PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC – the jar and shock
(CD, valeot)
Some one decade back within two weeks I had two very
interesting statements about “work ethics” in intervies (back then, when
I still did interviews with musicians – don’t ask me about my work
ethics…). To John Darnielle, the darling master of The Mountain Goats,
work ethics meant to produce something worthwhile and meaningful, something
that will last longer than your own life. A week later Kathleen Hannah, the
main centre point of the then blooming Riot Girl movement, despised work
ethic by saying it was all about “getting a job, having a family and a
house and blaah..”. While I like the new Mountain Goats album a lot, I
cannot remember having heard anything about or from Kathleen Hannah in the
last years, so there, you figure yourself. If you call your band / project
“Protestant Work Ethic” that oughta mean something. If you refer to the
mechanics of an old fashioned clock in your album title and song lyrics, you
can add that to the meaning as well.
I believe Simon Usaty, the mind behind Protestant Work
Ethic leans more towards the interpretation of John Darnielle, and not only
because his musical ambitions lay more in the alternative country are than
in anywhere punk or noise. It seems to me that the current wave of alt
country comes from every where except the United States, with for instance
Mumford and Sons (England) having made a wonderful album. Then again, I
remember the wave of Scandinavian alt country bands from some years back
(Midnight Choir, The White Birch, etc.) and that Connor Oberst is still
active anyway, so it might not be true. It just shows that everything is a
lot more blurry and harder to distinguish than our rationality wants us to
admit.
And now that we have mentioned Connor Oberst we can
also admit that, yes, “the jar and shock” also breathes the spirit of
the Bright Eyes. And moreover, with A Life A Song A Cigarette and Dust Covered Carpet
there are currently at least three very good bands making music in that
area, so should we get together form a forum and give the trend a name?
Well, if this were a real publication intent on selling advertisement to
make a living, we would, but so: no, I won’t. I still believe one should
judge things for what they are and not what they seem. But that again brings
up the same problem mentioned one paragraph earlier, but we’ll have to try
to tackle that every day.
Simon Usaty writes wonderful songs. Their simple
structures underline the basic sentiment and the not more than necessary
arrangements also strengthen the foot to the ground approach. This is
handmade music that still tends to ascend to the stars in its ambitions.
Usaty’s singing voice is fragile, wavers and breaks at times, which to
overcome he sometimes falls into an even more fragile falsetto. The
quivering quality fits the melancholy and longing desire of the songs
perfectly. And to put even more praise on him, his lyrics are pretty darn
good, too. Lyrical, sometimes enigmatic and mysterious but always
transporting the main idea pretty well. Soemtimes he might be checking the
dictionary too often, but I know from a good source that also Willie Nelson
checks the dictionary to find words fitting his songs in meaning and
euphonia.
Musically Protestant work ethic row the old waters of
folk / alt.country somewhere between the soft folk pickings of Gordon
Lightfoot and the mellow west coast sound on the one hand and the harsher
northeast weathers that also set forth the Bright Eyes. Maybe it depends on
the weather outside when the song was written, who knows. Personally, I like
those songs best that fall into a jangling, slightly drunk Granfaloon Bus
rhythm like “Through gilded trellises” or “Fate, Alarm, A letter”.
The bass, banjo, electric guitar, ukulele even, all add to songs that are
definitely written on an acoustic guitar and work with all kinds of
attachments and in all kinds of sizes. To me, that is one thing that makes
these basic music styles so much more appealing; the possibility to
reproduce them anywhere, anytime. That is a necessity to make a song live
forever. “the jar and shock” makes me wish for an endless row of Sunday
afternoons. Something to soothe my aching head.
PS: My personal work ethic reads: “A job worth doing
is worth doing well”.
