Ball of Wax 53 Songs: KPH – “Been to the Future”

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Levi Fuller

There are many obstacles the environmental movement needs to overcome in order to achieve any part of its mission, but a serious one to contend with is defeatism, or cynicism. Just as bad as pretending that everything is fine is to accept that climate change is a serious problem, only to raise your hands in despair and say “It’s too late! We’re doomed!” (Although I completely understand the impulse, and there’s more news all the time to reinforce that worldview.)

Enter Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm (no relation, I hope), a climate activist who also suffers from Environmental Illness. The struggle is real, and very personal, for Kaeley, and she is clearly not giving up any time soon. “Been to the Future” reminds us that for those of us who are trying to keep the planet livable, we must act as though our victory is certain. That future exists, and we are just working to make it a reality. Of course, it must be acknowledged that the definition of “winning” will change. Life on Earth will almost certainly suffer serious warming and some horrific consequences, no matter what we do. But the world where we give up and do nothing is, without question, a much worse place than the world where we fight like hell to end our addiction to fossil fuels as soon as humanly possible and limit the damage. This song is a beautiful statement – both musically and lyrically – in a very ugly time. Keep it close to your heart.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Colin Ernst – “I Have a Friend”

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Levi Fuller

The lyrics of Colin Ernst’s “I Have a Friend” aren’t as literally connected to environmental catastrophe as some of the songs here, but in context it all makes sense. The song is a jaunty retelling of the Icarus myth, which is really a perfect metaphor for pretty much all of human activity in the post-industrial age. The “friend” in question has a wonderful plan that will help flout the laws of nature and achieve greatness. It can’t fail! Here we go! We never quite get to the failure part, but the song does slow down and fall apart at the end, and Colin’s repeated refrain of “it’s so hot” says plenty – and feels plenty relevant to our current predicament.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Danbert Nobacon and the Axis of Dissent – “To Be or Not to Be”

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Levi Fuller

It is time in our track sequence to pivot from the subtle and gauzy to the strident and righteous, in the form of Danbert Nobacon and his Axis of Dissent. “To Be or Not to Be” is the second track from Nobacon’s Stardust to Darwinstuff to be featured on a volume of Ball of Wax; it speaks so clearly and directly to our theme here on volume 53 that I’m delighted he shared it with us. “To Be or Not to Be” is a take-no-prisoners assessment of our planet’s current fragile state of affairs and laying out of the terms of what needs to happen to reverse – or, let’s be honest, slow – our disastrous course: Nothing less than the dismantling of our current corporate-led, profit-over-all system – aka Capitalismos, in Danbert’s musical mythology. In addition to being a nice bit of red meat for eco-warriors, “To Be or Not to Be” is a highly enjoyable bit of four-chord folk rock, rife with guitar, banjo, fiddle, musical saw, and sweet vocal hooks and harmony.

Danbert and some number of the Axis of Dissent will perform at this Friday’s Ball of Wax 53 release show. There is something incredibly cathartic about singing “Die, Capitalismos, Die” with a club full of likeminded individuals. Don’t miss it!

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: James Kelly Pitts – “Answers”

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Levi Fuller

I think, in the songs of James Kelly Pitts and Poor Neighbors, I have discovered a new genre: soothing songs about climate apocalypse. “Answers” is a slow, gentle song that builds gradually, anchored by a quarter-note kick drum; whole-note bass; a winding, delay-heavy guitar line; and James quietly singing down in the low end of his range. The song starts off with a quiet moment in communion with nature – “I feel the grass between my toes / the sound of trees as the wind blows” but it slowly dawns on the careful listener that this is less a pastoral ode to nature than an elegy for the world we’re quickly losing, as he rues “the answers we’ll question in time,” and wonders “did something end, or just begin?” Of course, when our time on this planet ends, something else – hopefully something a bit less of a disaster – will begin. “Answers” takes a subtler approach than James’s brutally blunt “Rich Kids” from Volume 47, but it’s a beautiful contribution to this environmentally-minded collection, and another fine addition to the ever-growing Pitts oeuvre.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Poor Neighbors – “Tolle”

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Zach Warnes

It isn’t often that I come across new music with such an overwhelming pull of nostalgia that I am compelled to stop what I am doing, find a quiet place, and consume it with an openness and willingness that only my 16-year-old self could muster. Upon hearing this new offering from the duo Poor Neighbors, I found myself doing exactly that. The sounds and movement of this track bring me right back to those shitty winter afternoons in Montana where I spent countless hours staring at my bedroom ceiling, considering the depth of love and my perception of existence. I got caught up in myself a lot, which is a part of the message Joshua Morrison and Jon Wesley (St. Kilda, Boots to The Moon) are attempting to convey with their new song “Tolle.”

