Under Construction

somesongsconsidered:

“All the X’s Have Wings” – Helium
(Words/music: Mary Timony, available on The Dirt of Luck, Matador 1995)  

I missed out on Helium the first time around (I was 12, so I think I get a pass), and even after a few suggestions, it took until last year for me to approach the band with any extended attention.  In many ways, finding an older band to explore is more exciting than falling for a new release – there’s an entire catalog immediately available to explore and people to discuss the records with and ask for “next step” type recommendations.  However, Helium was a bit of a dead end discovery for me – they only had a couple albums (and I didn’t get the Pirate Prude EP until I joined eMusic today) and their flirtation with alt-rock success came a couple years too early to hit most of my friends.  Regardless, I made up for lost time in 2009 by giving these albums – particularly The Dirt of Luck – their due.

I naturally loved the different guitar sounds, from the distorted snarl Mary Timony culled from hers to the way Polvo’s Ash Bowie explored the often neglected higher end of the bass guitar’s range.  Thus, I’m not surprised that that I leaned toward the songs build primarily around Timony’s voice and guitar.  The way Timony’s high notes bleed into each other, especially when juxtaposed by the slinky, predominantly lower tone guitar notes, sounds harrowingly beautiful.  The opening to “All the X’s Have Wings” particularly captures Timony in this mode, balancing a slow yet lovely melody with the unsettling tone of her guitar.  When the rest of the band joins in at full power (especially the huge drum sound), it brings out the urgency in Timony’s voice – rushing her slightly before slowing back down when the spotlight moves back to her.  The balance of the overloaded moments with the long stretches where Timony’s guitar notes fade into silence highlight the extremes in each, leaving plenty of space for Timony in the center to calmly yet assertively proclaim her perversions to us.

More on Helium: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

In February of 2008, I had the opportunity to interview photographer Autumn de Wilde.  Ms. de Wilde graciously talked on the phone for about forty minutes about her book of pictures and interviews about Elliott Smith (as well as Polaroid film, The Shining, Harold and Maude, and a host of other topics).

This is a clip from that interview (forgive the awful recording, and forgive my voice being too loud - it was kind of a baptism by fire recording the interview while trying to ask relatively interesting questions) where she talks about Elliott’s love for singing other people’s songs (including today’s song “Jealous Guy”), his sense of humor,and the joy of watching him perform.

Her book is an excellent collection of pictures, essays, and interviews that paint a more complete picture of his personality.