The Benja-man Is Verbose

  I've chosen to primarily nerd out about music on this here blog.   But once a year, I channel my energies into an annual celebration of bad and weird cinema at B-Fest, a 24+-hour B-movie marathon that I've been attending almost continually since 2004.  The event happens in the Norris student center on the Northwestern University campus and draws basically a small self-selecting group of weirdos who think it's fun to watch weird movies in a group setting.  I try to compile my thoughts and recollections. Lest anyone think that the fact that I'm not actually much of a movie person could lead me to not take this event seriously, I'll note that I was at a meeting in Colorado that I only signed up to go to once clear that it wouldn't conflict with B-Fest, and I got up at 0545 missing the last few talks on Fri morning specifically so I could go to B-Fest.  And further, when my flight from Denver was delayed six hours such that I'd miss the first few hours of

So I could get a sense of the band’s catalog before digging into the live stuff, I did give a few listens to the first EP as presented on The Early Years , a thing the band put together in 2012 that includes redone versions of the songs from Vên , and then that’s followed by the whole Spirit record.     The issue here of course is that I didn’t listen to Vên in its non “re-recorded” version, so I can’t say how much these tracks were re-thought in 2012 style vs what was there from the beginning.   I did end up trying to listen to the two version of “Uis Elveti” side by side, although again I don’t know if The Early Years focused just on recapturing the way it was originally done or if they further re-wrote it.   I miss the intro buildup on the The Early Years version and the drop into the “metal” part doesn’t have quite as much impact.   But it sounds nice to actually have the vocals front and center (both Chigrel’s and Anna’s, the latter of whom has a significantly bigger vocal part t

I sometimes wonder whether listening to a record over and over inherently makes it easier to appreciate; will I prefer the stuff I listen to more often even if it's something I'm "assigning" myself in the name of a project rather than something I'm organically choosing to listen to?  Will songs just grow on me automatically?  Well, in a huge shock to nobody, it depends on the song.  There are definitely parts of Alligator that benefitted from repeat spins.  And there are definitely parts that did not.  Starting from the beginning, when I listen to the record straight through there's always a "hey, this is actually pretty good" moment.   "Secret Meeting" was a slow grower for me, but it's quite a nicely composed song.  I like the interplay of the swirling guitar parts and the two complementary vocal melodies, especially the parts when they go back to the "I'm sorry I didn't see you" part right on top of the otherwise la

I started my second play of Alligator on a night when I was stressed out and frustrated, and did so right after listening to Wall Of Eyes , the new record by the Smile.   With the latter record, there were a lot of repetitious guitar and keyboard phrases designed to put the listener in a state, and even though I don’t actually like the way Tom York* sings all that much, I immediately felt willing to give the songs some time and repeat listens to grow on me.   That juxtaposition of the those two records highlighted how much the National are also that sort of band sometimes, or try to be.   It’s been that way since the first record, but that element seems especially pronounced on Alligator .   Most songs start with a guitar-forward track that functions almost like a loop and then plays continuously through the song, building a mood to take the listener into a headspace over which Matt, often tunelessly, weaves in his stories.   This is basically my latest attempt to describe coherently w