The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of a recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. We’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely under-heard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Pope, an indie rock band out of New Orleans that should not be confused with the Pope.
In fact, when the trio’s previous album, True Talent Champion, was released way back in 2017, there was an entirely different pontiff kicking up his aged feet in the Apostolic Palace. Meanwhile, Pope continues to consist of Alejandro Skalany and Matt Seferian, who split guitar, bass and principal singer-songwriter duties, plus drummer Atticus Lopez.
The trio, with help from some friends,1 has broken the long silence with BFM,2 an album as likely to get heads bobbing and shoulders swaying today as it would have been as a more timely follow-up released several years ago – or really any point in the last 35 years. Pope has homed in on a charmingly shaggy and warm sound that exists at the Four Corners-esque boundary shared by college rock, alt-country, bookish ‘00s indie rock3 and lo-fi. BFM’s music. It is likeable, instantly comfortable and will feel familiar to anyone who’s listened to a decent bit of critically respected guitar music since the late ’80s without sounding overly indebted to a single fuzzy forefather. Pope’s Bandcamp bio reads, “Born in the 90’s, never left.” Misplaced apostrophe aside, that’s a spot-on assessment.
Pope has an exceedingly pleasant sound, and uses it to create winning moments like the harmonization of “ooh, ooh, ooh” vocals and chiming guitar that sandwiches a hazy instrumental break on “Town.” But there’s a clear downside. The drive and dynamic range that elevate good albums to gripping listens are missing. BFM is an easygoing, ultra-agreeable album through and through, and that air of nonchalance is present even when Pope’s lyrics turn toward weighty subjects.
Lead single, “Make You Feel,” for example, addresses the confusion and grief brought on by the sudden loss of a friend with all the oomph of an indolent spring breeze. Aside from a late-song sample of audio from a show hosted by the band’s late buddy,4 the track does nothing to hint at the wounded feelings and disorientation that inspired the song. It’s a nifty power-pop piece with a brisk pace and bright guitars, so calling it a failure would be both inaccurate and harsh. However, it’s also a stretch to deem it a success since familiarity with pre-release press materials is required to find the tune’s emotional core.
BFM is able to stave off a sense of sameness — the scourge of these sorts of good-natured rock albums — through smart sequencing. “Nothing for Nothing,” the album’s prettiest and most gentle song, is smack-dab in the center of the album, and creates much-needed contrast with everything that surrounds it.
“Nothing for Nothing” is an album standout in every sense. It eschews buzzy electric guitar for acoustic strumming and brings in Ratboys’ Julia Steiner for lead vocals to create a sense of open-mic-night intimacy.5 It’s a substantially different tack from “Sick Minute,” the other BFM song to prominently feature Steiner. “Sick Minute,” a pre-release single, is a Pixies-ish bop that’s regrettably about as long as its diminutive title suggests. While the percussion-free “Nothing for Nothing” is mostly guitar and Steiner’s voice, the burble of chopped-up vocals and a spacy Mellotron pop in to add some interesting texture and help the cloistered atmosphere breathe and bloom. Arriving when it does, “Nothing for Nothing” creates a nicely varied three-song stretch —the conventional coil-and-release of “No One (Kiss for a Treat)” precedes it, and the lo-fi sludge-voiced weirdness of “SOLU” is on its heels — that shows the full scope of Pope.
It’s impossible to know whether BFM would have been a better album if Pope worked in a few more stylistic departures, or if more experimentation would have sapped the album’s core strengths. But it’s a good LP as it is, and it’s decidedly stronger for the inclusion of one major stylistic detour.
About the writer
Ben Hohenstatt
Ben Hohenstatt is an Alaska-based dog owner who moonlights as a music writer and photographer.
For more information, consult your local library or with parental permission visit his website.
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The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
The Kids In The Hall, Season Five, Episode Seventeen
“That’s what we’re all about here at Creative Possibilities: office – submarine, Jubejubes?”
“Can you guess what I’m wearing for underwear?”
“No. No I can’t.”
“The body of a guitar!”
