• Voto:
Io son fatto così. Più una cosa è vera, con tutto quello che ne segue, più mi piace. E più questa è contradditoria, ingannevole e incoerente, più è vera. La perfezione non esiste ed io me sono già fatto una ragione; pena mi fanno quelli che la rincorrono. La perfezione è per le cose finte e illusorie, per le persone morte che recitano la parte delle vive. Sarà che son fatto così, ma più una persona o una cosa è simile a me, più mi piace. Narcisismo? No, è semplice autodifesa.
Ed è proprio per questo che mi piacciono i Braid. Musica fieramente adolescenziale che solo lo sfigato che se ne sta all'angolino buio alle feste invece che bere Sex on the Beach può riuscire ad ascoltare. Spigolosa, pulsante e anche infantile. Il critico la bollerebbe come "musica per ragazzini", a me - dicevo - fa stare bene. E' il migliore emo-core dei '90, che non può dare un tono alla gente desiderosa di avercene uno. E' musica stupida e commovente al tempo stesso, ma non potrebbe essere altrimenti.
"Frame & Canvas" ('98, Polyvinyl) è il terzo disco di questi quattro scriteriati che si ostinano a non fare musica originale per la rabbia delle riviste musicali alla moda. Tutto ruota attorno al solito spleen dell'adolescente annoiato e lunatico, con testi che sembrano essere tutti appendici di quello di "Celebrated Summer". Ascoltarlo, è un po' come vederne l'encefalogramma e, per disegnarlo, si va a ripescare da quel pozzo senza fondo che è l'underground americano anni '80 il muro sonoro degli Squirrel Bait e lo si va a puntellare con le acrobazie chitarristiche dei Fugazi, che vengono pure richiamati nelle armonie vocali di Bon Nanna e Chris Broach, sorta di Ian MacKaye e Guy Picciotto più ingenui e con la voglia di cambiare il mondo lasciata sotto il tappeto. Dodici canzoni ricche così di melodie sbilenche ma altrettanto sognanti, di cambi di tempo e di repentine accellerazioni, tanto curate nella forma quanto immediate nei contenuti. I Braid, con questo "Frame & Canvas", si lasciano così alle spalle le incertezze degli inizi e dischi acerbi come il loro esordio, "Franky Welfare Boy Age Five" ('95). Sono dei Cap'n Jazz (anch'essi dell'Illinois, ma di Chicago) meno travolgenti, con un songwriting più ponderato e multiforme che può far ricordare anche i Drive Like Jehu, mantenendo comunque la sintesi causata dalla loro foga da teen esagitati.
I Braid si scoglieranno nel '99 (la loro ultima performance è contenuta in "Lucky to Be Alive", uscito postumo nel 2000), e si riuniranno nel 2004 solo per una tournée con tanto di DVD allegato. Scontati erano i propositi che li hanno portati a far musica, tutt'altro che scontata quest'ultimo. Il loro è uno degli emo-core più originali del periodo e che li rende riconoscibilissimi rispetto alle miriadi di band-fotocopia che vegetavano nei '90.
"Frame & Canvas" è una bella botta di giovinezza. Ed è per questo che mi piace.
P.S.: degno di lode anche il progetto solista di Bob Nanna, The City on Film. "In Formal Introduction" è una perla di ballads à la Elliott Smith. Check it out!
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 The New Nathan Detroits (04:17)
nineteen ninety eight looked great on
plain white paper on the fiftieth plane to champaign
but to tell you the truth
if i had a chance to kill it
i'd pick it up and take it and shake it and
kiss it to death
there's something inside like a conscience
that says "you're painting floors while
your pals are renaming the stars
get up get up and go do what you started
if you want to be a martyr, try harder"
go my son have you grown?
go make a home
and put the kids in their beds
and i will talk about this year
if there was something to talk about
and you sell and you sell with your heart
so you can make a few bucks and lose a few friends
and this is the stuff that makes you
and it will be the same that breaks you
move on get on with your life
it's pointless to play if you don't get paid
why not go my son have you grown?
go make a home
and put the kids in their beds
the kid's in our heads
we've got a lot of great mistakes to make
we've got a lot of chances to take
so let's take our time and hurry
go my son has come home
i said no and made my own
and put the kids in their beds
the kid's in our heads
we've got a lot of people to fear this year
so addy if you want to be near
sing will to the wind and worry
oh addy do i love you
but god such things i have to do
addy do i want to hear you
but i just can't get through
addy do i miss you
these dreams i sing when i
kiss you
oh addy do i love you
but got such things i have to do
ady do i want to hold you
but anyone may do
addy do i miss you
these dreams i sing when i'm
introducing the new nathan detroits.
02 Killing a Camera (02:34)
got caught kicking the canvas down
i had plans but they never seemed to work out
wide-eyed and on the lookout
got caught tearing the whole thing down
i was halfway done
but then you know this painted scene
could never leave me
oh please believe me
caught killing a camera
now it seems calming and clear to hire
a cast of kittens, the cats we've been kissing
for the cameras we're lowering here
got caught tearing the whole thing down
i was halway done
but then we sang it for memphis
the new slang in frame and canvas
just for the cameras
when we are awake we sing "never... ever"
this is where you must make up your mind
should beauty be design this time?
this time you decide cause we go with whatever
we take our time
got a cough
my throat kills from singing
my ears are ringing
the stage is slowly sinking
and we're all thinking the same thing
let's not settle for satisfaction
we are women and men of action
let's stop clapping let's start doing
a dream for the teens and in-betweens
and twenties yet unseen.
