It’s 11:11pm. I’ve got Dirty Penny’s latest work “Sage Against the Machine” playing as usual. I think it’s a work of genius or maybe higher. Humans cannot intentionally design a work this exquisite without the help of a higher power. It could be divinely inspired. I have listened to it just under three thousand times. It has replaced much of my psyche and I feel better for it, lighter.
If our psyches are a community of voices… there’s the one that helps us rise in the morning, another is for confronting injustice, another helps us walk away from evil. Some are dark. When we are ashamed there is the one that tells you “buddy, to call yourself dogshit is probably an insult to dogshit.” SATM does not have a song for that voice but it has the song that is the voice that follows that one. That song is “Magic Tricks”. It begins with the words sung by JC Penny accompanied by only drums: “I’ll tell you what happens when you die..” and then he does, and it makes sense. It’s not paradise or hell or weird. In Penny’s view, the afterlife is a review of your work (or tricks) and the judge is you. Death, the certainty of it, when presented gently as in this song so that we don’t feel the need to close our eyes, makes us strong. Eyes that wide see all shame as the same: about as big as a chihuahua abortion in a jam jar.
So SATM pretty much covers the human condition better than most art of any form that I know of. It is a community of diverse, fully realized songs. However, like life, it is a crazed bag of sounds. Check the tracklist:
“Magic Tricks” = ART
“If I Wuz a Cat” = PUNK
“Dick Opportunity” = DISCO
“Sage Against the Machine” = GRUNGE
“Pretty Boy Floyd” = FOLK
“Declined” = SKA
“Hot Cocoa” = FUNK
“Lady Nurse None” = … I don’t know
“Atahualpa” = GOTH
“Just One Finger” = BALLAD
“Maximum Sherpa” = ROCK
And the last song “Maximum Sherpa” reverses the message of the first: fuck karma. If there’s a judge waiting for you at the end of the line fuck him or her, especially if they’re you. Ha ha.
But this is just essayism and this blog is supposed to be news about the great canadian rock band, Dirty Penny. The truth is there’s been little shaking since their gig at Clinton’s Tavern friday before last but I am feeling a need to make an entry here. Rehearsals have been cancelled and I am still a little exiled from the band since the Nidhan interview (see “Nidhan Interview” below). However, last night DP’s drummer, Scott “Candy” Fletcher phoned me up. I was nonplussed and still am. Read on and you’ll see what I mean..
Me: “Hello?”
Candy : “Alex? It’s Scott. The DP drummer.”
M: “Hey, Scott. Of course. How’s it going?”
C: “Good. Ya.”
M: “Ya me too.”
C: “Ya.”
M: “What’s going on?”
C: “Not much. How about you? How’s the DP biography coming along?”
M: “Great. I’m drowning in notes and I’m glad you asked because I was wondering if I could toss you a few questions, you know, by email or whatever?”
C: “What sort of questions?”
M: “The typical shit: background, influences, album work..”
C: “Ya. Okay. You got my email?”
M: “Uh, no. I think you gave it-”
C: “The earth is in a lava lamp this summer.”
M: “What?”
C: “The earth is in a lava lamp this summer.”
[awkward silence]
C: “Alex?”
M: “Ya.”
C: “Are you ‘Alex’?”
M: “Yes?”
C: “HAHAHA…” [sort of joker maniacal-esque]
M: “Ha ha. That was really… You got me going. What does the ‘birth of java lover’ mean?”
C: “Nevermind. Hey, I’m sorry. I’ve been smoking, you know…”
M: “Ah. Okay.”
C: “Listen, before I decay into more random, I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate the work you’re doing. It’s good. I’ve been reading your blog, too. It’s pretty good. You’re the real thing, you know. A real journalist.”
M: “Hey, thanks ten thousand. I should hope so since I went to school to be one.”
C: “Ya. And the last post about our Clinton’s gig where you were in disguise as a woman – that was hilarious!” [see previous post for why I was in disguise]
M: “Ya. I guess that was funny.”
C: “So you really did, eh?”
M: “What?”
C: “Go to the gig in drag.”
M: “Ya.”
C: “Wow. That must’ve been uncomfortable in more ways than one.”
M: “Ya! The worst part is talking. As soon as you talk, the person listening knows you’re a guy. Unless you’re a seasoned drag queen that’s been practicing for years..”
C: ” I didn’t notice anything at all. Did you stay the whole gig?”
M: “Ya.”
C: “Did you talk to anyone else?”
M: “No. Not really. After your set which was awesome by the way – did you guys take awesome pills just before going on?! Holy shit!”
C: “Hey thanks. So someone talked to you after the set?”
M: “Oh ya. A drunk middle ager. Computer salesman. He went on and on about Windows Vista. I left as soon-”
C: “That was my father.”
M: “What?”
C: “Were you in a black blouse and brownish hair? Sort of Bettie Page bangs?”
M: “Auburn.”
C: “What?”
M: “My wig was auburn.”
C: “Anyways so that WAS you.”
M: “Oh god, that was your father?”
C: “Ya.”
M: “Oh jeeze…”
C: “Don’t worry about it. It’s all good. I guess you gave him a phony number, eh?”
M: “Yes.”
C: “Of course, I would, too. Ha!”
M: “Ha ha! Ya.”
C: “HAHAHAHA!”
M: “HAHAHAHA!”
C: “HA HA..”
M: “Ha Ha..”
C: “WHOO..”
M: “Whoo..”
C: “Hey, Magnuson?”
M: “What?”
C: “The earth is in a lava lamp this summer.”
M: “‘The earth is in a lava lamp this summer’?”
C: “The earth is in a lava lamp this summer.”
M: “The earth is in a lava lamp this summer.”
C: “Yes.”
M: “Okay.”
C: “Alex?”
M: “Yes?”
C: “Whoa! Am I ever stoned! Sorry, buddy. Listen, I’m not gonna waste another sec of your time. Later, buddy.”
M: “Okay. Bye, Scott!”
C: “Bye.”
So I managed to scrape a little bit of background on Scott “Candy” Fletcher, mostly about his dad. Blech. I am really glad he has a sense of humour about that. This felt like it could have been a Nidhan interview disaster all over again but thankfully no. The lava lamp thing still troubles me. It’s something I’d expect from Penny but not Candy, even stoned.