It’s spring time again, so that means G tones are peeping out of the water bodies. That’s just the crickety call of the local frogs. Drag on the noteheads below to hear the high G of the spring peepers.
Speaking of G’s, Los Doggies has a tradition of beginning albums in G, as if the dawning of a new spring, and our recent release Heddagabalus is no exception. The opening track, “All the Eyes” begins in G minor Dorian, the key of a reluctant spring.
“All the Eyes” was written over the summer of ’17 with less than a year passing between conception to recording to listening. Usually an album takes forever and you don’t want to listen to the songs ever again. Precious songwriters often liken their creations to children, but they are actually bastard step-children that while you’re glad they exist, you’re sick of them hanging around.
Take a listen.
“All the Eyes” follows the usual format, albeit in extended fashion: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, instrumental, chorus. That might sound confusing, but it’s essentially three acts of a play.
The verse pays homage to an old NES game Clash At Demonhead, except in a minor key, while the chorus sounds suspiciously like the bridge guitar from Yes’s “Roundabout”.
This song and album were partly a response to a WaPo article about modern indie-rockers who are embarrassed of their jam-band roots.
Not that many of these indie bands jam. MGMT, Vampire Weekend and Real Estate largely stick to predetermined arrangements. And there’s still a little bit of stigma. More than a few bands approached about this article neglected to call back. Vampire Weekend’s Tomson is upfront about his jam band days but protects the identities of others. “I don’t want to out anybody,” he says.
But [Alex] Bleeker sees greater acceptance on the horizon. It will be a vibe-heavy, groovy new world, where nobody will be ashamed to let their songs soar past the seven-minute mark. “I don’t want ‘jam band’ to be a dirty word in the indie-rock community anymore,” he says.
Well, that’s WaPo for you. I wanted to see what would happen if an indie-rock band actually did jam, but not like a jam-band, like an indie-rock band. So basically like Built To Spill, but actual improvised jams, I guess. And not just guitar solos, although mostly guitar solos.
Anyway it was an experiment in songcraft. In the language of synesthesia, the eyes are red with pupils of darker red staring redly. Todos los ojos rojos. The song is red, but G is itself red.
Listen to “All the Eyes” on Bandcamp.
