#Jim Fye imagine

[thatswhenyourefrom]

Cotton teeth - the snake the cross the crown

My freshman year of high school was a highly formative time in finding music. I completely understood what a record label did. Less on day-to-day business type of way and on more of a curation level. I understood that record labels exist as touchstone for a scene or a style of music. You could regularly find new artists by simply going to the website for the record label of a band that you currently like, look at the roster, and bam, you’re full up on new music. Hit one of those band names into Limewire or PureVolume, and you’re rolling. This is exactly the method I used to stumble upon The Snake, The Cross, The Crown.

It was kind of undeniable that in the mid-2000’s, there was a scene that existed that was all about screaming and teens with bangs in their face. [Call it emo, screamo, i don’t care. It’s hyper timely and that scene as a whole is long out of style. But that’s okay. If you like it, enjoy it. It rocks it’s exciting.] Plenty of these bands landed on the same few record labels like Victory and Equal Vision, to name a few. I would scroll through websites and just listen and try to find something that spoke to me. Every once in a while, I’d find something that I liked, but usually it would be more of the same. I was sitting in an echo chamber of the scene. Occasionally there would be a weird signing that would be vastly different than everything else on the label. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. When I got to the S’s on the Equal Vision page, I found the band with the long name and their song “Empires”. And I was captured.

The song is twangy and dark. I thought it a good skateboarding song for some reason. (I made a skate video for a high school video project and this was the song. Also looking back, this is not at all a good skate song.) The song offered a perfect bridge into the folk music I would learn to like. The singer croons over a guitar that is slow, but carries momentum. Not sad or desperate; just sentimental. (I wish I could speak on this lyrics in the song, but even after a decade of knowing this song, I have no clue what they are or what they are about.)

For a year or two, I kept this single song on my MP3 players (not always iPods in my day). This was another band I was afraid to venture into in the event that the rest of their music was not very good. I was afraid of shattering my perception of something I held so true to myself. This song lasted as such for a long time, until one night I realized i was a glutton for punishment. I went to the band’s PureVolume page and found another song on the page; “The Sun Tells the Moon”. I genuinely stared at the computer screen for minutes contemplating clicking play or not. Finally, i decided to tempt fate, convincing myself that if it was something I didn’t like I would call myself a glutton for punishment. I clicked play and a kick drum started a tempo, and when the singer rolls in with a high pitch, pulled back wail, I knew I had another song to add to my list.

I was in love. “The Sun Tells the Moon” is a much bigger aggressive song than “Empires” but still not angry like one would expect from mid-2000’s Equal Vision band. At this point, I knew I needed more. I’m two for two. Let’s go. So I found more. I tried two songs that are the two most folky songs from the album, “A Brief Intermission” and “On The Threshold of Eternity.” These two songs clicked with me.

“On The Threshold of Eternity” is a great song with Beatles-esque vocals. Constant acoustic guitar strums keep the song going. The song I take to be about standing in the front of existence trying to make sense of “why am I here”. (Personal interpretation) This is a huge concept to bring into a little folk song. “A Brief Intermission” is a much more folky, storytelling song, but a sorrowful one of a family splintering and a son (child) not really understanding what is going on. Beautiful songs that kept me hooked for years.

It’s not a big secret that I am a fan of The Early November and thus, the lead singer Ace Enders. Once upon a time, he went on tour with The Color Fred (Fred mascharino of Taking Back Sunday) and Craig Owns (Chiodos, Cinematic Sunrise, a million other bands). Mike and I went to go to this show at The Pike Room in Pontiac to see Ace Enders and no one else really, but what we did not know was that Enders dropped off the tour right before hitting Michigan. We go to the show, he’s not there, we are bummed. Trying to find th best in a bad situations, the best part of the night was actually that a local band called The Silent Years opening the show, but that’s another story for another time. After the show, broken hearted, we tried to get as much cheap merch as possible. I bought a Color Fred EP on CD and got an Equal Vision sampler from Craig’s table. You know how car rides home from shows go; you look for something to listen to on the way home, so you grab your new merch and put in the sampler. I saw that there was a TSTCTC song on this sampler that I have never heard. A new song. This song changed my life.

In the rough of young people expelling feelings about girls and being a teen, there’s a gem of a folk song on this sampler that starts off with a deep folky voice that goes “Well if both of these horses just lay up and die…” It starts off with voice and an acoustic guitar. It tells you a story. It’s a father. A song about a dying man (possibly from war) who, as he realized death is upon him, is sharing an ethereal experience with this loves and family in understanding his own passing (personal interpretation). The song walks you through this story and is peppered with explosions of full band performance. After the first explosion, we ease back into more story from dad. It heaves and ho’s until it ho’s on a story beat about everyone coming to terms with the passing and then builds into death catching up to the man. At this point, the song crascendoes into a partial repeat of the first verse and a brand new verse crossing and complementing each other in a loud, open, cohesive mass of music. The song is a masterpiece.

There are more to come.

