The Wash – Cat
Somebody asked David Lynch once why his works were so odd and difficult for the general public to grasp. The director/experimental musician answered casually that since life usually doesn’t make a lot of sense, people shouldn’t expect his movies to be very different.
It takes a good deal of commitment to make music that doesn’t really reach a conclusion, yet still resembles a pop tune. This is, especially, because we have been trained to expect to hear music as a verse-bridge-chorus suite.
The Wash’s Cat is dadaist rock n’ roll. Sure, on the surface, the composition doesn’t make sense. However, it is covered in enough well-orchestrated ideas inspired by indie-rock, emo, and hip-hop to make you believe that, in actual fact, you’re just not paying enough attention. If you live long enough with the music, you start to discern patterns in it, but it’s possible only because our minds need to find them in anything, even experimental indie-rock.
Jon Cohen Experimental – No Penny Jenny
I, unlike many other people, like it when bands place their genre or raison d’etre in their name or title of their composition. It saves a lot of time on getting introduced to their work and certainly helps with avoiding false expectations. Nobody ever expected Metallica to write power ballads until they actually did and financed their gold-plated swimming pool project.
Jon Cohen Experimental, as the moniker suggests, is a singer-songwriter doing it for the thrills, the art, and a genuine interest in showing his audience he is, most likely, smarter than they are. With a long list of influences that includes Yo La Tengo, Foxygen, or the Rolling Stones, I would be afraid to argue.
No Penny Jenny is a compromise with melodic elements of indie-rock while keeping the quirkiness visible, yet in check. The song’s arrangement is lush and the storytelling feels like a chapter in a decadent writer’s journals. Weird as he may promise to get on occasion, this single is pure pop glitter, full of lovely melodies and a gentle rocking that could soothe you to sleep.
