Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Levi Fuller – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Jon Rooney

Levi Fuller‘s “The Meaning of Life” bucks the Volume 42 trend of largely unintelligible vocals or abstract lyrics, presenting a straightforward narrative about finding books at Elliott Bay and movies at Scarecrow Video before stepping through the process of trying to sit down and write a song about this ambitious topic. Not surprisingly, there’s no straightforward explanation of the meaning of the life, but the song posits answers in two different directions. First, it becomes clear that Levi is addressing the lyrics to someone, that someone likely his infant son. Like the Foghorns’ paternal yearning, this song posits a meaning with the far-off invitation, “maybe someday you can explain it all to me.” Second, during the latter part of the song, the vocals drop out and Levi’s deft finger-style guitar playing shifts the song from mildly meandering storytelling to focused contemplation. In a “dancing about architecture” kind of way, maybe Levi makes his case with music. That works.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Virgin of the Birds – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Levi Fuller

In this season of thankfulness, I would like to take a moment to declare my gratitude for the existence of Jon Rooney/Virgin of the Birds. Since his first appearance way back on Volume 5, he’s been one of the most consistent musical contributors to this endeavor – and for the past couple years he’s been pretty much the only consistent written contributor to this here blog, apart from yours truly. (Oh, and he designed the poster for the BoW 42 show too – is there anything he can’t do?)

On the music side, I’m pretty sure Jon/Virgin of the Birds has answered the call for every themed volume since Volume 8 (instrumentals). (I could be wrong, but who has time for research?) He was part of both Harry Candy volumes, he shared some foul language on Volume 13, busted out a one minute single for Volume 18, brilliantly interpreted “Fatal Flower Garden” for our Harry Smith tribute, shared songs of love and protest last year . . . and on and on. Long story short: Jon Rooney is both gifted and game, which are my favorite attributes in a musician. His “The Meaning of Life” raises more questions than it answers, as seems appropriate, but it’s another fine entry in the VotB oeuvre. There’s no chorus per se: the closest thing is the C part, with the repeated line “it’s the same as jazz, it’s the same as the symphony,” but as catchy as it is, it never comes back. Not unlike Christopher Kelley’s track (and again, not unlike life), this song does one thing and then another and then another and then it ends. May all our lives be as rewarding and full of nuance and unexpected pleasures as this tune, and may we all aspire to be as good, giving, and game* as Jon Rooney.

*Yes, I stole the GGG concept from Dan Savage, but it is here meant in a human/musical context, with no references to the bedroom intended.
Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Eggshells – De Betekenis Van Het Leven

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Jon Rooney

Eggshells‘ take on the meaning of life comes to us in Dutch as “De Betekenis Van Het Leven.” Why Dutch? I don’t know – perhaps it’s a broad nod to masters like Rembrandt or Vermeer or the late century Noise Pop heroics of Bettie Serveert. “De Betekenis Van Het Leven” is glacial space pop, a moody soundtrack to cosmonauts adrift in the universe, complete with the cold beat of electronic drums, floating synth parts and vocals buried under layers of reverb. As with a number of the meaning of life songs on Volume 42, the lyrics are pretty difficult to make out, so not much is illuminated on that front.  The song is spacious, however, and takes its time developing. The entire second half of the song is a sort of extended outro that maintains the same drum beat but switches the chord changes to a contemplative cadence. More really good stuff from relative newcomers Eggshells.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Mark Schlipper – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Jon Rooney

The Luna Moth‘s Mark Schlipper returns to Ball of Wax as a solo artist with his take on “The Meaning of Life.” The song  is an exercise in somber minimalism, with a repeating minor key figure played on an acoustic guitar for the first two and half minutes accompanied only by ghostly, buried vocals. In the final minute of the song, guitar fuzz seeps in like a swarm of mesmerized bees, enveloping, but not derailing, the main guitar part. As the lyrics are indiscernible, I’m not sure exactly what meaning the song posits, but the sounds suggests the horizons of stillness and hypnotic dread also found in the music of Earth and La Monte Young.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged | 2 Comments

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Darryl Blood – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Darryl Blood‘s “The Meaning of Life” is the first of only a couple instrumental submissions to this volume, and it’s a gorgeous bit of composition via audio manipulation. Darryl has departed from his usual singer-songwriter/power-popper fare to deliver an electroacoustic piece for overdubbed cello and sampled baby sounds (stay tuned for more baby  sounds and yet more dad songs). Since I have the secret information contained in the yet-to-be-published BoW 42 liner notes, I can tell you that rather than being composed by writing down a score and giving it to a cello player (in this case Gordon Withers, a man of many fine interpretations and collaborations), this piece was recorded before it was composed. Darryl took backing parts Gordon had recorded for some of his songs and then deconstructed and reassembled them into this new composition. When combined with the unmistakable sounds of a small child, the resulting piece – mournful and hopeful, poignant and bittersweet – gives as good an interpretation of the meaning of life as an album’s worth of lyrics. Kudos to Darryl for branching out in this way, and to Gordon for providing such beautiful building blocks.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Rob Anderson – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Levi Fuller

