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May 12, 2006
Maybe, Baby: Bark Hide and Horn
I'm not sure if this is considered a "show," but Bark, Hide, and Horn's Andy Furgeson played a few songs for me yesterday and I recorded them. (You can hear them here.) I haven't seen Andy's band live yet but him playing solo was pretty damn impressive ("pretty damn" a whole lotta things, actually. The guy's talented as fuck.) So, he sung it like he meant it and played slide guitar, harmonica, tambourine on a highhat, and a suitcase kick-drum for bass. Dude was a full-on one-man-band but it wasn't a gimmick, and it wasn't anything different than his band set. He says he does the same thing live, only the rest of the band multi-tasks too. (Goddamn I fucking hate the word "multi-task.")
BHH's songs--their new ones anyway--are based around National Geographic articles. But, again, there's no gimmick involved. They feel just as tense or sad or pissed off or happy--whatever the band's trying to convey at that moment--as any "personal" song. Here's what Andy told me about that: "There are a couple of ways I come at the songs. One is that I read an article and find what I think is the most dramatic but glossed-over moment, then write a song summoning up all the emotions I think would come out of that moment. These old NGs are very rosy, you know, there's never any controversy or sense that what's going on isn't necessarily okay for everyone involved. Like I think a grizzly bear mother would be really angry if her baby was shot with a tranquilizer dart then locked in a cage and probed and tagged and shit. And the more I think about it, the more I can imagine and sing about that anger.
"The other way I approach these songs is looking for my emotions in the stories. I start singing about what I'm feeling over some guitar chords, come up with a few very general lyrics, then find an NG article that those emotions would fit in. With both methods, writing songs like this has been a refreshing experience. I don't have to rely on my emotions and experience so much, which is what I always used to do."
Posted by Adam Gnade at May 12, 2006 4:46 PM
Comments
i think this band is grand. i think the firelfy song is the one i like the most.
Posted by: daniel at May 12, 2006 6:03 PM
My vote's for the stork song. 100% badass. Even when compared to songs that aren't about storks.
Posted by: Garrett at May 18, 2006 7:36 PM
are those...alexander graham beard's great-grand children?
Posted by: xanducathus berrywheather at May 31, 2006 11:40 PM
go to their show
try to not have fun
try it
you can't
Posted by: je at August 11, 2006 3:08 PM
