Lou Barlow: Goodnight Unknown, part 1

Too Known?

From: Brian
To: Monty & Scott

Here we go...the inaugural run through our attempt to ring-around a single record. I hope it proves interesting (or is at least some sort of fun).

Anyway, the record at hand: Lou Barlow's Goodnight Unknown. To tell the truth, I was sure I would never want/need another Lou Barlow record in my life. Not because I don't dig his stuff; on the contrary, my collection is stuffed with Dinosaur, Sebadoh and Sentridoh recordings that he's made over the course of a now-longish career. It's just...well, Barlow was a bard of my early- and mid-20s, echoing the confusion of that phase and guiding my attempts at (very) rough home recording.

But you know those bands that you really, really like and also don't really feel like listening to too much anymore? That's Barlow for me (at least in his Sebadoh/Sentridoh identity; I still go in for Dinosaur). I'm just not the guy I was when I heard myself in those records, and I'd guess he's not either.

So anyway, why did I pick this one for our maiden voyage? Well, I heard some stray tracks from Barlow's present Merge Records projects...and I kind of dug them. I didn't pay close enough attention to know what was in "Gravitate," the free pre-release tune, but it pushed the Sebadoh Button easily enough that I became interested to check back in with Barlow.

Now, I'm pretty sure that Scott has a background in Barlow roughly equivalent to mine...but Monty, would I be right in guessing that this is the 1st time you're hearing him? I'm interested to know what kind of listening experience that is--I can't help but compare the sounds, style and lyrics of this new stuff to the Barlow back-catalog. Does he sound like something more than an amateurish song-smith? I know he's not the king of complexity--which was always part of Barlow's charm--but I wonder how it serves him for someone not drawn in by his context.

I might be too drawn in by the context; when that little xylophone hit shows up in "Faith in Your Heartbeat," I found myself assuming he'd borrowed a toy instrument from his young daughter, whereas a decade ago I would have assumed the toy instrument had been a stoned impulse buy he'd made at a flea market. And instead of just finding the lame lyrics of "Take Advantage" disappointing, I'm taking this turn from the self-lacerating a little personally.

Please tell me I should just be enjoying the earworms and not reading so much into the guy behind the guy. But on the other hand, I've spun this thing half a dozen times and I don't think there's a single song I can hum on my own. I can hear that there are melodies, some nice arrangements, even a couple of decent lyrical turns, but I already find myself wanting to listen to the new Mountain Goats record instead.

Every start could be the beginning,
Brian