Tuesday, April 11, 2006

you (who) in (is) re (mike jones?!) verse

So I realize that I am no the first person to notice this, but I was still extremely pleased to discover it.

I have been doing my best to download the new Built to Spill album. Now, how did I go about this task? That is none of your effing business. The point is, I have been downloading it. So this morning Jen asks me to put some music on and I offer to her that we can listen to the new Built to Spill album. Jen is very excited by this and we begin listening. Now, although I've downloaded the entire album, I have, until this point, not listened to any of it.

So the album begins beautifully. Lots of overdriven guitar and driving percussion with just the right amount of bluesy Doug Martch noodling thrown in. Jen and I are enjoying cleaning our room to this. But it is not long before the confusion begins. Before the vocals drift in, there is a jarring shout from none other than Houston, TX rapper Mike Jones. Now, he doesn't shout anything profane, as you might expect. He simply poses the existential question that seems to plague him on so many of his own tracks, "Who is Mike Jones?!". Jen and I are rather familiar with this query, seeing as we have enjoyed many Mike Jones songs in the past several months, but we are surprised to find that Built to Spill are pondering the same question.

Jen assumes that I am joking around with her. I have downloaded some bogus, silly and not very well mixed mash up of BTS and MJ. I assure her that I haven't and that maybe it's just this first track. We skip to the next, a laid back, plaintive acoustic into electric build uppy number and after exactly 7 seconds, there it is again. "Who is Mike Jones?!" Strange, we think. We skip to the next track. At last, we hear a breathy, almost etheral Doug Martch sing "I would only be a liar...". Pretty, with an arpegiating guitar playing along. Finally a complete song. We can relax. NO! This time the bliss lasts for a mere 6 seconds before we are forced to contemplate the meaning of human life at the insistence of none other than MIKE JONES!

What the hell can this all mean? Here I have an amazing Built to Spill album (especially in comparison to the unbearably boring Ancient Melodies of the Future) and it is marred by the "I'm In Love With A Stripper" guy? All that I can conclude is that someone has finally finally figured out how (albeit, temporarily) to enforce copyright protection in a fair and resonable way. This album, while fully awesome, does get really old with good ol' Mike Jones shouting at you every thirty seconds. I will now be forced to buy the regular album. On vinyl, so that I will be cool of course.

If anyone wants to hear this let me know. It's worth a listen.