“I’m pretty tired too. Renovations.”
“555-JERK? Oh, I get it.”
The punchline of Smitty pretending to be much hotter than he is over a phone sex line is a great one. Really great subversion of a dork image.
“What? Six eggs?”
“They say you’re a slut and you’re really into poppers.”
In the sketch where Kevin Anderson is playing a divorced dad, he’s looking remarkably like John Linnell.
“You use the word ‘uncle’ to describe the brother of one of your parents. You do not use it to describe the person your mother is currently banging!”
“I made your uncle say ‘uncle’, didn’t I, Nick!”
“They were guys who I loved to manage and who I managed… to love.”
“I guess I’m gonna take a couple of days off and then I’m gonna finish the tour.”
“Dropping out of high school was the right thing to do.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s ten to four.”
“No. The time is now.”
Bob’s Burgers, Season Four
With the clear proviso that I’m not only enjoying this but feel it’s really hitting its stride – I’ve been near cackling quite frequently – I think I’ve figured out how to express why this show falls slightly short of Greatness without ever getting Bad, or even mediocre. Great entertainment comes from knowing what to do, and great art comes from knowing what not to do, and while I know what BB will do – to the point of often being able to predict episodes about three minutes in – I don’t know how to express what this show consciously avoids outside the limitations of PG television.
Like, I can say what The Shield won’t show – it won’t show anything that doesn’t affect the immediate plot. With Cowboy Bebop, I can say they’re not going to show you more than the broadest explanation for what you’re looking at (which makes the cinematic maximalism all the more interesting). There’s often the same with Tarantino, in a more roundabout way. Seinfeld had ‘no hugging, no learning’. Even something as intentionally lowbrow and low in ambition like Always Sunny has some clear limitations on behaviour and scope. With Bob’s Burgers, I couldn’t clearly tell you what you’re not gonna get on this show; it makes it feel less sharp and impactful, like how weight disperses with a larger area.
I’d be interested in dissent on this; like, it’s ironic to me that this would make the show feel more predictable and ‘obvious’. Somehow being more open makes it feel more closed. And to be clear, this doesn’t affect my enjoyment much.
Who?
If you’re onto season 4, I guess you’ve seen the one where the parents fake the kids’ deaths to thwart Bob Odenkirk’s crooked insurance adjuster, so, yeah, not really a lot of places it won’t go.
I wonder if what you’re describing is the way the show returns to the essential status quo by the end of each episode. There might be minor changes, but, I mean, Tina got her first kiss from Jimmy Jr. in the sixth episode, and two weeks ago she was still contriving to make time with him (and his butt). Whereas, while Sunny generally returns to the essential status quo by the start of the next episode, the episode itself usually ends in total chaos.
Elementary, “A Landmark Story” – Moran, in prison and only marginally helpful to Holmes so far, realizes that there is another killer employed by Moriarty on the loose. Holmes tracks him down, and then tracks down another associate of the mystery man, and seems to finally find the man himself. Oh, and there is a mystery going on involving the killer but it’s kind of a dead end. This one is basically pure arc, and it’s entertaining – F. Murray Abraham is great as an unlikely serial killer, and the final fate of Vinny Jones as Moran is chilling – but it’s not really a whole story just yet and seems a bit at loose ends for a show that excels in mystery of the week and character growth.
The Twilight Zone, “Where Is Everybody” – Ahead of Lauren’s next watch through, I figured this is a good time to start, though I’ve seen most of these at least once. A very good start, though not typical of what would come soon enough.
Frasier, “Some Assembly Required” – Frasier, having been drafted to help Habitat for Humanity fix up a house, is obsessed with helping the new homeowners decorate their place, and makes a nuisance of himself. Nothing we haven’t seen before, though it’s hard not to sympathize just a bit with Frasier when we see the choice of decor the homeowners make. There is also a rather pointless subplot about Daphne’s mom getting a job at Cafe Nervosa (when did she get her green card?) and a cute bit where Niles is forced to fill in for his dad giving a safety lecture to fourth graders, winning the kids over by talking about all the gross things the FDA lets Big Food put in our snacks and hot dogs. Niles at his more Felix Unger.