You might not know it from the full sound of this delightfully orchestrated recording, but this is actually a solo track from Rob Anderson, most known around these parts for his work leading the kitchen-sink indie-folk-rock outfit Day Laborers and Petty Intellectuals. I guess the lack of theremin and violas should have clued me in, now that I think about it. But Rob certainly did his best to make up for his missing band members, layering guitars, keys, trombones, and more to bolster this short, sweet, and satisfying musical argument that perhaps knowing the meaning of life isn’t as important as just going ahead and living it.

Rob has enlisted the rest of the DLPI crew to play at the Ball of Wax 42 release show next Thursday, December 3rd! Fingers crossed we get a theremin- and viola-infused performance of this tune, but I know it will be a fantastic set regardless.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Seth Howard – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Levi Fuller

One benefit of convening our giant group of 40 BoW alumni for Ball of Wax 40 was bringing a number of people back into the fold who’d been quiet for a while. People like Seth Howard, who’s been part of this thing since the very beginning, but who hasn’t shown up under his own name in quite some time. (Is it possible Volume 23 is the last time we heard from him? Scandalous!) I’m very glad he has remedied the situation with his “The Meaning of Life” song for Ball of Wax 42. It’s a delicate, haunting tune, mostly finger-picked acoustic and Seth’s hushed vocals, capturing a moment of beauty and contemplation. It’s wonderful to have Seth’s voice back on Ball of Wax!

As if the return of recorded Seth Howard weren’t good enough news, the Ball of Wax 42 release show will see Seth’s first live, full-band performance in quite some time. As wonderful as his quiet acoustic stuff is, it’s a huge treat to hear Seth’s songs fleshed out with a band, and you should grab the opportunity while you can. I certainly hope your next chance to see him live will be a matter of months rather than years, but I wouldn’t risk it.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Travis Champ – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Jon Rooney’s favorite frontier surrealist Travis Champ is back, and his take on “The Meaning of Life” doubles down on the surrealism – which makes sense, since it was inspired by a dream he had about listening to the lost folk recordings of Adolf Hitler. (“I don’t think the first verse will offend too many people,” he assured me.) The lyrics aren’t entirely clear – perhaps due to the song being recorded on a phone inside a shipping container (no, really) – but suffice it to say it’s another satisfying dose of subversive strangeness delivered in Champ’s inimitable cowboy baritone.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: The Foghorns – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Jon Rooney

For “The Meaning of Life,” the Foghorns have assumed their most unassuming permutation – just Bart Cameron, his voice and an acoustic guitar.  The result is, not surprisingly, stark, moving, and foreboding in a Midwestern Old Testament kind of way. Bart chronicles a litany of man-made horrors, commonplace atrocities of what Bob Dylan christened the “New Dark Ages” a quarter century ago. The lyrics mention “a boy on the bus again, a bomb” and “washed on the shore, a toddler in his shoes / face in the sand, next to a soldier’s boots,” imagery more terrible in the mind of a father of a young boy, which Bart happens to be.  The song finds grace in the inexorable love of fatherhood, sloughing off both the threat of a man left to the devices of free will and the need for ontological wholeness with the very human “there is no meaning / I need to hear you breathing” and “I don’t need a lover’s kiss / like I need to hear you breathing.”

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Louis O’Callaghan – The Meaning of Life

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Jon Rooney

Whether as the Graze or Sun Tunnels or even the long-lost Indie Rooney, Louis O’Callaghan has been one of my favorite Ball of Waxers over the years, an unheralded and often unmatched creative figure in a town stuffed to the gills with self-appointed creative types. What sets Louis apart, for me anyway, is the fact that his creative output is accomplished and wholly enjoyable – he’s a top-notch, not-just-local-good, gifted pop songwriter. His take on “The Meaning of Life” boasts a host of endearing indie rock and lo-fi pop touches: simply-arranged, down-stroked guitar parts, yearning double-tracked vocals, subtle synth and drum machine, all in service of a sad, dogged earworm of a melody. The lyrics are mumbled but poignant where discernible, like small musings on the inevitability of cosmic annihilation: “the star will break / there will come a day / someone leaves a mark / you won’t think at all.” You might think that I’m overdoing things, but you’re wrong. You’re just not listening to enough Louis O’Callaghan.

Posted in Ball of Wax, Check Out This Song | Tagged , | Leave a comment