“Tolle” is a beautifully thoughtful piece of music crafted in the style and feel of the Pacific Northwest. Percussive synth, spacious drums tracks, and seriously catchy guitar hooks set the stage for Morrison to deliver his own important perception of human existence. And guess what . . .  It doesn’t look good for us, folks. “All the petty pre-occupations consuming my selfish heart, when seen in the light of destruction, it’s nothing.” Morrison provides the somber reminder that while we look inward, the rest of the world continues to move around us. Sometimes this movement is violent and destructive. Sometimes we are even complicit by not paying attention. Every time this happens, it is a huge bummer. This concept should be embraced if we are can every hope to effectively be conservationists and help heal the damage we have done to our environment. Be sure to keep an eye out for Tolle and for more songs to be released by Poor Neighbors later this year, and make sure to come out to the Ball of Wax 53 show at Substation this Friday to see them live.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Ketamine Cat – “Global Warming fuckfuckfuck”

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Lattney B. Jones

I have listened to Ketamine Cat’s “Love Songs” several times this week. At the close of each listen, I am left to scratch my head and wonder why I didn’t know this artist prior to the new Ball of Wax. Levi has been building what may be the greatest network of artists (independent and otherwise) for 13 years, and every volume of BoW is guaranteed to bring something not heard before.

“Global Warming fuckfuckfuck” fits with the title of the KC album from which it comes as much as with the unofficial title of Ball of Wax 53, “The Earth Won’t Die, We Will.” It’s a love song and it concerns death. It also concerns miracles, potential energy, and Mount Rainier. It’s hummable and its arrangement is so beautifully stripped down that everything-but-the-kitchen-sink artists such as myself curse our inability to trust in sonic economy: you get a guitar, a plaintive vocal, a dirty analog synthesizer, and—after the meat of the lyrics has been served—a snippet of sample from Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, and you’ve got a damn good song.

A few words about that plaintive vocal: I’m always moved by just the right amount of affectation in an artist’s voice, from Air Supply to Robert Smith to Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry to Jason Lytle (still a big fan of Wayne Coyne, but sometimes his voice grates on my sensibilities). Ketamine Cat’s voice falls somewhere between Ryan Sambol (The Strange Boys) and overacting in a school play. I don’t mean that as an insult—it suits this music and it’s oddly endearing. “Global Warming fuckfuckfuck” is an excellent track and a fine addition to the Ball of Wax library.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Judy Twedt – “Arctic Sea Ice”

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Levi Fuller

Judy Twedt‘s “Arctic Sea Ice” is our third instrumental contribution to this environmentally-themed Ball of Wax, and definitely the most literally connected to the theme. Judy is a climate scientist (one of two to be included on this volume), and the music she makes is an example of what is called data sonification – i.e., taking a whole bunch of numbers and turning them into sound and/or music. (John Cage would heartily approve, I have to assume.)

Each note in the melody in”Arctic Sea Ice” represents the ice cover in the arctic during one month. Higher, louder notes mean more ice; lower, quieter notes mean less. The hectic eighth-note melody line meanders up and down, but it doesn’t take a musicologist to notice that the overall trend is downward. This, of course, is not good. Not content to let the data have all the fun, Judy has added sounds of waves, ships, and whales to the overall soundscape, adding a somewhat relaxing layer to the overall frantic, disorienting nature of the piece. Perhaps this symbolizes the blase attitude most of humanity seems to take toward our impending demise. I would love to hear a slower, stretched-out version of this piece; but of course I would also love it if our trajectory toward disaster were also slowed down a bit. Thanks to Judy and her kind for exploring unusual, compelling ways of making this data real for people.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Darryl Blood and Green Light Cameras – “Cluster (Atmosphere)”

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Levi Fuller

Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space. “Cluster” is the name the European Space Agency has coined for a fleet of orbiting satellites collecting data about the Earth’s atmosphere. According to our friend and longtime collaborator Darryl Blood, its most recent discovery is the fact that some of our oxygen is leaking into outer space. So (in my uninformed, non-scientific interpretation) not only are we making less of it (and more carbon) due to deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, but the same activities have degraded our atmosphere such that we’re losing more it as well. Great.

