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Brian Eno is believed to have once said that “”Only five thousand people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every single one of them started a band.” The same sentiment might one day apply for Austin’s The Weird Weeds as well — except that they make their listeners want to make loose concept albums based around harmonious open-field vocals, and indie-prog instrumentals.
Upon a first listen, Help Me Name Melody, the fourth LP from the Weird Weeds and second for local imprint Autobus, continues on in the same way their previous albums played (2008’s I Miss This, and 2006’s Weird Feelings) — polite jam rock that resonates somewhere near the warm fuzzy center Olivia Tremor Control managed to find among the hearts of critics. The Weird Weeds are undecided. “More Than a Bit” and “I Ain’t Got No Family” are both delightful listens. Bookending an amorphous jam, guitars twisting in and out of syncopation with the rhythm sections, the two songs are as direct as the band is willing to get on tape.
The rest of the non-instrumental pieces on Melody are written as image collages—some harrowing lines (“leave you out in the rain, feed you garbage” on “Baby”, and “you were swollen and still, but there was no blood” on “No Blood”) among other more uplifting phrases about “the joy of sex” and “staying cool” in a what could only be an oppressive Texas summer. Weird Weeds seem content to leave their lyrics up to interpretation as they seem to have no immediate connection or theme, only a twisting away from the eye, a hiding of the face behind disconnected phrases and word poems.
But what really pulls this album together is the abundant twangy instrumental work, which remains musically concise, like an object at rest about to move. Where most bands would falter and make a rather unimpressive “mostly-instrumental album”, Weird Weeds have a way of developing their passages organically, pulsing at the right moments and lying back when necessary. They never become contrived and the necessity to play never ventures into narcissistic territory. Instead, it’s the unnamed (four tracks in all), left blank on the back cover, that draw you into Help Me Name Melody, and the noodling in-between verses that catch your ear.
Help Me Name Melody is a somewhat difficult album for anyone new to the work of Weird Weeds. They’re mysterious at times and completely unguarded throughout. Even the album title itself hints to interpretation, as if the band themselves were curious as to what they had recorded. Either way, the mystery and the unexplained are exactly what’s working for the album. Even the cryptic lyrics that seem to say nothing and everything at once add to the din of Help Me Name Melody. It’s a fog of sound, and one that’s worth getting lost in.
Websites:
www.weirdweeds.com
Myspace
