For some reason, earlier this year, I’d been keeping my eye on a late-2006 release I spotted on eMusic*, The Trials of Van Occupanther, by a band I’d never heard of called Midlake. It was probably the thumbnail of the cover that got my attention. It had a Fairport/Incredible String Band/Nick Drake look to it that I’m always a sucker for, at least in terms of graphic appeal if not the actual music delivered by these quirky British folk-rockers. So I sampled some songs and then downloaded half the album. I’m digging it.
There’s some of that British folk-rock in the music, but moreso the half album I downloaded is a journey to Psychic Oblivion. Or so I think. I’m curious to hear what experienced travelers of the roads to Psychic Oblivion think, Townspeople like Mwall and Dr. John. I’m also curious to hear what you think. Check out the following tracks.
“It Covers the Hillsides”
Let’s start with “It Covers the Hillsides”, which features a bizarre and perfectly inappropriate overdubbed instrumental section coming out of a more standard solo. Anyone who’s spent time in a studio with me is probably aware of my penchant for perfectly inappropriate overdubbed instrumental parts. I also dig the fringed mocassin-style bass playing on this and other songs. When I first realized that I was liking this song, I tried to recall whether I liked hearing bands like Firefall on the radio when I was a kid. I don’t think I did, but I do love those mid-70s Jefferson Starship songs like “Miracles”. This song may fit in with that form of Psychic Oblivion.
“Roscoe”
Here’s another one, “Roscoe”, which kicks off the album with more or less a classic Fleetwood Mac sound. Can’t you hear Stevie Nicks singing on this one with Lindsay Buckingham adding a few more tasty, pointed guitar licks? I can. Again, I feel a bit guilty for liking this, and I wonder where exactly this road to Psychic Oblivion will lead.
“Van Occupanther”
Finally, sit back, pour yourself a brandy, let those Legos dudes in today’s All-Star Jam roll you a joint, and enjoy “Van Occupanther”. “One glass will last you,” the singer reports, “nearly a week.” Dig those fringed, moccasin boot basslines. Hang in there for a most Psychic Oblivion of a coda. Sweet!
*See Trial Offer on right column!
The mp3s are now loaded properly.
Well, I found those cuts pretty enjoyable too. Although I hear a Nick Drake influence vaguely, I more immediately associate them with a kind of softer version of late Jayhawks, or a much less quirky Lambchop–a kind of midwestern psychic oblivion of waking up in the morning in your crappy frame house, looking out the window at the snow and crappy trees and knowing you’re nowhere.
I never liked any Firefall that I can remember, but (and hear me on this, Mr. Mod, because you know it pains me greatly to have to say it), I remember liking Poco songs on the late night radio on driving trips to the west coast in the late 70s. There’s more than a bit of Poco in Midlake. Oh, the wistfulness of it all!
On psychic oblivion here: they manage to do it in a more innocent, almost (but not quite) free of sleaze way. I like how “Hillsides” is all about the start of the myth: the hopeful setting out. They “want to get all woodsy.” Yet they seem to know, even here, that they’re really going nowhere. And Roscoe: 1891, when getting back to nature was still not possible, but seemed possible, unlike now. “Van Occupanther” is full bore though: a woodsy dreamy melancohy nowhere, complete with Viking morphing into Panther; if that’s not a decadent, after-party sleaze image, then I don’t know the difference between Coca-Cola and cocaine.
Paychic Oblivion as self-aware embracing of false nostalgia that’s known to be false. But nothing’s better than embracing a dream that couldn’t possibly be real, if one’s already going “down that road.”
Lovely music, in some small way. In another way, imagine how funny this stuff is going to sound in a few years, if anybody is still listening to it then.
Mwall wrote:
That’s what we said about Poco and Firefall, no? 🙂
Good stuff. Thanks for the full-blown, expert Psychic Oblivion perspective.
