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ISSUE #58
Jan.
'04
Each year we engage in
an exercise of intense opinion when we try to
decide the disc of the year. This has been a life long obsession that
has produced some of
the most amazing arguments, agreements, and surprises that we can (and
even can not)
remember. This year has been no different; except the surprise is that
the album we picked
as the “2003 IndepenDisc of the Year”
had yet to be Featured on IndepenDisc. In
our
possession since September, this CD found early favor
across the board, but when we decided it would become the “IndepenDisc
of the
Year,” the only time we could Feature it was
now, January ’04, and we
thought, “how fitting.”
le main
drag by the Bon Mots is
the
“2003 IndepenDisc of the Year”
for reasons too incomparable to
fully articulate, but that doesn’t mean we won’t
try…
le main
drag is life in general. It reaches out and
reaches into us to show how everybody’s life is a drag at one
point or another. To
each of us our drags can constitute different things, but sooner or
later it is life that
is the main drag.
the Bon
Mots present 12 snapshots of things that make
people’s lives a drag, and infuse them with a musical thrill
that drops us in the
front seat of a roller coaster on a beautiful summer night. A fireworks
display
illuminates the fact that when placed into a different context we can
swipe a bit of
pleasure from even the most unassuming of circumstances.
Hailing from Chicago,
IL, this quartet works the music so as to define the
visual sensations that are aroused by fireworks and the
physical/psychological reactions
experienced on a roller coaster ride. Songwriters Eric
Chail (vocals,
guitar, bass) and Mike Coy (vocals,
guitar, bass) – (while credited
individually [even songs by Chail, odd songs by Coy], are a songwriting
team that deserve
a long hard look) channel an old school, New Wavy, Garage, pop rock
that reminds us of The
Hollies crossed with The Jam and sprinkled over with a bit of Squeeze
and Elvis Costello
& The Attractions. Chial and Coy
easily convey the
Difford/Tilbrook, Costello/Lowe style of paradoxical writing: music
that represents
grabbing life and enjoying bopping and rockin’ to it, with
lyrics that twist a sense
of misery in a clever and witty fashion that makes more sense than the
logic dictated to
us as “normal.” Normal is a drag, man.
Meanwhile, Chris
Frantisak (keyboards) plays Squeeze’s Paul
Carrack and the Attraction’s
Steve Nieve rolled into one and proves that the organ and piano (not to
mention various
other keyboard goodies) are an extremely overlooked and vital part of
the Rock-n-Roll
fabric. Here, Frantisak knows when to
stand up and stand out as well as
when to lay back and simmer under. To take the keyboard contributions
for granted here
would hurt the overall effect as much as it would to not acknowledge Kevin
Hoetger
(drums, vocals). His drumming not only sets the whole disc in motion,
but tosses it over
the edge with a restraint that makes us appreciate those at the
playground who give us a
push on the swings.
While each song can
undeniably be classified as a Bon Mots
tune, it is the diversity of each that sets this disc apart and
contributes to its rise to
the top of the class in 2003. Starting with “Glistening,”
a song that provides (as each and every song on the CD does) line after
line of lyrics we
just want to quote back to people, it tells the tale of a guy on the
beach admiring the
beautiful site of a woman. She is way out of his reach, and while his
desires for her will
go unmet, the Bon Mots also tell of the
desires of the woman, which also
will go unmet. She suffers just the same as him, but at a different
level, which he is
unable to comprehend. It offers the common ground of rejection
crumbling the soul as the
path to love, which is the perfect solution laid out by a person who
can generally feel
for another’s feelings. The song unfolds this in a variety of
different scenarios.
Place all this within a sound that begins with a bare electro-acoustic
guitar intro and
explodes in a Fourth of July awe of colors, framed by the printed
lyrics in the
accompanying booklet which are set against a red hued torso shot of two
beautiful babes
baking in the sun in string bikini bottoms, and “Basting
in your suntan lotion
marinade of coconuts and gin / Just to draw me in.”
