used to just use something like that [points at Bullit's antiquated dictaphone]."
A portion of the material included on Aw Cmon and No You Cmon is lifted from Wagner's score to Sunrise, the 1927 classic silent movie by Fritz Lang contemporary FW Murnau. Wagner was asked to provide a live soundtrack to the movie at the 2003 San Francisco International Film Festival, a request which chimed in with his own aforementioned enforced work ethic. So why not compile the whole film soundtrack and release it as an album in itself?
"Well, I would like to! One of the things I'm working on now is trying to get permission to put out a DVD [of Sunrise] with our music as the soundtrack. To me, soundtrack records are only half the story," he teases, hinting at possible future plans to tour with the film. While the tracks used on Sunrise were already written when the request came through, Wagner expresses a strong desire to score a film from scratch - "I'd love to, but it's not up to me!" he says with a raucous cackle - take note, Miramax.
Wagner is intense but softly-spoken in person, helpfully hunching into the dictaphone while toying with an unlit cigarette. He seems at pains to make it perfectly clear that, in spite of his figurehead status in Lambchop, the music is a collaborative effort between himself and his "fairly large coalition" of 14 band members. "I'm trying to make this more of a band-centric album as opposed to a Kurt-centric one. Over a period of time it's grown into 'Kurt Wagner and his band', which has never really been the case. Hopefully the record reflects that more than in the past."
This is a marked contrast to the last Lambchop album, 2001's Is A Woman, which sounds as if only Wagner, pianist Tony Crow and some passing insects were involved - at times so quiet and intimate that it seems the music, even the room itself, might disappear altogether. "But everybody was on it!" Kurt protests. "This [new material] is an attempt to be a little more blatant about the fact there is quite a bit going on."
Certainly, Aw Cmon and No You Cmon represent something of a return to the emotional peaks and troughs, Philly soul string sections, countrified strumming and vibraphonic sprees which made 2000's Nixon and its groundbreaking predecessor What Another Man Spills such treats. Wagner's gentle wit is in fine fettle, and he has lost none of his innate desire to pinpoint moments of beauty, poetry, perfection and sadness in the tiny details of life. That said, he concedes that the album's instrumentals are "some of the catchiest things, but for me an instrumental has to have something to it in order to survive - and if it has that, maybe the words get in the way."
Of late, Lambchop have eased up on the cover versions for which they are well-known - Curtis Mayfield's "I've Been Lonely For So Long" and The Sister's Of Mercy's "This Corrosion" being two characteristically off-kilter examples - although the band have "certainly been batting around some ideas." STARSANDHEROES' (totally serious) suggestion of Destiny's Child is greeted with peels of falsetto giggling, so don't expect "Independent Woman" anytime soon, for shame.
"I think the thing with our records is, if you allow it a little bit of time, it does make an impression on you. Maybe it's a little confounding initially, but…" Well aware of the Magnetic Fields-esque task he's set Lambchop's fans - "When we realised this was the direction we were going, I certainly thought about the other people I admired. Stephin Merritt was one of them, and Tom Waits. I just thought, why not? Look at Outkast - it's all the rage now!" - Wagner lays back on the sofa and smiles beatifically, as if to say, "Job's a good 'un". And so it is. Cmon!
The albums in question, called Aw Cmon and No You Cmon (City Slang), are due to be packaged as one release. But it's not a double album, oh no: it's two albums, released at the same time but sold as one, so any talk of Use Your Illusion-style cluster marketing is way off beam. Confused yet? So, it would seem, is Kurt Wagner, as the following amusingly exasperating exercise in verbal knot-tying demonstrates.
"It was the idea of putting out two records that would, y'know, be separate from each other…Unfortunately, record companies have to figure out a way to package it. What they came up with was this idea of including them in this little pack but keeping them as separate records…" Still with us? Keep up now.
"The idea being that there are two records, there's no reason to feel that you have to absorb them both together…" So they don't have to be listened to in any order? "No! My idea was to simply put out two records - you buy one, you buy the other, buy 'em both, it's all wonderful. We had a lot of music, and we wanted to make sure [both albums] were released in a timely manner, so they're still relevant to what we're doing."