03 Never Will Come for Us (03:31)
as slow as rapid city
we must be gathering speed
here for something
trained for these tracks
but afraid of the frieght
and it doesn't get played on the radio
travel
wires and worries unravel
faced with unlacing the drinks
trade taps for tanks
a new ram in the ranks
our friends say way to go and where to go
never if you're out there
come along and save us from ourselves
oh how we missed it everything's twisted around
when the clouds come clear
open your eyes and we'll be here
never will come for us
everything's sung
never will comfort us
everything's wrong
never will come for us
never will come come
why won't you come?
never if you're out there
come to here and toast our merry year.
04 First Day Back (03:22)
so frustrated
that something (so) complicated
could hang over my head
on my first day back
and already i'm treading on unsteady ground
so strike me down or check me out
so elated
that this soul so understated
could be making eyes at me
but first i'll be
another innocent victim looking for some
sense of sympathy
in the middle of a state
the sorry story of a star
that goes "here's my heart"
it's a start
and if anything, we haven't seen everything
in the middle of a stage
there's a girl and a guitar
but there's your car
have we forgotten who we are?
we haven't seen anything
so i'm told that chicago's cold
can't be cool as california
for the first time ever
i feel severed yet smooth removed
if you approve then check it out
to what do i owe this attention
i'm only half of the reflection
and the conversation goes
oh, nevermind (oh, nevermind)
to what do i owe this tension
if deception's fine
then this is divine
divine define divine
on my first day back
and already i've settled on
my weak front
05 Collect From Clark Kent (03:24)
honey please don't ignore me
please accept this call
i'm on the corner of cough and cold
and i'm a lovestruck lost soul
please save me
from the superpowers that i don't believe in
save me please
i'm lost and alone
i can't come home
i'm stuck in a phone booth
honey understand me
i'm not sure to fly
in fact i'm super stupid tonight
and all the loose ends remain untied
please save me
from the superpowers that i don't believe in
save me please
i'm lost and alone
i can't come home
i'm stuck in a phone booth again
but once in your arms
we'll rise above the ground
you and me and the beautiful aerial view
of sunrise city
i'm never coming down
in your arms
we'll rise above the clouds
me and you in the sweetest sheets of blue
i'm never coming down
but come and pick me up first please.
06 Milwaukee Sky Rocket (03:10)
this is what you made it
you can't separate it
you can't segregate yourself
from everyone else
open
cover your eyes
come on cover your eyes
the light will slow and rise
and i never will lie
so come on cover your eyes
covers over mine
v this is how you take it
past whatever you set for yourself
you're killing yourself
and everyone else
open
color your eyes
come on color your eyes
why the disguise
and i never will hide
so come on color your eyes
i'll color over mine
said you could see right through
you and where you will be
impress yourself.
07 A Dozen Roses (04:18)
a dozen roses in the car
and i don't know where you are
maybe i don't know what i'm doing
you're moving like a movie
you still move me
among the other ones
and twos and threes and twenty-threes
got to keep my conscience clean
but that hurricane what's-her-name
mentality was not for me
and never could be
cause it surely brings bitter things
and misery
and i say
heaven hits me hard
in with the new
heaven hits me hardly
in with the news
whatever gets me started
in with the noose
have you ever had a heaven here
and was it clear?
cause i just wrote a letter
a confession down the ladder
that things could be so much better
and through follow the leader
i met her and then another end
and usually a grudge
but i loved so much
the way we touched and psuedo-kissed
oh i already miss you singing like this
over the phone
every now and every then i tend to pretend
i'm not alone
static made old radio
now i know
static made old radio
heaven hits me hard
in with the new
heaven hits me hardly
in with the news
whatever gets me started
in with the noose
have you ever had a heaven here
and was it clearly better?
09 Consolation Prize Fighter (03:14)
your head's in the way of my mind
and by the way i'm fine
but i'm a liar
and i'm trying
so give me a brand name and
i'll wrap my arms around the caller's collar
ring ring
tears in the towel throw it in
who'll chose the prizefighter?
windows down the idiots yell
at me, meek on the street
clueless as usual and unbelievably easily bruisable
but i'm trying
so give me a capgun and
i'll press my lips on the necks of the next ones
ring ring
it's everything
won too few in one too many.
10 Ariel (02:37)
assuming everything
ariel dances in my room
i clutch a red balloon
and hope i don't get taken to
vacant rooms and tunes
assuming everything
ariel dances in my room
at night her eyes are blue
but will i ever want to see them
bleed them dry to cry
i would die
cause i can't help it if your soul is
shallow in the tides
assuming everything
ariel strikes a pretty pose
i'm taking off my clothes
and everybody knows what up
with my baby snows
assuming everything
ariel shakes her silly hair
i'll come before you there
and welcome to a summer slumber
under sheets that tear
and eyes that tear
cause i can't help it if the songs
get hard for you to hear
am i among the heirs of this ariel?
cause i can't help it if my heart gets
hard for you to hold
once... twice... sold.
11 Breathe In (02:18)
i want you to see me out
you know you're bringing yourself down
and i drink too much and
you sing too much
and i think you know it
i want to see you out
you've got no inspiration
to do anything at all
hey when i go out
do i look like you do
hey when i go on
do i look like you do
marigold mary goes
"you gotta come out so we can see you"
we think we bring you down
you're not alone in that
you're not the first
and i think you know it
i want you to see you were right
about inspiration and everything else
but you said it wrong
hey look in the mirror
it's not what you say
it's how you say it.
Carico i commenti... con calma
