SNL has two types of musical guests. First, there are the well-known singers/bands that have a new album coming out--safe bets for at least half-decent music that will appeal to the general populace. Second, there are singers/bands that most people have never heard of or seen before--high risk bets that can either bomb horribly or blow people's minds with their new sound.
Since I'm an old codger now, the new bands usually bomb for me. Normally, I watch the first few seconds, dismiss them as total crap, and then head to the kitchen for a snack. But once in a while, I'll be curious enough to watch the newbies for a minute, and then I head to the kitchen. Rarely, I'll like the first song enough to watch the entire thing. Even more rarely, I'll like the second song just as much as the first.
Late in the evening on May 17, 2014, I was minding my own business watching Andy Samberg close out SNL Season 39--a little something I like to do every 39 years--when a new (to me) musical guest came on. Andy introduced a band called St. Vincent, which turns out to basically be this one woman, Annie Clark. The camera zoomed in on this young woman with a messy mass of platinum-blonde hair wearing a black dress and holding a white guitar. She looked very beautiful but also seemed more than a bit scary--kind of like Lady Galadriel when she went all dark and freaked out in front of Frodo.
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| St. Vincent -- If Lady Galadriel had an electric guitar. |
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| Lady Galadriel -- If St. Vincent had the One Ring. |
When the music started, I began to rise from my reclined position on the couch and prepare to enter the kitchen. But as I sat up, I found that I could not stop watching this woman sing. She was doing these wacky hand movements (ala Talking Heads) that looked like some kind of freaky performance art, but the music was really catchy. I quickly realized the song was about people wasting away their lives watching TV. (Hey! That's me!) I thought it was kind of a gutsy thing to be singing on late night television about how TV turns people into mindless insomniacs. I kept watching, mesmerized by the spectacle, unable to force myself off the couch to the kitchen, just like the people she was singing about in the song. (So meta!)
A minute in, I began to think she was just a singer that held the guitar there mostly for show, as she had only played a few chords and some rather simple parts. Then, a little after the two-minute mark, she ripped out a short guitar solo, which was only a couple of bars, but it clearly showed this lady knew her way around a guitar. By the time the song finished, I wanted to actually see more of this singer/guitarist. I wanted to make sure the song wasn't just some kind of fluke and the only good song by St. Vincent.
The second song--which is usually the spot in the show where I head to bed, since the last skit after the second song is rarely any good--turned out to be just as entertaining as the first. The other band members did the performance artsy-shmartsy movements while she rocked the guitar throughout the song. At the end, she did this strobe-light effect thingy where it looked like the two guitarists were floating back and forth.
Mind. Blown.
Within a matter of days, the self-titled album "St. Vincent" took up residence in the car's CD-player. I bought it thinking my son Erik would like her artsy style and sounds. But he never really took to the album. I, on the other hand, found myself playing it repeatedly. When the song "Digital Witnesses" first played on the car stereo, I was pleasantly surprised by a much fuller sound than what I had heard on the SNL performance. (Imagine that--music sounds better on a six-speaker surround-sound stereo than a single television speaker. Who would have thought such things could be?!) The deep bass sounds especially pleased my old ears. Which brings me to this warning--if you can't listen to this song on a stereo with good bass, you probably won't ever understand why I like this song. (When I listen to music in the car, I likes me a rumble seat!)
I also happened to take the album on our anniversary trip to the Oregon coast (see entry #139: Get Lucky). Consequently, this song also brings back good memories of lighthouses, fresh seafood, giant redwoods, crystal-clear Crater Lake, and a happy, sleeping wife (somehow, she could snooze through this album even when I had it playing pretty loud).
The "St. Vincent" album ended up winning the Grammy for Best Alternative Album for that year, so I was not alone in my enjoyment of her music. Still, some of it is just a bit too weird/disturbing for repeated listening. With song titles like "Rattlesnake," "Psychopath," and "Severed Crossed Fingers" it's pretty obvious the replay button won't be hit on every song. But that's okay. It's called "alternative" music for a reason. And it did stretch my musical mind in new directions, which I enjoy doing every now and then. In spite of what this Top 200 list seems to indicate, I don't believe that the only good music to ever play on the radio came out in the 70s and 80s. I do admit that I surprised myself by liking St. Vincent. But with my chronic sleep apnea, regular bouts of insomnia, and affinity for binge-watching TV shows, how could I possibly resist a song like "Digital Witnesses?"
Get back, to your seat
Get back, gnashing teeth
Ooh, I want all of your mind
People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window, yeah
People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window, yeah
Digital witnesses, what's the point of even sleeping?
If I can't show it, if you can't see me
What's the point of doing anything?
This is no time for confessing
I want all of your mind
People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window, yeah
People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window, yeah
Digital witnesses, what's the point of even sleeping?
If I can't show it, if you can't see me
Watch me jump right off the London Bridge
This is no time for confessing
People turn the TV on and throw it out the window, yeah
Get back to your stare
I care, but I don't care
Oh oh, I, I want all of your mind
Give me all of your mind
I want all of your mind
Give me all of it
Digital witnesses, what's the point of even sleeping?
If I can't show it, if you can't see me
What's the point of doing anything?
What's the point of even sleeping?
So I stopped sleeping, yeah I stopped sleeping
Won't somebody sell me back to me?
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