| Subject: Re: about zwan |
Author:
ponytail jones
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Date Posted: 10:05:12 12/12/01 Wed
In reply to:
hey
's message, "Re: about zwan" on 07:03:08 12/02/01 Sun
i think the saddest thing about all this unnecessary (although unavoidable) hoopla/controversy/sniveling is that nobody is thinking about the BIG ROCK potential.
first, let's just CONSIDER the fact that, with the exception of some fine accompaniment on the cat power record, and a damn fine blazin' motherfuckin' solo on the first song off "ease down the road", matt sweeney, hammer of the rock gods Chavez has been more or less silent for FAR too long.
second, since the demise of slint, rarely have we heard Pajo's full-volume potential be unleashed...probably the most rockin' piece of music to be issued by the man since '91 is "beloved woman" off the new record, which, nevertheless, bears a certain trademark restraint on Pajo's part (though not on britt walford's).
when pajo gets bombastic on his records lately, like on "krusty" or "northwest passage", it's been a noticeably sarcastic, casual, humorous form of rock--without the tension and awesome confusion of vintage slint...though i'd say it's just as satisfying in a different way. and he's got to do something, and has been doing much, to distance himself from the growing parody of post-rock that
just keeps getting sillier and sillier.
now let's consider just how goddamn shitty and pretentious billy corgan has been since "pisces iscariot". i'll get back to this later, but it's important to have the image of billy corgan bald in a leather frock posing on the threshold of what looks like the set of "tron" stuck deep in your mind!
david pajo and matt sweeney have been thoroughly uncompromising, restrained, and cautious musicians throughout their career, choosing their steps wisely, often to the aggravation of fans (especially Sweeney, since many of us lust after the prospect of another Chavez blast like a mutt after sausage during a sausage shortage). i would never accuse either of these artists of "career sabotage"--obviously they have been content to operate on their own terms, and probably don't give a fuck about what most of their philistine indie-rock credmongering fans think.
which is why i'm actually so happy to see them working with someone (corgan) who too wildly tried to reinforce his own genius, desperately seeking popular attention with wilder and wilder stunts (MELON COLLIE and then on)...with pajo and sweeney on board, unless there are sides to these artists that we have never seen or contemplated, i'm certain that ZWAN will strip away the layers of self-infatuation that marred so much SP material, exposing their joint capacity to rock unhindered.
the part of Pajo and Sweeney, the ZWAN project offers the opportunity to rock, to play powerful music with extremely competent musicians, to transmit exhilarating music to large audiences and curious ears, and to get some goddamned recognition. plus, for corgan, it's possibly the only way to recover from the dishonest, vacantly artsy, egotistical charades he pulled over his listeners for the last four or five years.
listening to ZWAN, then, i want to recapture some of the feelings that i might have had if i learned about this project in eighth grade; i would have been sweating bullets, downloading every track, fantasizing about the rock. to me, chavez, slint and SP all played the most thrilling, direct music i had heard at that point (hum and SDRE being the other groups in that eighth-grade category). and while i've come quite a ways since then, and corgan has gone too far down an obscene path, this project should grant both the musicians and fans with an excitement that may perhaps rekindle some of the naive emotional rushing prog-rock sensations that listening to these three monumental groups in their respective heydays provided for many of us--and certainly to offer new listeners with the chance of discovering the back catalogues of chavez and pajo, which will probably piss all of you off, but i wouldn't deprive anyone the pleasure of discovering "spiderland" or "gone glimmering".
i'm skeptical, and the songs i heard have ups and downs, but lets face it--its the sound of artists retrieving something that is painfully, ruefully absent in today's musical environment--thrills, chills, spills; the sound of chances being taken and decisions being made on a grand scale. i'll buy the album...but if it sucks, it's not going to be Pajo or Sweeney that i'll blame--they've established themselves as consistent artists.
but i have to say, as a former credmongering whorebag obscurantist, i was taken aback by the (comparative) quality of the zwan material--it's not slint, or chavez, or vintage SP--but it's fresh, and to be heard there is the sound of discovery, the discovery of capacities that have been effaced by these artists for too long--sweetness, scope, power, joy?
now what happened to james lo?
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