MOONFACE – Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped (Part 2)

Brandon digs into Moonface and whines that it’s not more like Sunset Rubdown’s Dragonslayer or Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary. He also seems to make an allusion to dead horses being beaten. In summation, Brandon is a pointlessly violent whiner.

From: Brandon Hall
To: Sarah Braunstein

As a matter of fact, I am relatively familiar with his debut Moonface EP, Marimba and Shit Drums, a 20 minute examination of all Krug could think to do with a marimba and Garage Band drums. (I can’t verify that he used Garage Band in the production of his apply named “shit drums” but it would surprise no one.) (Also, we posted it in two parts in Part 1 of this Dialectic.) Anyway, as with most of Krug’s projects, be they Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, Frog Eyes, or Moonface, the single 20 minute song is bloated in reverie and self-satisfaction, while frequently showcasing Krug’s innate sense for writing a hook and ever impressive ability to pull a melody from a deluge of experimentation. In fact, the middle part of the song, from about the 8 minute mark to the 15 minute mark, probably ranks right up there with the best music Krug has ever written. And I say that without hyperbole. OK – maybe a little hyperbole. But it is truly great.

Still, we’re here to talk about the Moonface debut LP, Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped. Once again, it is an exploration of a single instrument, and like a dead horse, Krug makes sure to beat the hell out of it. The five songs averaging 7 minutes a piece, are, at times, eternally repetitive both within the songs themselves and throughout the album – a kind of ceaseless organ meets old school Nintendo and Casio keyboard melange. Really, the only song to break this mold is the last one, “Loose Heart = Loose Plan,” which is not remotely a standout track for any reason beyond that it uses moderately different sounds and a fresh composition.

You asked how I felt about Krug’s projects and whether or not I was Krug’d out. The thing about Organ Music is there are moments in just about every song where he really grabs me, where the combination of his musical exploration, his lyrical prowess, and his indefatigable ability to write a hook make me think for a moment, “Holy shit, this is good.” But as with a lot of what Krug does, that moment is fleeting. For instance, the first time I heard “Whale Song (Song Instead of a Kiss),” a song that coincidentally shares similarities with that other popular whale-referencing track from Krug’s past, Wolf Parade’s “Grounds for Divorce,” I bought right in; I turned that sucker up, closed my eyes, and rocked out. But subsequent listens have mellowed that sentiment and given way to a general feeling of malaise and slight aggravation at the song’s fluttering computerized inertia, like treading water in a pool that’s slowly rising, when really what I want is that “waterfall waiting inside a well,” he sang about in “Us Ones In Between” on Sunset Rubdown’s debut Shut Up I Am Dreaming.

I think Spencer Krug is probably a genius. I also think that’s probably his biggest detriment. His and ours. Were he forced to work in the studio system in the 50s and 60s, he probably would have written and produced 50 #1 hits and been wealthy beyond his wildest imagination. He also would have hated it – not the money, the work. I don’t think there are many songwriters who can write a melody or a hook as easily as Krug. You mentioned Dan Bejar, but I bet Bejar wishes he could pull insanely catchy choruses out of his ass the way Krug seems capable of doing. But that also seems to bore our tragic hero, because he’s never been satisfied writing something as glorious as “I’ll Believe in Anything” or “Grounds for Divorce,” or “Sons and Daughters of Holy Ghosts,” preferring, rather, to explore the far limits of pop music structure and composition, making songs that toy with catchiness only to be subverted by unnecessary and often exasperating pomp and grandeur.

Am I tired of it? As you know, I loved Sunset Rubdown’s Dragonslayer. I thought it was absolutely one of the best albums of 2009. And it was the only time since Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary, that Krug was able to match his penchant for experimental avant-garde electronic pop and oblique Byzantine lyrics with air tight songwriting, soaring melodies, and catchy-as-all-hell hooks.

That, I will never tire of. Organ Music is not that.

“He told me all about it on the balcony, while we were high on drugs,”

Brandon