jamming: The Avett Brothers- I and Love and You

This has got to be my favorite album of the year so far. You had to see this toure-de-force coming: Rick Rubin + American Recordings + the Avetts! What you get is something of high quality, accessibility, and authenticity. On most albums I can pick certain standout tracks, this one is no different except in the fact that nearly every track would be a highlight on another album. All that said, the Avetts wind up crafting an album of more than merely the sum of its tracks. The thread of Love in all its permutations is woven throughout the disc, the result is a vulnerable, genuine, poignant and fun album...

1. I and Love and You

Highlights the the sound Rubin made famous on tracks like Cash's "Hurt." An apt piano-driven scene-setter.




2. January Wedding

Ventures into the familiar recent territory of Second Gleam record. "She's talkin' to me with her voice/Down so low I barely hear her/But I know what she's sayin'/I understand because my heart and hers are the same
."

3. Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise


Again with the piano: "When nothing is owed, deserved or expected/And your life doesn't change by the man that's elected."

4. And it Spread


A vulnerable love song using drug metaphors. Works for Tweedy, Cash, et al. "Then you came back from space/With a brand new laugh and a different face/You took my hand and held it up/And shot my arm full of love."

5. The Perfect Space


Personality trait wish list interrupted by a Skynard-esque break. "I wanna have pride like my mother has/And not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad."

6. Ten Thousand Words


Singing on top of a James Taylor song: "Ain't it like most people? I'm no different/We love to talk on things we don't know about." Probably true from my experience.

7. Kick Drum Heart


Pop-tune, about fluttering hearts. Cutesy, but highly enjoyable- especially when some of those long-contained screams start seeping out.

8. Laundry Room


Perhaps my favorite over-all track, reminiscent of some of their best moments on "Four Thieves Gone." "Break this tired old routine/and this time dont make me leave/I am a breathing time machine,/I'll take you on for a ride," followed by an extended bluegrass rollick.

9. Ill with Want


Sort of their Romans 7 track don't you think?

10. Tin Man


Honestly, don't love this one yet. "I miss that, I miss that, oh, I miss that feeling of feeling."

11. Slight Figure of Speech


Every first major album has to have that track or at least that moment where the band acknowledges, winks at, or answers to their recent success. This is their answer to Reel Big Fish's "Sell Out" (didn't see that ska reference coming did you?). "They said 'I hope that you will never change'/I went and cut my hair./They say 'Don't take your business to the big time'/I bought us tickets there." Tune into Jimmy Fallon next week (Wed 11/18) to see this one performed.

12. It Goes On and On


"Baby would you leave me if you knew that I was making it up/and underneath the love you gotta wonder am I giving you up/No way am I."

13. Incomplete and Insecure

I'm convinced that the power of this last track comes from the looking for revelation and calling from elsewhere. We've all had those times when we either think we have it all figured or wallow in the seeming permanence of unhappiness before, surprisingly we can say, "but watching you makes me think that that is wrong." When that happens, nothing can stay the same.

Two more items bear consideration with this album...

Exhibit A: Album Mission Statement written by Seth Avett (from the liner notes).

This bespeaks the band's long ability to put together reflective, intelligent, accessible, and introspective work:

The words "I" and "Love" and "You" are the watermark of humanity. Strung together, they convey our deepest sense of humility, of power, of truth. It is our most common sentiment, even as the feeling of it is so infinitely uncommon : each to proclaim these three words with his or her very own heart and mindset of reason (or lack thereof); a proclamation completely and perfectly new each time it is offered. Uttered daily and nightly by millions, the words are said in an unending array of circumstances : whispered to a newborn in a mothers arms; shared between best friends on the playground; in the form of sympathy -said by a girl to a boy, as the respect continues but the relationship does not. It is said too loudly by parents to embarassed children in the company of their friends, and by grown children - to their fading parents in hospital beds. The words are thought in the company of the photograph and said in the company of the gravestone. It is how we end our phone calls and our letters... the words at the bottom of the page that trump all those above it, a way to gracefully finish a message, however important or trivial, with the most meaningful gift of all : the communication of love. And yet the words themselves have been the victims of triviality, a ready replacement for lesser salutations among near strangers, burst forth casually as "love ya." Truly? To what degree? Why, how much, and for how long? These are questions befitting of the stature of love, though not the everyday banter of vague acquaintance. The words have also been twisted by the dark nature of deceit : To say "I love you" with a dramatic measure of synthetic emotion; a snare set by those who prey uponn fellow humanity, driven to whatever selfish end, to gain access to another's body, or their money, or their opportunity. In this realm, the proclamation is disgraced by one seeking to gain rather than to give. In any case, and by whatever inspiration, these words are woven deeply in to the fibers of our existence. Our longing to hear them from the right place is maddeningly and simultaneously our finest strength and our most gentle weakness.

