Luah – Small Time
If you’re one of those big-time music fans, you probably often find yourself stuck in some minuscule club on the weekends with a dozen or so other people waiting for bands to share their music. It’s on really hot summer nights or blisteringly cold winter ones when you and the embarrassed musicians on stage (provided there is a stage) have to wonder why you do this. Couldn’t everyone involved just have found better things to get addicted to?
Embarrassing or not, what you’re hoping to get is a bit of that magic. The really bad addicts understand it, and you should as well. It’s probably not about ever finding something big enough that you can trade-in for a life of comfort. But what the music and creativity, in general, may provide is something that can push you through another week. You’ll be back in the smokey room next weekend, trying to smuggle out more of that hope.
Luah’s “Small Time” sounds like music made for and because of those small, smokey rooms where a few dedicated fans of music get together to share in their time-consuming obsession. It’s a desperate chase for beauty and meaning on which no college professor will ever write a paper. “Small Time” has a real warm, Tom Waitsesque sound owing to the DYI production and the creative restlessness of the performer.
The Classicals – I Was a Fish
I guess making music must’ve been a real effort back in the day. For the life of me, I can’t imagine people actually had to tune guitars using their ears, or needed their friends to teach them how to play chords on them.
I suppose that there was also the dirty business of getting your music recorded. At the very least, bands needed to trick somebody with the right equipment to take time out of their day and get the sounds down on a piece of magnetic tape. Then there was the business about releasing, selling it etc. You were better off finding a less taxing hobby or studying for your exams.
But I suppose that it gives the people who actually stuck with it all a sense of pride. Modern lo-fi recordings ain’t the same as classic lo-fi. The first just sound band while being recorded on a laptop. The latter are usually very inventive, but they sound the way they do because of the limitations of the budget.
The excellently christened The Classicals belong to a different time, and boy, are we lucky for that. “I Was a Fish” sounds like a prank. But it sounds like a prank that must’ve taken ages to execute. It’s a lo-fi alt-rock song with all the dynamics and melodies that you’ll need to shake your fist to or tap your foot. But it also sounds like something that people spend many hours on. I can imagine that only the “Oh, yeah,” the hook of the song, must’ve cost a fortune and fragmented lifelong friendships. “I Was a Fish” is a slacker rock sculpture in magnetic tape. And, I’m glad that The Classicals didn’t bother finding hobbies.
