Okay Marty Anderson on the Road Again
Okay: Huggable Dust
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It'south often the instance that good music is filled with paradoxes. Whether it's a calmly beautiful folk song that carries an almost militant political bulletin or a song that'southward instrumentally sparse but somehow expresses a complex subject, these songs achieve something spectacular. Such is the case with Okay's new album Huggable Dust (2008, Admittedly Kosher).
The Fremont band, which is essentially one man, Marty Anderson, and friends, has defenseless the ears of many passionate and adoring fans throughout the Bay Area and across. Huggable Grit, a followup to the 2005 double-release of Low Road and High Road, is characteristic of the sound Okay fans have come to know and dearest, but with a few extra kicks.
The sound itself is filled with contradictions -- some tracks as simple as children'southward songs, with tinkling piano and guitar, and others densely layered with synth and current of air sounds that experience futuristic in contrast to the acoustic base of operations -- see track 13, "Poof."
With Depression Road and Loftier Road, the overdubs were rumored to have exceeded the double digits, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same is true for some of the songs on Huggable Dust. But this is but one of the album's extremes -- whether it'south optimism and pessimism, uncomplicated and complex, loud and soft, sparse and crowded, it's got everything -- sometimes to a dizzying caste.The first listen is similar seeing your first Jackson Pollock painting after looking at Renoir your whole life.
Anderson's somewhat scratchy, virtually strained-sounding voice may not resonate with everyone, but if you tin hear it for the raw emotion and almost ironic hurting that comes through, you'll be sold. I can't read about Anderson without learning that he has Crohn's Affliction, a gastrointestinal condition that, to say the least, is incredibly painful and has caused him many a night in the infirmary. But what is and so noteworthy virtually this fact is not that he elicits compassion for his condition or annihilation of the sort, but rather that he has managed to take his experiences, build a spectacular outlook on life and craft songs that anyone tin can relate to -- both in pain and elation.
Throughout the album you tin can meet Anderson'due south struggle -- with life, with honey, with his disease. The themes flow like rolling hills, changing drastically from the painfully truthful ("What a nightmare to love") to the nigh forcefully optimistic ("I didn't know that this somethin' was really nothin' in my manner"), perhaps paralleling the very disharmonize that runs through each of the states.
Most tracks comprise sparse lyrics that are repeated, almost like a mantra: "In that location'southward always a downside; There'due south ever an upside," "I know who my sunshine is," "I want you ... to be happy." One of the album'southward highlights is "Natural," a painfully sweet dearest song with the simplest of finger-picked guitar parts and a basic melody that Anderson sings with passion and pain at the same time: "I could write you a novel tonight; I could write yous a new vocal each mean solar day; it'south a natural part of my day." And actually, he's probably telling the truth. Anderson is notoriously prolific.
One often worries almost the well-being of someone who is capable of expressing such personal sentiments in their songs, as expressing what'south within of your soul can elicit varied reactions, from ridicule to obsession. But one thing is for sure: the act of delving into this tape is very much a personal experience for the listener as well. She tin relate to these tribulations in her own life, and she feels a deep and unmistakable pity for someone who can write such "uplifting" songs, whatsoever condition he may be in.
In a live setting, Anderson is anything but feeble. Having won East Bay Express's Most Charismatic Performer award in 2005, he and his up-to-7-person ring are notorious for antics, from opening with everything from Tibetan bells to toy guns. And as Deerhoof has recently counted Okay as one of their favorite bands, they've asked Anderson to bring together them on two shows this October.
Just prior to these, Okay volition play Bottom of the Loma on Monday, July 28, 2008 with The Watson Twins (LA) and Tim Fite (Brooklyn). The show is $10 and will start at 9pm. Y'all tin buy Huggable Dust and other Okay albums via the Admittedly Kosher website. Listen if you're happy; heed if you're deplorable.
Emily Logan is News Editor for The Bay Bridged.
Source: https://www.kqed.org/arts/23081/okay_huggable_dust
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