The album "I and Love and You" is inashamedly defined by such a dynamic of duality. As living people, we are bound by this unavoidable parallel. We are powerful yet weak, capable yet temporary. Inevitably, an attempt to place honesty within an artistic avenue will follow suit. This is a piece which shows us as we are : products of love surrounded by struggle. The music herein is, in many ways, readable as both a milestone and an arrival. A chapter in the story of young men, it bridges the space between the uncertainty of youth and the reality of it's release. The record is full with the quality of the question and response. As far as questions go, there are plenty-normally residing within the tone and delivery of the lyrics themselves, which, ironically, are sung with so much confidence. Among songs and thoughts so driven and purposeful, the most basic relatable doubt comes through with a resounding clarity. Outside of the eternal theme of romantic love, the album speaks thankfully upon a landscape of light-filled rooms, word-filled pages, time machines, forgiveness, singing birds, ocean waves, art ,change, confessions of shortcomings, and reasons to continue on. Hope and a cause for smiling follow naturally. In the midst of all this, there are allusions to the less-than-ideal conditions of life : the loss of memory, the inability to control temper, insecurity, indecision, jaded indifference, and the general plague of former and current weakness. "I and Love and You" is an album of obvious human creation, chracterized by it's best and it's worst. Emotional imperfection is a reality for those who recorded the piece, just as it is for those who will hear it. The conclusion of the song from which the title is taken admits that the words "I love you" have become "hard to say". And perhaps that difficulty is as common as it's counterpart. Perhaps the inability to say these heaviest of words is as much a part of life as the lighthearted candor of those who say them without any difficulty at all. And so it ends with the phrase whispered to and by those of us most defeated and most elated... I and love and you...

Exhibit B: This first music video offers a glimpse at the personality of the band. Skilled at touching and adept at drawing upon the energy and enthusiasm of their fans:

jamming: Philip Henry- hwæt

Though I'm typically not an electronic music fan, I must shout out this effort from my friend, Nashvillain-turned-nerdy high school English teacher Durhamite (hence the Beowulfian album name), Philip Henry.

After a long process of putting it together, Phil has composed an quite an elegant album of arrangements, certainly worthy of a good listen: LALA. It has been the proper muzak fuel to my week of endless paper-writing.

track listing:

1. Morph

2. New Prodigal

3. Damnatio Memoriae

4. Erase You

5. Interrobang

6. Barber Trip

7. Dons McCob

8. Re-erase You

9. Protean Rabbit

10. Vedauwoo

jamming: Megafaun in Central Park live @ Troika Music Festival

Saw Megafaun for free last night in the cold. Those guys were a lot of fun. They reminded me of the Avett Brothers with a touch of the Hold Steady. Saw a couple familiar faces out there (Rach & I stood in front of the Bowerbirds), it was a neat occasion and a positive turnout for Durham. There are a lot of great shows the rest of the weekend: Max Indian, Liza Kate, Ryan Gustafson, Brett Harris, the aforementioned Bowerbirds, Luego, Schooner, Lonnie Walker, the Love Language. To quote Phil Cook from last night from stage, "There are a lot of bands in this triangle that are blowing minds!" Tis true, Phil.

praying: on All Saints Day

Mary-born Lord, humble us so that we also might say, "Let it be with me according to your word."

We are tempted to will our way to humility because we just do not trust you with your creation.

Someone has to make this world come out right. Thank you for surrounding us with your saints, whose lives remind us what your work looks like.

Your saints are a funny lot- weird and wonderful. They often make us laugh, Sarah-like, and through laughter we discover humility.

God, it is wonderful to be made a part of your entertainment so that the world might be freed from sin. Amen.

(taken from Dr. Hauerwas' Prayers Plainly Spoken: "Your Saints Are A Funny Lot")

It's Alive!

For this year's pumpkin I couldn't help but remember how scary Rach's face and excitement were for the fried foods last week at the state fair. I present to you Rach's cutely frightening pumpkin doppelganger.

American Christianity Notebook Reflection

I pledged not to post, but already completed this assignment. We were asked to prayerfully consider our notes from the first part of this course over reading week and write a 500 word reflection of what God is saying through the course material:

As an American and a Christian, I am woefully predisposed to personally identify with the material we have encountered this semester in this American Christianity course. After prayerfully browsing the motley gamut of characters in my notes: Puritans, Anglicans, Mormons, Clerical Economists, New Lights, Abolitionists, Domestic types, and Missionaries, I see me. I see my shortfalls and my poor readings and dealings. I see my victories and where I was both a right hearer and right doer. I see where I have distortingly merged my piety with the surrounding culture. I also see where the Gospel has redeemed that culture and proven wiser and more pure than my piety. I see cautionary tales of triumphalism, fundamentalism, racism, classism (insert –ism here: ____). I have also seen the growth of a national “experiment” to such a point that it has forgotten that experiments typically thrive on their awareness of their past failures. It is with all this in mind that I humbly reflect on this semester’s exploration of my own heritage as both an American and a Christian.