Yay, TZ viewing! Not all of this made it into the article, but I enjoyed looking up Earl Holliman for this: he was an interesting man, and I believe I just missed seeing him guest at Serlingfest shortly before his death.
I remember him mostly from Forbidden Planet, and saw his name for years in the listings for the NBC show Police Woman, where he was opposite Angie Dickinson.
Columbo, “Ransom for a Dead Man”
The second pilot is a little messier than the first. There’s a lot of flashy editing overkill, especially in the first few minutes (it doesn’t entirely go away after that, but at least it fades), and combining Columbo’s investigation of the real murder with the FBI’s investigation of the fake kidnapping, while clever, also pads out the time it takes for us to settle into the offbeat cat-and-mouse games that are the main attraction here. The avenging stepdaughter is also a bit of a dud: a classic case of “we’ll put a supermodel in glasses to sell her as a nerd,” flatly portrayed. But once the episode hits its stride, that all mostly ceases to matter, because Lee Grant and Peter Falk have terrific chemistry, and Grant’s cool, polished, amoral composure makes her a good foil for Columbo’s rumpled goodness. They can have a mutual curiosity about each other and even a mutual appreciation–Columbo offering to let her finish her sherry before the police take her is a lovely touch–but Columbo, as the ending establishes, is capable of more moral imagination, which gets him further. He can understand her better than she can understand him.
Grant’s character taking him up in her small plane and letting him pilot is one of my favorite scenes here: exciting and engaging in its own right, and complex as part of the emotional arc. Is she showing off her skills and coolheadedness? Intimidating him with a near-death experience only she can pull them out of? Sharing some part of herself with him, because she finds him interesting in a way she never found her husband? I suspect the answer is “all of the above,” and much of that same calculus also applies to Columbo ending the flight with the story about the perfect cousin he always hated. (Real or not, it suggests he gets Grant on an emotional level.)
Pretty good case resolution with the stepdaughter, at Columbo’s gentle prodding, tricking Grant into revealing she has a large supply to cash she could only have gotten from the ransom. Other highlights: Columbo sitting in front of a briefcase full of cash and needing to sign for a $1.50 sherry and root beer bill, Columbo’s standing chili order, some good fashion, the most olive green office I’ve ever seen in my life, and a bitterly funny courtroom scene where Grant notes that the only thing her middle-class jury resents more than insurance companies is the (Black) working class.
I feel like Lee Grant is kind of forgotten these days despite her very solid acting and directing careers.
She and Falk were friends before working on this, and later that year would appear together on Broadway in The Prisoner of Second Avenue.
I’d kill for a wayback machine to see this production.
The casting of this show seems to have been culled from dinner party’s at John Cassavetes and Gena Rowland’s house. I’m pretty sure that NBC pretty much paid for A WONAM UNDER THE INFLUENCE and KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE.
Live Comedy (and Music) – went to the Machynlleth comedy festival in Wales for the weekend. It’s a fairly prestigious festival but with pretty small venues (500 capacity is the max) so the bigger names tend to sell out fast. We managed to get tickets for Bridget Christie (who has been on Taskmaster etc) but otherwise mostly picked interesting-sounding shows from lesser-known comics and the standard was consistently good. I think my favourite show might have been Mikey Bligh-Smith, a Simpsons-obsessed nerd who had nailed the art of being funny even when he wasn’t really doing anything. If we go again next year (which seems probable!) then it’d be cool to try to get into another Big Show (we missed James Acaster, Stewart Lee, Tim Key etc) but on the other hand it’s just a good time finding out about new funny people. The free music tent also had some interesting stuff, including some local bands but also post-punk legends the Nightingales who are always a fun watch.
I Think You Should Leave, S2 E2 – a slightly mixed episode but the final sketch about the guy who “used to be a real piece of shit” was wonderful, especially the repeated references to “sloppy steaks”.
Wooo, live comedy (and music)! Wooo, Taskmaster alumni!
