Puffmagic's Week of Record Reviews: Day 4
-
Artist:
-
Album:
So, it’s three in the afternoon on Sunday and I’ve been awake for about two hours. Last night was my bachelor party and I didn’t get home until about 4:30am after starting at 2pm yesterday. Now before any of you frat-esque alphas start jabbing for stories of high alcohol and naked fake breasts I’ll have you know I’m a modest guy and a huge geek, as are all my friends. So we spent around 13 hours playing computer games at a LAN party drinking beer only when we went to dinner. It may not live up to so many tourism ads for Vegas featuring attractive late-twenty-something guys with expensive jeans and those fitted dress shirts that they always leave untucked and unbuttoned at the top laughing simultaneously as they toast with frothy beers surrounded by nearly naked models who are playing the part of media’s idea of man’s misguided desire to hump anything with a 24†waist and shiny hair, but it was fun for me so back off, “Chadâ€.The point of all that is to say that on those occasions when you go to bed and wake up within the same day feeling like death on toast there are certain rituals you perform to get you back on track that deviate from your normal routine. Normally for me this involves not changing out of my pajamas for any reason (up to and including going to the store, churches, business lunches or funerals), eating sugary cereal out of the box while watching cable television and listening to Red House Painters. There are certain pieces of music that you tend to consider “yoursâ€, albums that perhaps you feel were written specifically for, if not about, you. “Old Ramon†by Red House Painters is one of those albums for me. Day 4: Red House Painters - Old Ramon
I picked it up about two years ago when I was living the slum life in Lakeview, Oregon, I had a tiny hovel of a house that I rented for $300 a month that was about 800 square feet, had no carpet, cracks in the windows and no furnace. You can’t imagine the pride I felt for that house, for though it was a mess and barely livable, it was my own. I’d never lived alone before and the idea of having all these different rooms that I could do whatever I wanted with excited my to no end. So while I was painting my kitchen, plastering the living room walls, putting in a shower and fixing my fence I was often listening to Old Ramon. When I made the 375 mile drive from the southern Oregon border to visit my family in the northwest corner I’d have a strict rotation of music that was designed for that specific trip; Old Ramon began and ended the trip both ways. When I was sitting sadly in my tiny bedroom trying not to think of the breakup that drove me to this town I’d listen to the track “Void†to make me feel worse. When I was doing the dishes I’d listen to “Between Days†to keep me entertained, when I’d walk to town for groceries I’d listen to “River†because the song’s length was almost exactly the length of the walk to the store. I listened to a lot of music during that time in my life, but when I’d wake up on a Sunday with a hangover and bitterly alone I’d put on Old Ramon and go through the motions of recovering to my daily self. It wasn’t the content of the songs, the lyrics really didn’t specifically resonate with me, and while the songs are really, really good the music wasn’t anything revolutionary. But there’s something about this album that sits deeply inside me and I’m tied to it. I know this review isn’t traditional, but if you’ve ever read Pitchfork you know that they don’t always have to be. To me reviewing an album is more about how the music affects you personally, not just about the band or the songs or who produced it or whether it’s their “sophomore effort†or whatever tired cliché you want to use. These are reviews about the records that mean something to me, not just the most popular or the most obscure or the one’s that will get me the most “indie cred†and this record means something to me. I can’t listen to a single note without having an emotional response and that’s the mark of a great record.
I picked it up about two years ago when I was living the slum life in Lakeview, Oregon, I had a tiny hovel of a house that I rented for $300 a month that was about 800 square feet, had no carpet, cracks in the windows and no furnace. You can’t imagine the pride I felt for that house, for though it was a mess and barely livable, it was my own. I’d never lived alone before and the idea of having all these different rooms that I could do whatever I wanted with excited my to no end. So while I was painting my kitchen, plastering the living room walls, putting in a shower and fixing my fence I was often listening to Old Ramon. When I made the 375 mile drive from the southern Oregon border to visit my family in the northwest corner I’d have a strict rotation of music that was designed for that specific trip; Old Ramon began and ended the trip both ways. When I was sitting sadly in my tiny bedroom trying not to think of the breakup that drove me to this town I’d listen to the track “Void†to make me feel worse. When I was doing the dishes I’d listen to “Between Days†to keep me entertained, when I’d walk to town for groceries I’d listen to “River†because the song’s length was almost exactly the length of the walk to the store. I listened to a lot of music during that time in my life, but when I’d wake up on a Sunday with a hangover and bitterly alone I’d put on Old Ramon and go through the motions of recovering to my daily self. It wasn’t the content of the songs, the lyrics really didn’t specifically resonate with me, and while the songs are really, really good the music wasn’t anything revolutionary. But there’s something about this album that sits deeply inside me and I’m tied to it. I know this review isn’t traditional, but if you’ve ever read Pitchfork you know that they don’t always have to be. To me reviewing an album is more about how the music affects you personally, not just about the band or the songs or who produced it or whether it’s their “sophomore effort†or whatever tired cliché you want to use. These are reviews about the records that mean something to me, not just the most popular or the most obscure or the one’s that will get me the most “indie cred†and this record means something to me. I can’t listen to a single note without having an emotional response and that’s the mark of a great record.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (11)