Throughout my notes, the Bible repeatedly availed itself as perhaps the most controversial and duplicitously used document in the history of our country. By recounting the showdown between staunch slaveholders and ardent abolitionists, based heartily on opposing interpretations of the Bible, that I become aware of my own blind spots for the Gospel’s implications for race and justice here and now. In viewing images of exalted printing presses, I become aware of my confusion between media and message, and my tendency to elevate what I read on a page above the active work of a living God. Far from suggesting that Scripture lacks authority or importance, it has instead become all the more pressing for that crucial authority and utmost significance to be rightly received. God has certainly revealed my own myopic tendencies in the American Church’s (in all its varieties) historical array of ungainly biblical interpretation.

As I leaf through, I hold fast to what these questionable biblical hermeneutics of yore have to bear on my life, but I still catch myself throwing stones from my glass house of piety. I consistently question the purity of these Christians’ motives. As Separatists themselves, how could the Puritans be so quick to alienate opposing Christians in New England? Why did democratization of the State and Church mirror each other so closely during the Great Awakening, despite their functional separation? How does the Church forget its own lessons of caution so fast? Sitting in this class and paging through the notes, echoes, to some extent, my study and devotional reading of Israel’s salvation history in the Old Testament. No matter how many times I read and recognize my ancestors’ failings, and marvel at their enduring ability to veer toward unfaith and perversion, at some level I too own that tendency. As Cotton Mather defined it, “History is a story of events, with praise and blame.” Instead of seeing these as merely unforgivable gaffs or disembodied events, I am learning to critically (and self-critically) engage American Christianity’s history as a narrative of my own triumphs and collapses, writ large.

last blog post for a while.

And It's a doozy. For you AJ, enjoy:

jamming: Megafaun- Gather, Form, & Fly

On a week when I should be catching up or getting ahead (or at least working on my Middler Evaluation stuff), I've instead gravitated back towards some music I caught onto at the end of summer. I never should have found them in the summertime. The audio matches their visual: an autumnal, crisp squalor; standing in the gap between the fading burn of summer and the coming bleak nip of the winter months.

All that, and these guys are local dudes, used to play with Justin Vernon (now of Bon Iver fame), have some of the greatest and most consistent beards in the business (consistent is key when making this distinction from the Avetts' brilliant but unpredictable facial growth). No better soundtrack for my impromptu tour of the Triangle's coffee shoppes than guys you may see there (or behind the counter). This collection of songs derives most of its beauty from its eclecticism. You get the mellowness of their former bandmate (Bon Iver) and Fleet Foxes, the raucous vibe of the Avetts and Old Crow Medicine Show, and everything in between (including an almost hokey barbershop/gospel quartet sound). They tour alongside of the Bowerbirds and play relentlessly nationally and locally. They are a gem, providing both encouraging background muzak and fuel for further procrastination that provokes my inattentive attention and imagination.

track listing:

1. Bella Marie

2. Kaufman’s Ballad

3. The Fade

4. Impressions of the Past

5. Worried Mind

6. The Process

7. Solid Ground

8. Darkest Hour

9. Gather, Form & Fly

10. Columns

11. The Longest Day

12. Guns

13. Tides

On the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

St Francis once was living at the Convent of the Portiuncula, with Brother Masseo of Marignano, a man of great sanctity and great discernment, who held frequent converse with God; for which reason St Francis loved him much. One day, as St Francis was returning from the forest, where he had been in prayer, the said Brother Masseo, wishing to test the humility of the saint, went forth to meet him exclaiming: “Why after thee? Why after thee?” To which St Francis made answer: “What is this? What meanest thou?” Brother Masseo answered: “I mean, why is it that all the world goeth after thee; why do all men wish to see thee, to hear thee, and to obey thy word? For thou art neither comely nor learned, nor art thou of noble birth. How is it, then, that all the world goeth after thee?” St Francis, hearing these words, rejoiced greatly in spirit, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, remained for a long space with his mind rapt in God; then, coming to himself, he knelt down, returning thanks to God with great fervour of spirit, and addressing Brother Messeo, said to him: “Wouldst thou know why all men come after me? Know that it is because the Lord, who is in heaven, who sees the evil and the good in all places - because, I say, his holy eyes have found among men no one more wicked, more imperfect, or a greater sinner than I am; and to accomplish the wonderful work which he intends to do, he has found no creature more vile than I am on earth; for which reason he has chosen me, to confound all strength, beauty, greatness, noble birth, and all the science of the world, that men may learn that every virtue and every good gift cometh from him, and not from any creature, that none may glory before him; but if any one glory, let him glory in the Lord, to whom belongeth all glory in eternity.” Then Brother Masseo, at such a humble answer, given with so much fervour, was greatly impressed, and learned of a certainty that St Francis was well grounded in humility.

-Chapter X from the Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi

praying: on the Feast of St. Michael and all Angels (from the BCP)

The Collect.

O EVERLASTING God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order; Mercifully grant that, as thy holy Angels always do thee service in heaven, so, by thy appointment, they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Epistle. Revelation xii. 7.

THERE was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

The Gospel. St. Matthew xviii. 1.

AT the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.