Posted on May 23, 2009 - by Maria Gocze

You are getting sleepy… very sleepy… are you sleepy?

I try to live my life as regret free-fully as possible, but as anyone with a heart knows, it is impossible to be void of all regrets, all the time.  A few of my biggest:

• buying tickets for concerts that i think that I’ll be able to go to, but then ending up unable to attend for whatever reason.  not only because it is a giant waste of money, but also because i most undoubtedly end up missing a great live music experience.
• dropping out of college.
• losing a month and a half of this year to pneumonia (which is a silly thing to regret, as that situation was completely out of my control).
• having only one set of ears that can only ever decipher one song at a time.
• being so late to the Gerbils party.

I like to consider myself decently versed in the music of the Elephant Six Recording Company. I have dabbled in a lot of the bands’ palettes s (a lot, but certainly not all… there are so many bandin the collective itself, and then there are the offshoot bands and friends of the collective, and it’s hard to know where to draw the line.  although honestly, who wants to draw the line when it comes to good music?), but one band I had never tried was The Gerbils.

I knew the song glue, as any good Neutral Milk Hotel fan has heard their very stripped down version that was recorded for “The Basement Tapes, volume two: live underground” and when the “Elephant Six Holiday Surprise Tour” came to Portland – Maine last autumn – I was introduced to a few other songs that Scott Spillane and the “E6 Orchestra” performed, all of which i had enjoyed greatly (a sidebar: I believe it was after performing glue, the audience started to chant Scott’s name, which i guess had never been done to him before, as he commented that it was one of the best feelings he had ever had).

I enjoyed the songs Scott sang immensely, and I decided last month, while recuperating from pneumonia, that it was about time for me to delve into The Gerbils.

Will Westbrook, John D'Azzo, Scott Spillane.

“Are you sleepy? ” is the band’s first album, released by parasol’s hidden agenda records in 1998.

It is indie fuzz pop at it’s best, which should be expected with bill doss (Olivia Tremor Control, The Sunshine Fix) and The Gerbils (Spillane, John D’Azzo, who occasionally performed live with Scott in Neutral Milk Hotel, and the late will westbrook) acting as producers.

A lot of the lyrics relate to love, but there isn’t a single thing on Earth that isn’t influenced by love.  Almost every song is dance-to-able in some way, either from a full body nod perspective (“Lead and glue”), or completely pogoing off the walls (“Fluid”, “Crayon box”, “Sunshine soul”etc.).

The only noticeable deviation is “Wet host”, which is a five and a half minute long sound college of distortion and underwatery sounds (which i usually cannot listen to, as it sounds the way i imagine drowning would sound like.  although, i do enjoy the piano line at the end).

Time for some standouts!

“Sunshine Soul“, which is the opening track, is a completely danceable, upbeat song with a pretty creepy second verse (“my cup is filled with sewage / spilling brains into your mouth / my cup is filled with arachnids / they crawl all over in your house”).  Aside from the lyrical content of that verse, it’s a very warm and happy sounding song.  When “Sunshine soul” comes on, I am overwhelmed by the urge to watch old episodes of “The Adventures of Pete and Pete“. To me, the song feels very similar to the show’s theme, “Hey Sandy”, performed by Polaris (similar in the sense that they both give off great feel-good vibes).

“Crayon Box” is pure pop perfection with fuzzed out guitar riffs.  Pogoable to the highest power, albeit a sad story of being left behind as a someone you love moves on, and when you try to move on, only end up feeling horrible because you don’t have the one thing you loved.  “Am I a child / or just a crayon in your filthy hand?” is it better to be viewed by someone you love as a child or a child’s toy?

One of the two majorly standout tracks on this album for me is “Fluid”, an upbeat, sweet, and sexy ode to a lover, words playing like sparrows in the breeze.  The guitar is so distorted that I’m not entirely certain it’s a guitar. For all i know, it’s actually someone just saying “wow” over and over again, manipulated and pitch shifted to be so catchy.  The lyrics are brilliant: “but your voice gives me goose bumps when you call my name / and i want to goose bump again”. How could you not love that?

The other standout track for me is “Glue“.  It is the best, most dysfunctional love song I have ever heard in my life.  A tale of addiction and addictive love; that horrible feeling of realizing you are stuck on someone, and for the love of everything else in your life, you don’t want to be, or you can’t be.  It will break you, but you are stuck.  And truth: you will never feel as real as you do when you’re screaming the last verse with Scott, which i highly recommend doing as soon as you know that verse by heart.  This version is more passionate than the Neutral Milk Hotel version. You can actually hear every ounce of turmoil and adhesion in Scott’s voice. And it is exquisite!

“Lead” starts with distortion, some brilliant bird chirps, and then wallops you in the stomach a fantastically fuzzy gummy worm of a guitar line that gives me shivers every time it staggers into the room.  The song itself feels and sounds like Iimagine a bad trip to be like, with vocals so liquid that they drip, and the bridge sounds so waterlogged that I feel I’m drowning before the chorus even starts.  My only problem with this song is that the album version’s chorus is not shouted by Scott Spillane as it was when I saw it live, and the words just don’t feel right simply spoken through a bull horn by someone else (“you know i love this place / more than it shows on my face”).  I wish I had this song when I was a lot angstier and a lot younger.

The album closes with “Grin“, an ode to a statue?  A carnival barker repeats everything Scott sings to the passing crowds.  I imagine a sideshow act in love with the statue of Venus De Milo.  Except for that the grin which is referred to is toothy, and her smile is not so toothy.

“Are you sleepy? “has quickly become a go-to “I’ve had a bad day, and i need to dance it out” record for me; the songs are comfortable and comforting, it’s like having a conversation with your best friend who understands that things are wrong and just listens while you talk.  Which is what the Elephant Six Collective does best.  They make amazing music that becomes some other world for you to hide away in and dance with when you realize that you are only ever going to have one set of ears that can only ingest one brilliant song at a time.  But the best part is, with music as lovely as “Are you sleepy?”, you stop regretting only having two ears, and you start to be overwhelmingly happy that you have TWO EARS!!!  Both of which are capable of deciphering and ingesting such wonderful music.

“Are you sleepy?” is aviable from Parasol’s Hidden Agenda Records.

The Gerbils – Crayon Box

The Gerbils – Fluid

Let it ring on...

• Control of the Circulatory System (0)
• Heil to Elfs (0)