This is, first and foremost, a film blog, and I intend to keep it that way, but there is something I want to say that isn’t about films, and I need a public forum, and this is all I have. I have been into punk music for years now, and that extended into folk punk. One particular artist, Pat the Bunny, has had my attention for a while now, his bands Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains and Wingnut Dishwashers Union, are my favorite of the genre. Johnny Hobo’s songs will make the listener extremely sad, and Wingnut Dishwashers will make them happy again. His albums will mark anyone willing to listen, and I classify him as a great inspiration. For those who don't know, this blog is named after lyrics from a song posted at the bottom of the page - "And in my dreams, I am dirty broke beautiful and free." In December 2009, Pat went into a year long rehab program for a longstanding drug addiction problem, and when he came out half a year ago he started a new band, Ramshackle Glory.
Ramshackle Glory’s first album, Live The Dream, just came out last week and that is what this article is about. If you have never heard a single Pat the Bunny song, there is a possibility you will like this album, but for everyone else, it is a let down. A huge disappointment. He went from two of the coolest bands to play music in the past five years to generic, boring, and quite frankly bad music with this band. You’d think with a line up of a banjo, mandolin, drummer, piano player, and acoustic guitar that they would be able to put out something really groundbreaking, but despite the eclectic choice of instruments they still play simple, very straightforward music. I think it might actually be the full band that’s holding him back, as all of them are very amateur musicians, and while he isn’t that great either he is better at doing a lot with a little. It might be that he has changed though, the music has a much happier sound to it, and maybe, he’s finally found peace. If so, good for him, but his art is suffering now because he is not. The lyrics, which used to be his strongest point, went from provoking to standard punk rock angst singing about the government, or just rewordings of all of his old songs.
Apparently the dream is an old woman playing volleyball on a human pyramid.
I’ve been waiting for this album since I first heard that Pat was in rehab. He had written on his website that he might not continue to make music after he got out, and there were many of us who hoped heavily that he would. In January he updated his site to tell us that he had a new band, and would be putting out an album later this year. Soon thereafter, he put up two new versions of old Wingnut Dishwashers Union songs, and they were both amazing, but, since they were remakes of older songs, I still didn’t know what to think. I downloaded and played those songs over and over again, remaining hopeful, waiting for the day when the album would leak (I live in England, by the time I completed a money order I’d be back in America). Anyway, I downloaded it a few days ago, and listened to it a number of times, each time hoping that it will grow on me. It is playing as I type this, but, it isn’t really happening. The only good new song is Of Ballets and Barricades, and even that is subpar for his older stuff.
So, if you have never heard of Pat the Bunny, I still highly recommend his first two bands. If you are a big fan, like I know a bunch of my readers are, give it a listen, but I am pretty sure most of you will agree with me, and just go back to putting his old stuff on repeat. Anyway, sorry to everyone who came looking for me to rant about films, I’ll give you that sort of update real soon, this is just something I needed to get off my chest. Until next time, I'll be listening to some more of this:
Comments
Post a Comment