CitySlang’s own ‘Free so Free’ track by track

[Bucky Ramone]

Find it here….

Free so Free, CD/LP, 2002

In a recent issue of Playboy magazine, a centerfold model was asked what kind of music she preferred. "Classic Rock," she wrote. "Neil Young, the Cure, Dinosaur Jr., Tom Petty — all the classic rockers." Miss April (for it was she) seems to have stumbled across a truth that has eluded many other cunning thinkers. That truth? Classic is as classic does. To poorly paraphrase Edward "Duke" Ellington: if it sounds classic, it is classic. In that sense (among others), the music of J "j" Mascis has always possessed classicist qualities. But it is only now — firmly ensconced in the 21st Century — that we can view the musics of the 20th Century as an unstratified whole, making it possible for us to fully appreciate and tag the sounds that Mascis creates as classic-qua-classic.

Era-free styling has always been a central compositional and procedural tenet lurking inside j’s music, but its overt presence has often been tamped down by the contextual tenor of the times. Now, with the release of Free So Free, his third post-Dinosaur Jr. outing, the temporal breadth of Mascis’ musical hairweave has become as obvious as the blackness of John Ashcroft’s ass. And what better way for him to express this grasp of the ungraspable than with a concept album about his latest passion: skydiving. "It was sometime last summer I first started thinking about it," j says. "Bob was going to summer camp while I was touring. When I went to pick him up I found out that his favorite part of the vacation had been doing this skydiving workshop in Orange [Massachusetts]. They had a special Pet and Owner Skydiving Weekend not long after that. We both went, and it was real solid."

Many of the songs for Free So Free were written in mid-air. "There’s something about reaching terminal velocity that really helps you open up," j says. "The whole freedom idea sorta evolved out of that, and also some of the playing that I was doing with Ron and Scott Asheton. Those guys have some real special notions about freedom. We talked about it a bunch." The gigs j talks about with the Ashetons (and Mike Watt) include epic recreations of Stooges riff-battles that have been played out across the globe, most notably at the L.A. All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, where a parade of guest vocalists handled Iggy’s chores. "Kim Gordon was the best one," j says. "She really went for it. Watt usually starts off singing the sets, but he always blows out his throat after a coupla songs. We’re playing with Guns and Roses soon, I’m hoping we can get Axel to do some of the singing."

Apart from these mock-Stooge battles, j has been playing largely solo throughout the time since his last album, More Light, was issued. "It’s easier to be free when you’re playing alone," j says. "I used a few people to help on the album. John Petkovic and Don Depew from Cobra Verde were around for a few songs. So was Dan McLaughlin. He plays that Wurlitzer Piano on ‘Everybody Let’s Me Down’." "Everybody Let’s Me Down" was first written and performed in Alison Anders’ film "Things Behind the Sun". But it’s retooled here and will be the first video from the album. "We just finished it," j says. "A buncha people – Eninem, Abe Lincoln, Elvis – try out for my band, but it doesn’t work and I end up doing everything myself." Which is not far from the truth of Free So Free: the truth of freedom itself.

"Free So Free" track-by track

track one: "freedom"
With a bitchen burst of ass-rockin’ tubs we are en route. The lyrics’re clearly about the emotional highs of j’s first parachute jump – taking off into the atmosphere, tension building as the door opens, then bursting into the blankness of clouds. For you.

track two: "if that’s how it’s gotta be"
j starts this one with the beautiful acoustic laconia of his 2001 live shows, before freedom dictates that electricity changes everything. Spin this one for the late Mr. Harrison and watch him flap in the wind. Classic!

track three: "set us free"
A beautiful reverse classicist move opens this one, with a bloat-piercing stun-guitar-intro that has a chord progression based on the fuselage structure of a Beechcraft Bonanza. If that ain’t the most bodacious structure rock gambit since Blue Oyster Cult’s "ME-262", we’d like to know what is.

track four: "bobbin"
We bob not for apples. We bob not as thread. We bob on the curtain of life’s holy dread. Marc Bolan (especially the tubby, later version) would never dare to stand on the lip of a plane’s exit door. Void or no void. On the other hand, Jeff Lynne might say, "Go for it."

track five: "free so free"
When he was guesting with Mike Watt’s band a few years ago, j would often end the night playing a distended raunch version of Funkadelic’s "Maggot Brain". Maybe this one’s for Curtis Mayfield. Sink or fly, right?

track six: "tell the truth"
Meltzer once told a story about how when the Soft White Underbelly and Runt both lived out in Great Neck, they used to have jam sessions inside some small airport hangar late at night. One can now imagine that baby j may have sat in.

track seven: "someone said"
To understand the difference between political and social conceptualization, you only have to imagine a meat wheel in the shape of a W. Think of that the next time you plummet straight through a flock of birds.

track eight: "everybody lets me down"
The crazy archaic keyboard waves almost make this sound like some early ’70s rocker doing a cover of a Mascis tune. And note the upful twist to the song’s title. I mean, the phrase has a whole different meaning for parachutists, does it not?

track nine: "say the word"
The word is Geronimo. And here’s where the backwoodsy laze of j’s voice, combines with his bust-ass finger-thinking in a way that achieves the same pure balance that exists between sky and gravity.

track ten: "outside"
The lure of the hot sky is no more possible to resist than a half-pipe. Here is where the skate wheel hits the ground and takes the hell off. What a fine goddamn ride.

[kockney]

wow, time out and mojo manage to say virtually nothing then, out of nowhere,comes this piece of appalling pretension!

I thought this sort of reviewing died out in the late 70’s when NME decided to pull its head out of its arse and sell some copies instead.

This ‘review’ would make Adrian Mole blush.. I really don’t recommend anyone waste their time with it unless they are looking for a laugh.

k

<small>[ 10-16-2002, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: kockney ]</small>

[FlyingCloud]

now, that’s the source of the ‘skydiving’ fairy tale? <img> <img> <img>
But isn’t it nicely invented?

</font><blockquote><font>quote:</font><hr><font> "Bob was going to summer camp while I was touring. When I went to pick him up I found out that his favorite part of the vacation had been doing this skydiving workshop in Orange [Massachusetts]. They had a special Pet and Owner Skydiving Weekend not long after that. We both went, and it was real solid." </font><hr></blockquote><font><img>

[Javro]

utter tosh

[jasper]

</font><blockquote><font>quote:</font><hr><font>Originally posted by kockney:
<strong>I thought this sort of reviewing died out in the late 70’s when NME decided to pull its head out of its arse and sell some copies instead.</strong></font><hr></blockquote><font>Dude. You know this "review" is set up to be a joke, right?

As was mentioned in the interview with the Boston Globe: It was a hoax perpetrated by gonzo journalist Byron Coley, who wrote the press release, complete with notes about Mascis’s parachuting ”straight through a flock of birds” and ”bursting into the blankness of clouds.” Mascis laughs at the thought of it, adding that Coley also wrote some notes for his last album that were so out there (”He said I recorded the album all underwater”) the label rejected them.

[kockney]

Im afraid it was a poor joke. I didnt read to the end. If it was intended to be a pastiche it needed to be a lot sharper and wittier. Unfortunately, there are many reviewers who write like this in all seriousness and I assumed he was one of them.

k

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