I believed this song fully. I didn’t change any paths to go get this cd, but I always looked for it when I went cd shopping. Not long after hearing that song, I was at FYE at Great Lakes Crossing, back when it was large enough to cut through the middle of the mall. [Side note, this was a heaven. Such a beautiful place for media. Second and Charles is a spiritual successor.] While flipping through the S’s, i saw a whole divider for The Snake The Cross The Crown. This blew my mind enough. Seeing the new CD, “Cotton Teeth”, blew what was left. Literally the only Equal Vision release with that comes with a sticker on the front to tell you to listen if you’re a fan of The Band. Could anyone ever imagine that? Incredible. I remember telling my dad this is the CD i wanted and he looked that the recommendations sticker, and gave out a little chuckle. He is a fan of The Band. (We are a fan of The Band.) I bought the CD and was so excited to listen to it. Pop it in and guess what: all folk.

“Cakewalk” starts the album with some slow guitar plucking and the singer letting out a direct song about wanting to play music forever (keep this in your pocket). “I want to live on a stage. I want to play the guitar. And I wanna get paid.” All of the lyrics. So simple beautiful. The song starts lonesome and grows into a full band performance with a great drum pattern that includes the whole band. This song is to sing along to. The next song “The Great American Smokeout” reminds me of a campfire song. It sings along in such a fun foot-tapping way, but also has it’s own personal progression. Throughout the song, it sets up patterns and changes them up to keep the song exciting. It would still be fulfilling even it just played through, but the dynamics are so enjoyable. Track three, “Gypsy Melodies” is the usual one you show people when you introduce this band. Again, feels like a campfire song or a road song. Take your pick. I heard the song on a rainy day. I was at Mike’s house once and I showed him this song on a rainy day where we were inside playing cards and when I heard the song I thought “this is it; this is how this song is meant to be experience.” The title track continues the folk tradition set by the last songs. Songs about or at least from the perspective of families. This song is much more involved from the full band. Slide guitars and bass right from the beginning of the song, all the way into the finale with guitar solos and the whole lot. An amazing continuation. “Electronic Dream Plant” is not a song I was prepared for.

Track five is a seven minute epic that lands every beat it tries. It starts off with a piano. The singer comes in and softly calls over the keys. Drums and harmonies build the song more. By the second verse, guitars, bass and drums are singing along with the singer. After the second verse, you know this song is going to get huge. A reverb laden guitar solo, cooling you down with the melody of the verse three. The rest of the song builds on what is established and tells the love “I don’t want to go without you so I just wanna go with piece of mind.” Then tells them “Save your sorrow.” The song plays out and gets larger and bigger and maintains beauty. Never abrasive. A masterpiece in my own opinion. (There’s some “na-na-na’s” at the end that tend to remind the listener of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down.”)

Track six is the aforementioned “Behold the River”. Name another album that has two massive masterpieces in a row. We then go to “Hey Jim”; a darker, guitar rock song. I have no interpretation on what the song is about, but it feels like a night drive through the south. There’s these beautiful glowing keyboard sections. After the first verse, they emanate sound. As per usual, they know how to crescendo. This band knows how to write an amazing melody to repeat and keep on. If this crescendo doesn’t get stuck in your head, you don’t have a head. “Floating In And Out” sounds like it comes from the progressive era of Mander Salis, but also tends to transcend that this album. The song has this incredible section where it stops and starts a new drum pattern that the singer sings over. “Maps” is a fan favorite. This song epitomizes the entire album. Family perspective. Growth into a crescendo. No matter how you look at this song, it’s powerful. This song sounds like less of a story though. It feels like it’s personal. And it cuts the same way. The last song is a song that still dumbfounds me but I never skip it. “Back to the Helicopter” is a noisy experimental finale. But it still feels like the band. It’s like they sucked out all of the beauty and story from the first nine tracks and were left with this Eraserhead-like fetus that was birthed of the band. It has power. Aggression. But it’s a bastard of everything from “Cotton Teeth”. Oddly beautiful.

I bought this CD in 2008. I still hold this CD very close to my heart a decade later. It is one of the few CD’s that stays in my car. The real shame of this album is that it doesn’t know where it belongs. Certainly not with Equal Vision. It belongs with me. But everyone I’ve shared this album with doesn’t feel a thing. I have an intense connection with this entity and I want the world to know but they ignore it. Imagine if it were a person. I am annoyed.

I gave up trying to share it years ago, but instead let it be my friend. I sing with it in the car. I lay down with it. I spend time with it. It’s my imaginary friend.

The band would continue to have one more release in 2009, but not a standard album. A documentary.

In 2009, the band was the subject of a documentary called “On A Carousel of Sound, We Go ‘Round”. The film documents the band on tour (if I recall with mewithoutyou and Manchester Orchestra; an insane tour), playing live songs in different places, and an set of entirely new songs which comprise the album of the same name. [You can see this release as a doc with a soundtrack or a new album with a documentary.] In the documentary the band plays these songs with such emotion and power in such an intimate way. Once you know the songs, you need to see the documentary. The band also speaks out on being where they are in life without ever really making it (again maybe because of the market) and how difficult it is to be touring. I ‘m really left with the sense that there was a bit of defeat from this group. And I do not blame them. I have tried to vouch for them.

Since the release of “On A Carousel of Sound….” the band has gone quiet. They have not released a lick of music or any update since then. They have disappeared. They are ghosts. But what they have left me is a brother. If it is a ghost, they still haunt me and always will. “Cotton Teeth” is baked into me. Without it, I would never have found the love for The Band, Songs: Ohia,Right Away! Great Captain, Townes Van Zant, and many others that I can call folk. I will celebrate this album forever, even if it is only ever me and him celebrating.

#by luke #r