I admit that I’m jaded. Every day the mailman drops off more music than I can possibly listen to, and each carefully packaged CD is accompanied by a breathless press release informing me that what I hold in my hands represents a seismic shift in musical history, that I as an individual and western civilization as we have known it are about to be shaken to the core, and that we will re-emerge as better, more enlightened human beings.
In other words, I’m used to hype. So it takes something special, something—well, frankly bizarre—to make me sit up and take notice. And so we come to chamber rock trio Rasputina’s new album Oh Perilous World. Here’s what the press release has to say:
“"In Old Yellowcake” utilizes imagery of the destruction of Fallujah. This is coupled with the album’s overall narrative of Mary Todd Lincoln as Queen of Florida, with her blimp armies having attacked Pitcairn Island, where Fletcher Christian’s son Thursday emerges as a resistance icon, before the record’s grand end and subsequent denouement.”
Wow. Look, I’m going to listen. There aren’t that many albums that promise an overarching metanarrative featuring Mary Todd Lincoln and her blimp armies, never mind Fletcher Christian’s son Thursday. And the fact that this historical and literary arcana is somehow related to the fall of Fallujah is just too hard to resist. I’m secretly hoping for cameo appearances by Saddam Hussein and John Wilkes Booth as well.
So I’ll let you know how it goes. But it’s got my attention.
Email
That’s better than the typical, “This band is the supernatural crossing of Neutral Milk Hotel and My Bloody Valentine, only Robert Johnson shows up and is all like, ‘Hey, I got my soul back from the devil and now I present it to YOU,’ and then Pixies arrive, except John Lennon is on back-up vocals and he’s holding Nina Simone’s hand. Meanwhile, Led Zeppelin is in the pool and they’re sipping on tasty margaritas made by Sonic Youth...”