Niki N. Phaser

                I’ll get in the holiday season and give a thought to something Christians all over the world commemorate in the holy month of April: the death of Kurt Cobain and the ever-growing resurrection of Nirvana. It’s difficult to find even a non-single of theirs that is not known by almost everybody, especially off of Nevermind.

               On a Plain is the song that always comes to mind when I hear that Kurt Cobain considered The Beatles a major influence. There is a lot of melodicity in Nirvana’s work and by burying it in punk whirpools, they achieved the sound that bears their name. That’s what this song is all about, sonically speaking. Lyrically, I don’t think we should look too much into it, because the subject is pretty clear: “It is now time to make it unclear, To write off lines that don’t make sense”, to which we can add “And one more special message to go, And then I’m done, and I can go home”. The thing we should remember about Nirvana is not how great (continue reading…)

It’s still unclear what kind of music does Califone play, but it doesn’t really matter as long as it sounds like this wonderful song, Bottles & Bones (Shade & Sympathy). This Chicago outfit of proggies dable in some sort of experimental folk, mostly acoustic, but also with some electric shades here and there. They seem like a bunch of guys who work the fields the first six days of the week and then, on Sunday, they gather on someone’s porch and start jamming. No commercial pressure whatsoever – absolute freedom. And Bottles & Bones (Shade & Sympathy) sounds exactly like that. The emotions which transpire through this song are 100% sincere, musically that is (the ooohhh’s of the chorus will make you ponder on your existential loneliness, wherever you are). The lyrics outline a strange universe, dangerous and degraded: “Nervous john, Rescues all the whores” (Taxi Driver ???), “Aching to get your pocket picked” or “Clouds of angels liquored pink and underage”. It kinda sounds like Kurt Cobain faked his suicide just to retire somewhere with no electricity and release unrehearsed songs under the name Califone. Still, the song was written by Tim Rutili, the founder of Califone. In case it sounds familiar, you should know that Bottles & Bones (Shade & Sympathy) was featured on the Will Ferrell movie Stranger Than Fiction, contributing like 60 % to the film’s profoundness.

LISTEN TO THIS EXPERIMENTAL SONG HERE