“Cluster (Atmosphere),” a collaborative piece by Darryl and Green Light Cameras, seeks to evoke, through music, the phenomenon of precious oxygen molecules leaking through these myriad holes in our atmosphere. And something about this piece – piano, percussion, and various drones washing over each other, layered with delay – does make one feel fragile, weightless, vanishing. Not unlike the evisceration of our environment and the decay of our atmosphere, it takes a while to get going, and then all of a sudden it’s over and you’re not quite sure what you could have done to stop it. But unlike with the slow-moving natural disaster we’re all floating through, you can just hit the back button and play it again. I could easily listen to a ten-plus-minute version of this track, but I applaud Darryl and GLC’s restraint in making it practically pop song length. I hope they have more – and longer – collaborations in the works.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Virgin of the Birds – “The Earth Won’t Die, We Will”

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Patrick J Gibbs

Sometime around the release of Ball of Wax 38: Songs of Protest, I began referring to the genre Virgin of the Birds occupies and has mastered as “Wiki Rock.” This is due to the large number and wide range of references that typically inhabit their songs. For that release, Virgin of Birds offered “In 1970, Across Philadelphia, Frank Rizzo Broke the Black Panther Party,” a song that in a small handful of verses travels backwards and forwards in time to reflect upon Frank Rizzo, the Black Panthers, Richard Nixon, MOVE, white flight, Nativism, Bishop John Hughes, John F. Kennedy, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Pelagius, free will, and T.S. Eliot. There are several Ph.D.’s waiting to be explored in this and other Virgin of the Birds songs . . . or days’ worth of web browsing and screen time for the less academically minded but equally curious listener. It is striking that the Virgin of the Birds track found on Ball of Wax 53 is without words.

“The Earth Won’t Die, We Will” is a quiet and contemplative instrumental piece. Without its title this song would sit comfortably with Brian Eno’s Music for Airports or as a companion to “Laura and Jennifer, Bright in Some Soft Sky,” the Virgin of the Birds’ song found on Ball of Wax 51: Long Songs. However, words are important, and these six little words employed by Virgin of the Birds steer the listener in a different direction. We live in a world out of balance. We will die. This is a certainty. A planet will remain.

“The Earth Won’t Die, We Will” is the soundtrack of what comes next. It evokes images of dust traveling across a barren landscape and plants reclaiming city sidewalks. But, as creatures of free will, one can, if one chooses to, also hear within the song a new day rising. Perhaps, if we can learn to live in harmony with the environment generously offered to us, the earth won’t die, we will, and in passing we will provide to future generations a life in balance with all that is around.

Perhaps if we were to again pair Virgin of the Birds with T.S. Eliot, we can hope to find some resolution. “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Matriarch – “Fracking”

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Patrick J Gibbs

“Fracking,” by the Seattle punk band Matriarch, begins with a guitar screaming like a buzzsaw and crashing drums and cymbals that do not let up until the close of the piece. It is ferocious. A fast and hard introductory few bars full of drive and attitude lead to the song’s first verse, in which Matriarch provides their opening argument for a case against fracking. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of injecting under high pressure water, sand, and a slurry of chemicals into the earth to release then capture oil and natural gas trapped within the earth. Fracking has been associated with air and water pollution, health issues, and an increase in earthquake frequency in areas in which it is practiced. Fracking has made certain people very wealthy. As mentioned above, Matriarch opposes the practice.

Matriarch, after a summary of the European settlement of America that includes the displacement and resettlement of the indigenous people that has allowed for the development of today’s urban environment, moves from verse to chorus, from opening argument to an indictment of the greedy, and then to a call to arms to wake up and end fracking. What a call it is. Punctuated with a staccato vocal delivery, that guitar, and those drums, this is full-on fight the power punk rock.

“Fracking” is a terrifying, exhilarating, smart, and inspiring song. In the less than three minutes that it takes Matriarch to rip through to its conclusion, they alert us to our fate if we do not heed their call and fight to save the planet from being exploited and wasted until nothing is left. With fists pumping and my voice raised, I stand with Matriarch in spreading their call:

We’ve got to wake up to it!
We’ve got to fight them through it!

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