First off, let me say that this album was one of my 10 favorites of 2006 and one that I’m still listening to with a fair amount of regularity.
With that said, I agree with some of your descriptions of their music, but I completely disagree with your premise of describing them as akin to the purveyors of “psychic oblivion” like The Eagles or Jackson Browne, for instance.
While sound-wise they definitely invoke that era of SoCal and in particular mid ’70s Fleetwood Mac (esp. on “Roscoe” but on other tracks like “Head Home”, too), it would be a mistake to assume that lyrically they’re in the same point as those who want to “Take It to the Limit” and what not.
Location is important here. Midlake are from Denton, Texas, not SoCal and thus their perspective is entirely different. I agree with mwall’s assessment that there’s thus an innocence there missing from the SoCal purveyors of PO. In “Roscoe”, Tim Smith really DOES believe (at some extent) that while it may not be possible to go back to nature or at least to live a simpler existence, it would be a good thing. Now granted, the sense of escape is probably what you’re hearing in these lyrics and in that way it’s PO all the way, but Midlake are still different.
My view is that this album, consciously or not, communicates not only the chaos of the modern world and the desire to simplify, but our disconnection from the realities of nature. An example of this is how most people obtain their food and how we don’t know its origins (another topic for another blog). This is what Tim Smith is really lamenting when he goes on about “productive” names and getting everything you need from the local village, whether he realizes this or not, and why he feels so alone and disconnected. It actually expresses this feeling better than any other record I’ve ever heard. I can’t say the same for anything by those SoCal artists.
Plus, there’s a clear Flaming Lips and Radiohead influence in Midlake, esp. their earlier work.
I thought I was hearing some echoes of The Kinks, and this confirms it. Thanks, Matt. But I always think there’s a fundamental contradiction in rock bands wanting to go back to a time before alienation and technology.
Townsman Berlyant wrote:
Isn’t just about ever key player in the ’70s LA scene from a place other than LA? I’m pretty sure Psychic Oblivion is not bound by geography.
Yes you’re right in the sense that, for example, Don Henley is originally from Texas and Glenn Frey is originally from the Detroit area (I think), but it’s very hard for me to disassociate the whole idea and notion of PO away from its locale and setting (specifically SoCal). Away from the music industry and all of the other trappings of LA, groups like Midlake are free to indulge in these types of escapist, back to nature type of fantasies without making me think of some guys sniffing coke in bathrooms and staying up for 48 straight hours and what not. While this was probably daily reality for The Eagles in the ’70s, I just can’t see that being the same way for a band like Midlake.
Psychic oblivion is definitely not bound by geography: James Taylor, after all, is gong to Carolina in his mind.
That said, the concept of California is a central mythology in much psychic oblivion music. But it’s less important that you’re from there than that you want to go. It’s the End of America. And when you get there? Well, you can look out at the ocean as the sun sets, leaving America behind, and you can imagine yourself going down with the sun.
Midlake are probably not the first band to to explore the middle ground between 70s soft rock and 90s shoegaze pop, but they really seem to know their way around the terrain.
Should it be considered as an example of psychic oblivion? Well, it’s a close call. I would like to hear more, but on the basis of the three songs, I’d say they’re in the lobby of the hotel California, but all of the rooms are full.
Great last quote mwall – i almost didn’t want to post anything so I wouldn’t ruin the “psychic oblivion mood,” so to speak 😉
Bizarrely, yesterday I stopped at the circle thrift on broad and was digging through their boxes of records and not only did I find an amusingly autographed Randy Meisner Black Tie album (signed very appropriately – “To Tom, Take it to the Limit, Randy Meisner”) but I also picked up POCO’s 2nd album – ha. A mere 60 cents. Someone can lay into me now for spending more than a quarter, please. Yes, we are still listening to Poco.
Roscoe is a fantastic track – when that album came out I had that one added on the playlists for quite a few comps – I actually haven’t listened to it in a while though… thanks for reminding me though –