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Snake Ranching and Boxing Clever: Interview with Jim Harper

by Andrew Doty

Jim Harper is the father of Boxing Clever Records, a recent addition to the St. Louis ad agency Boxing Clever. We sat down with a bottle of bourbon to talk about his experiences in music and what led him to the crazy idea of starting up a record label.

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Andrew Doty: A couple of weeks ago, we talked about some of the bands you were in. You started playing in stuff in high school?

Jim Harper: Actually, early college.

AD: You didn't start playing until college?

JH: I've played drums since I was five; I started in big band and swing. And then, I don't want to say I got bored with it, but just like anybody else, I started doing other stuff, and going to school, and whatever. And early college, it was kind of one of those things where it's like, "Don't you have drums or something?" "I don't know, I think?" But I didn't, so a friend of mine gave me his, and of course, I never gave them back. I was at that age where when someone lends you something, you never give it back. And so I had a pair of real thin ultra-tiger-stripe drums. The same kit Bobby Brady got in the Brady Bunch from his dad, or whatever. Started playing with that. Yeah. It's terrible.

AD: What kind of music was that first band?

Interview with Jason Holler of Kentucky Knife Fight

by Andrew Doty

St. Louisans have a number of hometown bands to be proud of. Kentucky Knife Fight has been at the forefront of the local scene for a number of years, but that hasn't kept them from several national tours and opening slots for Reverend Horton Heat, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, and Pokey LaFarge, among others. The band just finished an intense tour fresh off the heels of losing their beloved van to theft and destruction, but singer Jason Holler says that despite that worrisome start, it "can only be described as our best tour yet. No questions. It was amazing. I'm still slightly in shock. " Lyricism editor Andrew Doty talked with Holler recently about lyrics, music, poetry, and voice.

Kentucky Knife Fight, photo credit Chris Bay

Andrew: I'd like to start discussing your lyrics way back at the beginning of Kentucky Knife Fight, while you were beginning to cull a loyal following in Edwardsville, IL. If I remember correctly, you were a student at SIUE then taking writing classes when you penned "Got My Heaven," one of KKF's first encore-ready crowd-pleasers. Who influenced you lyrically then, and what sorts of writing have you found new admiration for over the years as you've honed your own penmanship?

"Snow Brigade" by Mew

I first poured out my heart in this post about Mew at Star Maker Machine. It is copied verbatim here, but you should head over there anyway to have a look around, because it looks very nice, and they've really done a great job with the place.

Mew singer Jonas Bjerre. Photo Credit Bill Ebbesen 

"Snow Brigade" fan music video.

This song is always the first that comes to mind when I think of snow songs. I have to admit, that's not very often, nor had I ever even considered the existence of a genre such as "winter pop" until I scoured the internet comments and forums for discussion of this song.

The ever-enlightened, scholarly groupmind of SongMeanings repeatedly amuses a connection to cocaine, but I can't find anything in the lyrics that clearly prompts such an interpretation on a basic level. With hints of depression, failed communications, a frustrating relationship, and the importance of the season's change, this song is an unreceived broadcast to a partner with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Mew's homeland of Denmark has a relatively cool climate with heavy, wet winters, during which the daylight time dwindles to just about seven hours—not nearly long enough to even get to enjoy a single, cold moment of sunshine for those of us running on U.S. cubicle work hours. Seasonal Affective Disorder can carry a person's mood quickly into a new personality, a slow shift that grinds the gears of a relationship's communications.

"In winter you're an affliction," the singer of this song tells their partner. There's an argument brewing. Jealous accusations of new interests and demands for evidence. "Enable [me] to bring out the something you want to know beneath the snow," the singer tells the accuser. "Bring out the someone you want to see for jealousy."

Things end on a sour note. The singer's "arms retreat," as the option of immediate reconciliation fades, and the only option is to try again on another day: "I'll find you somewhere / show you how much I care / know that there is no / escape from my snow brigade."

