A favorite of mine lately…
June 15, 2008
…is a record from a couple of years ago that I didn’t get to hear the first time around.
After playing a significant role in all-girl punk rock with Autoclave and after aiding in the development of contemporary freak folk with Helium, Mary Timony came out with an unbelievable collection of proggish folk-punk with Ex Hex. This record was a bit of a WTF?? moment for me because I’ve never heard anything quite like it before. Timony’s spiral staircase songwriting meets some truly excellent guitar work in a band you swear to god couldn’t just be a duo. Her pleasant voice and surrealistic songwriting is a wonderful counterpart to kaleidoscopic song progressions that don’t hint at their epic nature until a song is well underway. The listens are rewarding, particularly for any fans of the best of 90s indie rock. Imagine that period of time after Don Caballero 2 and before Emergency & I combined with all those old arena prog records you’ll never admit you still love. That still only scrapes the surface of what a unique sounding record this is. The songwriting is dense and the lyricism is wildly imaginative. The sound is a mental workout that chameleons its way through permutation after permutation and takes your breath away with its sheer originality. And have you ever seen a picture of Mary Timony?
Yeah needless to say I’m a little in love. Check out a free legal stream of the album in question here and see if you don’t agree with me.
I saw Mary Timony open for Portastatic in September 2005–when this album came out? I can’t say I remember much about the songs, but she was one of the more entertaining bands I’ve seen as an opener. Not one that you can’t wait to get off the stage.
AWESOME! I wish I knew about her back then. I’d love to see her live. I think she’s married with kids these days and doesn’t tour out much anymore
On a sidenote, I wrote most of this post when I came home drunk last Saturday night and I’ve been reeling at the grammatical mistakes and awkward phrasing every time I see it again. Don’t let this detract from what a wonderful and well-put together this record is!