BARR - “The Song Is the Single”
Brendan Fowler has played music with Le Tigre’s JD Samson (the one with the mustache) and the people who would later go on to form Animal Collective. As BARR, he’s released music on Deathbomb Arc (Captain Ahab’s label), 5RC (Deerhoof’s label), and Upset! The Rhythm (John Maus’ label). He’s toured with Xiu Xiu. Allmusic.com categorizes him as Post-Rock/Experimental, Alternative Rap, and Comedy Rock. “Similar Artists” are listed as: Buck 65, Sole, Alias, Sage Francis, and Saul Williams. In some way, all of those descriptions and associations and name-droppings make perfect sense. But at the same time, they’re all completely and totally wrong. The comedy rock classification works to an extent, I suppose. BARR is certainly funny… but it’s a subtle, wry humor (his previous full length was titled Beyond Reinforced Jewel Case). Tenacious D, Ween, or Frank Zappa this is not. To a certain extent, the experimental hip-hop comparisons work too. It’s not too much of a stretch to draw parallels between Fowler’s vocal delivery and the abstract rapping of Anticon members like Sole. But Fowler’s style is far more slacker-spoken-word than hip-hop. The analogy that continuously comes to my mind is Steven Malkmus at his least tuneful and most deadpan (think the verses of “Stereo”), accompanied by minimal, repetitive drums, piano, and bass. The first single off of Summary, BARR’s third full length, is “The Song is the Single,” which, as the title hints at, is about as self-referential as a song can possibly get without eating itself up like an Ouroboros. The chorus, if you can call it that, is “the song is the single and the single sucks/it never sounded good/it always sounded bad.” And of course, he’s talking about the song/single that you’re listening to, “The Song is the Single.” Fowler then goes on to describe the process of the song’s creation, muse about the semiotics of pop music, and tell tales of his previous tour (which again ties into the process of the song’s creation). It all sounds like a dry, ironic, intellectual pursuit I’m sure. And to a certain extent, it is. But Fowler balances all that with humor, candid frankness, and a catchy bass line. A minute and twenty seconds in, the music dies down a bit and Fowler declares “I still have a feeling / I’m still filled with feeling / I just want to hold someone (x7).” And then the music builds slightly again and the opening lyrics repeat, but this time they feel imbued with a new sense of candor and fragility and you have a hard time writing this off as just an ironic joke song.
January 16th, 2010 17:33
[…] exactly a year ago, I wrote about BARR’s track “The Song Is The Single.” At the time, that was really the only track on this album that I enjoyed. I just couldn’t get […]