Let's start this off with a little quiz. Choose the best answer. You know you are an indie music artist when:
a. You play a gig for a dozen or fewer people.
b. You sell your merchandise from the back of a van.
c. You end up on a Greek record label.
OK, I don't know exactly how Graves Brothers Deluxe ended up on Green Cookie Records from Thessaloniki, Greece. However, it's not surprising to me that the band couldn't find a label in the US. This is a band that plays the antithesis of 3-minute pop songs. San Malo is a collection of songs that includes a lot of heavily distorted, hypnotic guitar, and skronking saxophone. Oh, and lyrics that sound like they should be recited by some beat poet smoking a French cigarette and topping off an all-black outfit with a black beret. Either that or Captain Beefheart. A couple examples of the sort of far-out beat feel are "Splinters" and especially the last song on the album, "Song for Mating Mailmen." Yes, someone wrote a song for mating mailmen. (It's about time.) And yes, it's easy to imagine this song being the backdrop for someone's poetry reading.
But that isn't even the song I would classify as the most unusual on the album. That designation belongs to "Papio Papio (the Swamp Ape Again)." This song has tremendous energy. And tremendous discord. This is not the sort of song you play for people who enjoy the Grammys. Well, it is if you want to chase that person away. Trust me, I don't mean that in a negative way. I mean, quite simply that this song is the perfect antithesis of all things Grammy and pop.
I have never seen your music collection, but I think it is fair to assume that you don't have many albums like this in your collection. According to the one-sheet, this is a "post-Katrina retelling of St. Malo, Louisiana, a swamp village founded in 1763 by Filipino deserters of Spanish galleons." All I can say is that if this is the soundtrack of a village, it must be one really unusual place. WARNING: This album will take some getting used to. It's not one that you can sit down with and immediately start singing along. But if you ask me, it's this sort of album that makes music worth exploring. The musical world would be pretty dull if every band played easily digestible pop songs. Graves Brothers Deluxe most certainly does not. If you are looking for something different, and a little challenging, give this album a try. I think you'll find it's worth the challenge.
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