Crones – Dirt
What’s the fashion of rock music nowadays? Well, there’s uniform per se, unless you want to be accepted in a biker’s club or be an extra on a television show about the rise of punk in Britain. But that’s all just stupid.
For the most part, should you really want to be integrated into one of the few remaining exciting rock scenes, you’d best do your best to be a bit of a trainwreck. It’s not about anti-fashion anymore; it’s about run-down fashion.
From the heavy metal guys who look like they’ve tried to sail to the Faroe Islands in a canoe to the German punk-rockers who look like they’ve assembled their wardrobe from a garbage can outside a fetish store to the post-punk people who look like they’ve inherited their grandfathers’ hand-me-downs everyone looks a mess. And they’re proud of it, too. Things are going to pieces, and rock fans will look like it.
Crones’ “Dirt” is a song about the untold beauty of messing up. No, this is not a song that follows the teachings of Siddharta. This is a call to action, a song that follows the teachings of Iggy Pop. Crones manages to sound manic while they deliver their sermon, too. The music resembles Queens of the Stone Age circa “Songs for the Deaf.” It’s music for people who don’t want to borrow a three-piece suit and don’t want to learn to dance.
Cathedral Ceilings – Nevermind the Helicopters
Everybody dreams of being a charming delinquent. But few have the brains for it. Most of the time, people just overcomplicate matters. Usually, they want to do too much. Maybe it’s social media or syrupy Hollywood movies that have convinced them that the world is waiting to listen to their every word, that every one of their thoughts is something of colossal importance.
Frank Zappa laughed at the people in the original punk bands. He called them “street people” who’d had guitars put in their hands by greedy impresarios. Maybe. But who wasted more of their audiences’ time”? Frank Zappa made jazz-rock triple albums centred around painfully unfunny dad jokes. Ramones played 40-minute shows that delivered plenty of thrills and then let you get on with your day.
Cathedral Ceilings’ musicians aren’t stupid. The original punks aren’t either. Both just respect you enough to give you the goods and let you be on your way. “Nevermind the Helicopters” is a punk tune. It sounds like someone falling from the aforementioned rotorcraft while quickly trying to recite a calming poem. It’s a manic dash to the finish line or to the bottom, and there’s no way you’re not going to get the point of this by the time it is over.