Tales from the Crypt is streaming on Shudder, fuck yesssssss. Started with “The Man Who Was Death” and “Dig That Cat… He’s Real Gone”, Walter Hill and Richard Donner FTW here as guest directors with a ton of energy in very different, uh, directions. If the formula here is a kind of twisted, nasty poetic justice, it’s also hard to predict where these endings will go. The former especially sings with Sadler as judge and victim, doing a nasty job because nobody else will do it – while visibly enjoying it – and also whining that what else is a man without his work?
Raising Arizona – Can see how Nicholas Cage and the Coens had very different styles as artists – both restless experimenters but one is doing it in action, the other want you to stick to the damn lines – and it had this perfect alchemy one time in their respective careers. A live-action cartoon that always sticks the landing in the end’s sweetness and poetic beauty.
Sweet, Tales from the Crypt! It was my turn to pick the next watch-on-weekday-evenings show, and this was one of the options I suggested alongside Columbo, so it could have been. Maybe I’ll start fitting in an episode or two on my remote day.
What did we listen to?
Cards Speak, Episode Three, “Chopped and Screwed Unc with Jon Van Fleet”
Another good time. I wrote a lot of notes for this, but that was yesterday, when I was younger and more full of life. Nath’s thoughts on TV production sounded very familiar. As a writer who has based characters on friends: they don’t end up factoring in as much as you think. The character quickly becomes a reflection of their author, and then even more quickly becomes their own thing.
There was discussion on sibling relationships; my relationship with my sister has always been an intense rivalry, personally, that has cooled off somewhat but not completely as we’ve entered our thirties. I can’t sign off on all my behaviour when we were growing up, but I also know I was provoked as much as provoking – on the other hand, when we were united, we were an unstoppable force.
There was talk about many people (especially Nath and Jon) going into poker because they can’t stand having a boss. It’s funny because I have trouble with bosses specifically because I’m so intently comfortable with it – I’m there specifically for money, so I’ll do whatever you damn well ask me so long as you’re clear. Except on top of people expecting me to care as much as them, I’m more clear-visioned than most people, so I end up accidentally revealing weaknesses in people’s thinking as I ask them for clarification, which is just frustrating for everyone concerned. Like, I know that doesn’t make me better than other people, but it’s also hard to turn off.
1001 Albums, etc.
Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill: to my lifelong shame (?) I’ve just never liked these guys. I find all of their voices extremely annoying. I’ll keep trying, maybe I can get a little more out of the other albums that are on the list.
Metallica – Master of Puppets: to my lifelong pride, I’ve just never liked these guys. There are a few instrumental sections that almost approach Iron Maiden levels of shreddy fun but the guitar tones just don’t work as well for me and it all feels so relentlessly dour when the metal I DO like tends towards theatrical silliness.
The The – Infected: this was OK. I preferred the previous The The album on the list for mostly production reasons, this one feels like there’s no subtlety to it – just relentlessly punchy drum machines and overstuffed arrangements. The early-career cameo from Neneh Cherry on one song was cool though.
Nanci Griffith – The Last of the True Believers: just absolutely solid country music – not my genre, but pleasant enough.
Billy Bragg – Talking with the Taxman about Poetry: the easy highlight of this batch. I like Billy Bragg but thought I’d maybe find his voice / accent a little much over a full album, actually the reverse was true and he kept growing on me. A couple of songs I already knew here (including the wonderful “Levi Stubbs’ Tears”) but mostly new to me and I dug it.
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Don’t think I’ve done much podcast listening this week, and I’ve broken my phone so I can’t check.
Black Eyes’ first album which is excellent, reminding me of Fugazi but also early Modest Mouse and a ton of other rhythmic, funky punk bands while evidently doing their own thing.
The Worst of All Possible Worlds’ musical episodes which are very good especially on Sondheim and Dear Evan Hansen. The latter is the kind of premise theater audiences love and everyone else quickly recognizes, devoid of the big Broadway theater experience, is trying to justify the behavior of a sociopath.