I'm a lucky guy. I have a wonderful family. We are all healthy, and we have a good time together. So I feel pretty guilty about all of my complaining. Complain I do, though. While I do my share of out loud complaining, most of my ranting and raving takes place inside my head. It can be cathartic and freeing for me, therefore, when someone else lets me inside the roiling sea that exists inside their head. It makes me feel not so alone in my internal raging against myself, "idiots," the world, the Man.
A while back, Speak Into My Good Eye asked me to write up a little blurb about Single Mothers' video for single "Half-Lit." They know what I like over there; and the song, a track off of the Ontario quartet's debut full-length, Negative Qualities, manages to pack lots of stuff I like into its too short two minutes. Highlights for me are the aggressive, explosive guitar and drums and the talk / scream singing of frontman and songwriter Drew Thomson.
Having obsessed on that song for a little while now and having listened to Negative Qualities a few times, I figured the album would make a great companion for my 1323rd attempt to return to running on the regular. "Overdose" opens things with just what I was looking for: a relentless, hard-charging barrage from the band that -- a little frustratingly at times -- obscures a few of Thomson's lyrics. A few key moments of clarity manage to escape like, "I'm so sick of your fake rock and roll...," "Caught up in my head...," and "If no one else is gonna do it, then I guess I'll destroy me." Lashing out at others, admitting to living inside his head, lashing out at himself. There are times I can identify.
"Marbles" contains my favorite line on the record. "She's all like 'Blah, blah, blah, blah, something about McSweeney's, something about her thesis, something about its meaning, something about whatever, something like why you gotta be so mean.'" Thomson then admits, "I'm a hypocrite, and I'm okay with it. I'm so self-aware that it's crippling." He's obviously a literate guy, but he's not into comparing reading lists. On some level, though, this sounds a little like my own railing against Corporate America during the time between conference calls at my corporate job. You're there. You're in it with them, but being able to see the bullshit for the bullshit that it is drives you nuts.
"Feel Shame" has kind of a 90s thing going on. Guitarist Mike Peterson, drummer Brandon Jagersky, and bassist Evan Redsky give things a dark, Northwest alt-rock feel. Thomson gives his unsurprising view that "existence is sarcastic" while exhorting us all to, "Feel shame. It's ok."
"Ketamine" is a slight departure with a darkly melodic guitar riff winding itself around the noise as Thomson admits, "I'm good at avoiding things and bleeding into the scenery." Sonically, "Money" is another outlier with a more indie-rock feel to it. Thomson even kind of sings as he breaks it off with someone, telling them to, "Get out of my head already." And later, "All I wanna do is sit here complaining."
I've seen reviews in which Drew Thomson loses a few points for sounding too much like The Hold Steady's Craig Finn. Obviously, I see the fact that his wordiness and delivery bear some similarities to Finn's as a plus, but that's not the only appeal of Negative Qualities for me. I don't know Drew Thompson or the band; and, even though I've read quite a bit about the band's history, I really don't KNOW their background. But there are moments in these songs that feel like they're being pulled from my own brain.
As I finished up my 3-mile slog today, during which I got through Negative Qualities 1.5 times, I felt a sense of relief and release that I haven't felt in a long time. And I'm sure it wasn't because of the run.
Negative Qualities is out now on HXC Recordings. Single Mothers play Baby's All Right in Brooklyn this Friday. CoolMom's outta town until late Friday night. Who wants to babysit for me?
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