This was the first Mew song I ever heard, and it turned me instantly into a fan. Although the album I've most fallen in love with (2009's No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away) sounds very little like other entries to their catalogue—including this song—both styles fit with their own moods, allowing me to enjoy Mew on even more occasions.

Singer Jonas Bjerre's voice carries the same shrill, tenuous beauty of a tightly-tuned violin string, simultaneously raising the listener's hackles and petting them on the head. This is undoubtedly the first thing that catches the newcomer's ears, but underlying musical experimentations that combine, at times, elements of progressive metal, ambient, noise, and indie pop should not go unappreciated.

Capable of producing albums of catchy singles, like 2003's Frengers, Mew also demonstrates clear understanding of the capability of the album itself as a limit, as No More Stories... and their 2005 album And the Glass Handed Kites both construct single-song façades through the use of song transitions and titular divisions.

Taking theme to the screen as well, Mew enlisted the aid of director Martin de Thurah to deliver a trio of music videos for singles on their release of No More Stories...: "Introducing Palace Players," "Repeaterbeater," and "Beach."

Don't forget to check out more song features at Star Maker Machine.

Big Plans for 2014

Good news, everyone! Lyricism is going to see lots of new content in 2014, including some site redesign (courtesy of the whiz kids at Boxing Clever and Boxing Clever Records), monthly interviews, and more lyrics than you can shake a stick at.

Featuring loads of new contributors, we'll keep things interesting with content from every genre we can fit in and as much media as our technological prowess can muster.

Plenty in progress at this moment, but for now, we hope we can sate you with a few minutes of amusingly misheard lyrics from 2013.

New Post Up on Star Maker Machine

Today's post is essentially just a redirect to a post I just put on on Star Maker Machine about Peter Bjorn & John's "It Beats Me Every Time" from their 2004 album Falling Out. CHECK IT OUT.

"Only Hell Knows" by Vader

From their 2011 album Welcome to the Morbid Reich, Polish death metal bands lends us their sly commentary on religious aptitude for war, killing, and torture:

          Why a need to crush, to grind or disembowel
          Why a need to rape, to crucify
          Why a need to raise, to fly, dictate and rule
          Why a need to fall
          Only hell knows*

Sounds like Vader is calling some Christians hypocrites: "Killing in the name of a god is hellish."Not exactly unique for a death metal outfit, but at least they're backed up by some solid research. But is it more metal than that cheerful old hymn from the Christian canon There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood?

graph from The Religious Dimensions of the Torture Debate, an analysis by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a project of the Pew Research Center

* (lyrics courtesy of DarkLyrics.com)

Trevor Strnad Synopsizes New Album Lyrics

Give a glance to this Decibel post, in which Trevor Strnad spends a paragraph describing his lyrics behind each track to the new The Black Dahlia Murder abum Everblack. Nothing better than some lyrical analysis straight from the horse's mouth.

Je Ne Sais Quoi

Yesterday, Barrie England shared with us a brief post reciting some lyrics to a French song — the ironically peppy "How do you kill your wife's lover," performed by Jacques Brel — and graced us with some translations. So many thanks, Mr. England! Translations are an important part of sharing ideas; I can never know how much is being said and analyzed around the world if I can't understand it.

Here's a link to England's article, and here's the video of the song:

Head over to England's blog, Caxton, and say thanks for the translation!

props: Kyle Ellison on Aesop Rock

Here is a link to Kyle Ellison's review of Aesop Rock's latest piece of perfection, Skelethon (the full album can be listened to right here on YouTube). Ellison demonstrates a mastery in lyrical dissection and analysis, digesting Bavitz's dense essays of song (the full lyrics, printed in the album insert, occupy pages and pages of tiny font, single space text) and presenting the reader with an easy-to-understand guide of some of the major points made on the album like a Sparknotes entry. For some of Bravitz's explanations of his own songs, check out this playlist of brief interview clips.

As always, check out The Quietus for plenty of other great news and reviews about the music community.