1) Gin Blossoms, “Mega Pawn King” / Listen—I grew up in Arizona in the ‘90s, so the Gin Blossoms are in my blood. And not just the hits. But even I sometimes forget how deep and wide the band’s catalog can be. I was particularly struck this week by the closing track on the 2018 album “Mixed Reality.” On “Mega Pawn King,” singer Robin Wilson and his mates establish sense of place in a way few rockers are able to pull off. Consider the soulful specificity of these lyrics:
There's the LDS church built in 1927
I once knew someone who was banned from there
Behind the thrifts and the shadeless day laborer
Behind the checks cashed here
So come along with me 'cause you'll miss it on your own
Graffiti art competes with muralists
Behind the thrifts and the mega pawn king
Where everything's ninety-nine cents
Your declining neighborhood looks beautiful the way it should
Wouldn't change you at all, wouldn't make you brand new
The metal cross on the wooden door protects the home not me anymore
I always look to see if it's been moved
2) The Pink Stones, “Introducing … The Pink Stones” / The latest from this Athens, Georgia act is a sweet, refreshing mix of cosmic country and psychedelic rock. If those genre tags appeal to you at all, you owe the band—and yourself—a listen.
3) Laura van den Berg, “I Hold A Wolf By The Ears” / I’m so mesmerized and unsettled by this collection. The writing here introduces the possibility of peril around every corner, yet preserves the humanity of characters slipping between states of mind and being. Van den Berg’s attention to detail and remarkable ability to sound out internal monologue brings you into conversation with characters who look and act like you—and, yet, whose situations and fates you desperately want to avoid.
4) Beth Gordon, “(Icebox) (Transmission) Template” in Moist Poetry Journal / This one from the estimable Beth Gordon laid me flat. In just a few lines, Gordon fingers the threads that bind (and unravel between) parents and children, adulthood and innocence, public servants and those they serve.
… Coyotes and neighborhood dogs will arrive and dig holes to the moon. Bury broken radio parts that will never be unburied.
5) Joel Mayward, “Conan O’Brien’s Stupid-Smart (and Spiritual?) Comedy” for Think Christian / I have a real soft spot for Conan O’Brien. My college roommate and I used to fall asleep with his late-night show on. So O’Brien’s victory lap ahead of departing the form left me a bit sentimental. Joel Mayward perfectly describes why in this piece; O’Brien’s clear dedication to comedy is treated as a serious vocation here, and I appreciate Mayward’s thoughtful look at the artistry found at the intersection of brains and folly.
What’s striking is how Conan sums up a nearly three-decade career of comedy by describing it in religious, even theological, language. Perhaps reflecting his Irish-Catholic background, there’s a spiritual resonance behind his description of stupid-smart humor as being “phantom” and “magic.”