This takes us to another
world, which we’ve all visited in one way or another, and has
us proclaiming
“there’s just too much here, I need another
listen,” again and again. But
we must move on…
“Nocturna”
is Goth, and Goth is cool
because it celebrates le main drag in a
way that the downbeats can be
accessorized with intense guitar playing and swallowed by a wall of
organ sound. It is
then, within the last 15 seconds, that we appreciate how important the
organ is to the
Bon Mots sound. With the ringing of guitar strings
“Under Wraps”
is off and running in a 60s style wall of sound that wraps around the
lyrics to fully
orchestrate the way we use things to wrap (hide) our flaws/faults. But
it’s “Touched
By A Robot” that is representative
of this album - The Robot being the
society we must enter as we say goodbye to our innocence.
There’s “no going
back to the summer,” our youth is gone, over, our
summer of life ends once we
enter the fall – the working/consumer lifestyle –
we’ve lost it all. The
wallowing of the vocals is as sweet as the innocence we’ve
lost. It is here where we
realize that the Bon Mots are giving us
everything we need to sustain
that summer…
And, when “Ghetto
Falsetto” jams punk
rock attitude down our throats with an amazing guitar energy that has
us boppin’ and
poppin’ over the bridge that carries this song over the edge,
using harmonies that
sound triple tracked to offer another perspective of the choices we
must face in order to
endure this life, well, we let it carry us away to a point of blissful
complacency where
even the story of a mentally disturbed person who wears 6 coats
(“Five
Coats”) (one for good
luck) and directs traffic while sweating in the August sun, has us
singing along with a
poppy, smile inducing, carnival style upbeat melody: “Do
do do do, Da do do do do
do, Do do do do, Da do do do do do.”
“Tailights”
produces a cool groove of
ringing, jangley guitar, and high backing falsettos. The line
“An honest strange
is much less subjective than you’d like”
is delivered on a hook which will
stick with you for days and have you understanding that lyrically the
Bon Mots
have delivered an album of amazing musical territory. “Get
Heavy”
funks right in and lays down a lounge lizard, mega-cool, suave that
blows in the doors of
trolling for the opposite sex (“Took her to the
bathroom for a little kiss / In a
classic combination of innocence and filth”). The
? and the Mysterians tribute
at the end bares out the 60s garage influence (a master stroke that
should not be taken
lightly), until the abrupt end which makes a statement and plunges
headlong into “Vultures.”
This song booms and takes us into the sky, delivering an amazing mood
centered piece that
draws us to the back center focusing on the organ and keyboards walking
behind the drums
and dual lead guitars. We are destroyed to the point where the chorus
“And
strange as it seems it has meaning to me
/
But not the way that I imagined it,” propels us
down a journey that we just do
not want to abandon. Again, the Bon Mots
provide a logic that allows for
different interpretations even within a single point of view, and it is
the more than one
comprehension of logic that sustains the ride.
A ride where “Time
Was” dares us to
dance in a psychedelic pogo that will have whole generations
Rockin’ in fuzztones
with a guitar solo cranking like no other we’ve heard all
year. But, even with
everything we’ve related so far, it’s “Errant
Geese” that has won our
hearts. This song captures everything that
is good with music: guitars and vocals work off each other in such
precision that when the
organ enters and dissipates we are filled with awe and wonder. Separate
channel harmonies
and duck/geese call organ effects explode once again in a sight via
sound sensory
overload: “Colors burning seasons turning
questioning your lusts and yearnings /
until we laugh our smiles away.”
And so, with a bouncing
piano and electric keyboard that light up “Idiot
Kiss,” the Bon Mots
conclude le main drag
on a down note, adding to the irony of this pleasure.
Much like the coaster
slowing to stop after an exhilarating ride on a
beautiful summer night, that has been painted with the colors and
punctuated by the sound
of fireworks, le main drag (AKA life), is
a pleasure of unassuming
circumstances brought forth through the music of the Bon
Mots.
What more could you ask
for from
the “2003 IndepenDisc of the Year”?
le main drag
by the
Bon Mots
is available now for: $10.98 + s/h*
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