At the time of writing, it's still not clear how the albums will be presented; it's possible that Stateside audiences might have to buy them separately after all. What is clear, however, is the wealth of fantastic songs on offer across the albums' 24 tracks - a result of Wagner's strict "write a song a day" plan and self-imposed quality control.
"I hadn't ever given myself that discipline before," he admits, "but it was something I'd always wanted to do - it sounded like an interesting idea. I had a month when I started it, and then a month when I didn't, and then a couple of months on, so I accumulated quite a bit. Unfortunately, a lot of the songs were really bad! I was fortunate to have as much as I did."
"The whole idea about trying to complete a song in a day was that it would force me to make certain decisions and judgements in that small period of time. I was forced to scour around and come up with something that was…worthy. In a lot of cases, I failed!" But the successes are all here for us to hear, and Wagner attributes much of this success to "writing on a multi-track format - I used to just use something like that [points at Bullit's antiquated dictaphone]."
A portion of the material included on Aw Cmon and No You Cmon is lifted from Wagner's score to Sunrise, the 1927 classic silent movie by Fritz Lang contemporary FW Murnau. Wagner was asked to provide a live soundtrack to the movie at the 2003 San Francisco International Film Festival, a request which chimed in with his own aforementioned enforced work ethic. So why not compile the whole film soundtrack and release it as an album in itself?
"Well, I would like to! One of the things I'm working on now is trying to get permission to put out a DVD [of Sunrise] with our music as the soundtrack. To me, soundtrack records are only half the story," he teases, hinting at possible future plans to tour with the film. While the tracks used on Sunrise were already written when the request came through, Wagner expresses a strong desire to score a film from scratch - "I'd love to, but it's not up to me!" he says with a raucous cackle - take note, Miramax.
Wagner is intense but softly-spoken in person, helpfully hunching into the dictaphone while toying with an unlit cigarette. He seems at pains to make it perfectly clear that, in spite of his figurehead status in Lambchop, the music is a collaborative effort between himself and his "fairly large coalition" of 14 band members. "I'm trying to make this more of a band-centric album as opposed to a Kurt-centric one. Over a period of time it's grown into 'Kurt Wagner and his band', which has never really been the case. Hopefully the record reflects that more than in the past."
This is a marked contrast to the last Lambchop album, 2001's Is A Woman, which sounds as if only Wagner, pianist Tony Crow and some passing insects were involved - at times so quiet and intimate that it seems the music, even the room itself, might disappear altogether. "But everybody was on it!" Kurt protests. "This [new material] is an attempt to be a little more blatant about the fact there is quite a bit going on."
Certainly, Aw Cmon and No You Cmon represent something of a return to the emotional peaks and troughs, Philly soul string sections, countrified strumming and vibraphonic sprees which made 2000's Nixon and its groundbreaking predecessor What Another Man Spills such treats. Wagner's gentle wit is in fine fettle, and he has lost none of his innate desire to pinpoint moments of beauty, poetry, perfection and sadness in the tiny details of life. That said, he concedes that the album's instrumentals are "some of the catchiest things, but for me an instrumental has to have something to it in order to survive - and if it has that, maybe the words get in the way."
Of late, Lambchop have eased up on the cover versions for which they are well-known - Curtis Mayfield's "I've Been Lonely For So Long" and The Sister's Of Mercy's "This Corrosion" being two characteristically off-kilter examples - although the band have "certainly been batting around some ideas." STARSANDHEROES' (totally serious) suggestion of Destiny's Child is greeted with peels of falsetto giggling, so don't expect "Independent Woman" anytime soon, for shame.
"I think the thing with our records is, if you allow it a little bit of time, it does make an impression on you. Maybe it's a little confounding initially, but…" Well aware of the Magnetic Fields-esque task he's set Lambchop's fans - "When we realised this was the direction we were going, I certainly thought about the other people I admired. Stephin Merritt was one of them, and Tom Waits. I just thought, why not? Look at Outkast - it's all the rage now!" - Wagner lays back on the sofa and smiles beatifically, as if to say, "Job's a good 'un". And so it is. Cmon!
Charlie Ivens
Originally published by Bullit Magazine January 2004
posted by Anonymous @ Thursday, January 08, 2004
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