Anthony Green
Daytrotter Session - Mar 29, 2012
- Welcome to Daytrotter
- Blood Song
- Get Yours While You Can
- Love You No Matter What
- James’ Song
It seems that when Anthony Green sings about a particular girl in “Love You No Matter What,” the message could feel a bit mangled. It could seem somewhat backwards, but when the Circa Survive front man is singing about spikes and vomit – she might as well be rapid-firing 10-pennys from a nail gun – flying out of his love’s mouth, he actually means it as an endearing compliment. Even if you’re still not with him on that, and you think that there’s no way in hell that that’s how it should be taken, just wait around a minute cause he’s getting to it. By the end of the shorter than two-minute song, it’s an ode to undying love just as great as “God Only Knows,” but for the less affected, Jackass generation. When Green sings, “But weirdest of all/Even if I’ve shocked every time we embrace/And you’re shitting spiders all over my face/And you don’t want to love me/You don’t want my love/I promise I’ll never give up/I’ll love you no matter what/I’ll love you no matter what,” he really just means the same thing that Colbie Caillat sang a few years ago, or unendingly depending on if you submit yourself to the kind of radio programming that could kill you if you let it. She gave us, “If you just realized what I just realized/Then we’d be perfect for each other and we’ll never find another/Just realize what I just realized/We’d never have to wonder if we missed out on each other.” She just chose to leave out the shitting spiders and the vomit. I tend to appreciate and like Green’s way of saying it a little more. Green’s mind and his lyrical pen always seem to want to go in the direction of durable love, of living life to the fullest, but he sees the need for embellishment, to make the stories more along the lines of what he might be experiencing and what it feels like he’s experiencing. He adds plenty of personal flair to what could be very expressive and revealing stories, or they could just be some sick and twisted fantasies. It’s likely a little of both and it’s what makes a Green love story quite a bit more like the real thing – actualized or unrequited. He sings, “She was only 20, but she fucked like 33/Who’s gonna round up all her things?/Nobody liked her, but they loved the way she’d sing/Who’s got a bell for us to ring?” and you want to believe that he would know exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to discerning the subtleties involved with an age-determined classification for procedural or elemental fornication delivery. A general theme throughout Green’s latest solo record, “Beautiful Things,” is something along the lines of not necessarily letting some of the particulars bother you – things like sleep, things like longevity – because they’re mostly worthless and or impossible to attain. He’s all about taking things as they come, letting all of the other shoes drop and just sorting it when it needs to be sorted, if ever. You run with love and you do the same thing with the clock, or else you’re liable to miss out on the best parts. This could have something to do with excreting spiders or it might have nothing to do with it, but so what?