Paul Banks – ‘The Base’ – from the album Paul Banks

So here’s some semi- new music courtesy of Paul Banks aka the lead singer of Interpol aka Julian Plenti.

This is Paul’s second solo album in 3 years.  The album preceding this release was 2009’s Julian Plenti is…..Skyscraper.  His second effort has a less pretentious album title, it simply is Paul Banks, but there is a reason he chose to drop the Julian Plenti moniker.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Paul conducted by FaceCulture (The whole interview can be found on Youtube):

“I never really pegged myself or looked at myself as a performer.  I think I like making art but the performance side of things was always a little strange for me….so I kind of gravitated in the early days to having an alter ego and a stage name and sort of trying to inhabit that idea of a public face to the art….Before Interpol even got off the ground, I was using that stage name.  I almost used my stage name in Interpol and then the band kind of collectively decided we would all use our real names but I was going to be Julian Plenti in the band."

"The reason why I did my 1^st record as Julian Plenti was because I basically, I had these songs before the band..and I just kind of left them there….I was originally going to be a solo artist and then I kind of got seduced into being in this band because I loved what they were doing.  I told myself at the time that I joined Interpol, you need to come back to this and finish what you started..because this is really your identity."

"As far as why not on this one [record] is because with the exception of ‘Summer Time is Coming’, there is no music on this record that dates back from that period….The first record had to be that because they were Julian Plenti songs.  These songs are just my most recent material, and I just felt it would be a little forced for me to continue with the alter ego for this record.”

A quick listen to ‘The Base’ should remind listeners and fans of the music from Interpol, simply because of Paul’s voice.  However, it would be a mistake to quickly throughout Paul’s songs as Interpol lite.  Paul does attempt to create his own sound and the listener can judge how well he succeeds. 

Like Interpol, this music does find Paul singing songs about his prevalent malaise.  It would be unique if one day something great happened in Paul’s life where his music would reflect a more upbeat attitude, however, such is his art and it is what fans have come to expect from him.

As a fan of Interpol, I much rather prefer the work Paul has done in that band and I feel nothing in his solo records come close to touching the greatness found on Interpol albums like Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics.

With that said, enjoy the song and Part 3 of the FaceCulture interview.

“You can’t go home again”

This popular phrase was one I heard a lot and internalized while growing up.  I would often repeat it to my dad at his dismay; his thinking being that I shouldn’t believe the statement because that would eventually lead me to leaving home and never coming back.  Low and behold I have been in Baltimore for three years now.

With no idea where life will take me at this point (Baltimore, Ohio, a yet unknown destination) I can understand why my dad would try to encourage me not to buy into the sentiment of the phrase; his hope being that he could keep his kids around the home he was able to build.  I still have a strong desire for my family to one day be together again, with my parents fulfilling their duties as grandparents while my siblings and I share in each other’s lives as we raise families and grow old together.  But life is bound to take unexpected turns and I fear I am not in complete control and can only do my best.

                                                

This phrase, for those who don’t know, is from a book by Thomas Wolfe published in 1940 that was written to explore the changing of American society in the 1920s/30s through a work of fiction.  The phrase then, “You can’t go home again” is meant to express the idea that the flow of time forever changes everything around us and that ‘going home’ or hoping to relive past moments and memories is an impossible feat.  Time will always and forever keep moving forward, changing people and places so radically that nothing in our past can be relived again in the present or future.  The best way forward then would be to create a home of your own instead of trying to go back to the one in which you came.

This leads me into my review of the album Arrow released earlier this year by the Heartless Bastards.  Arrow is the 4^th album from this band and it is essentially an exploration into the idea of ‘Going Home’.  Formed in 2003 in Cincinnati (O-H!), the Heartless Bastards released their first record in 2005 titled Stairs and Elevators, their 2^nd in 2006 titled All This Time, and their 3^rd in 2009 titled The Mountain.

I haven’t had a chance to dig into their earlier work but their sound from those years has been described as a gritty, garage type blues.  Think The Black Keys (I-O!) but with a female lead singer, more guitars, and a mix of country, blues, hard rock, and some psychedelia thrown in.  On Arrow, you can definitely hear the influences all those different types of genres. 

Upon my first listen I was impressed with the classic rock and hard rock elements; hearing great rock riffs on guitars is unique in this day and age but there are several songs on the album that give the listener that thrill.  Arrow also has songs that are both contained and expansive in scope.  However, whether contained or expansive, the instruments used to convey the emotions are standard for a throwback type of rock band; drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar.  You won’t hear any electronica or strings on this album; to the joy for some or detriment to others.

The Heartless Bastards are led by singer-songwriter/guitar player Erika Wennerstrom who has been the only constant in the line-up of this band since their formation in 2003.  She is joined on the record Arrow by bassist Jesse Ebaugh, drummer Dave Colvin, and guitar player Mark Nathan.  Before the creation of 2009’s The Mountain, the original line up of the Heartless Bastards broke up.  This is important to know because former bassist Mike Lambig had a nine year relationship with Wennerstrom and the break-up of the original band members coincided with Lambig and Wennerstrom parting ways personally.  But if Fleetwood Mac has taught us anything, it’s that breakups between members in a band can lead to good music.  Most of the songs off The Mountain detail the emotions and experiences of Wennerstrom after the end of her nine year relationship to Lambig.

Arrow then picks up where The Mountain left off.  “The Mountain was me going through some things after being in a relationship for nine years,” Wennerstrom says.  “This album is kind of like me being comfortable again.”  The pursuit of becoming comfortable once again led Wennerstrom to visit friends and family in Ohio (She grew up in Dayton), visiting the Catskills, spending time alone in Arkansas, a lake cabin in the Allegahny Mountains, and a ranch in West Texas.  “I take a lot of trips to West Texas, and I’m very inspired by the landscape… I feel like there’s a lot of space on Arrow and lots of songs that were inspired by staying on a friend’s ranch out there. There’s space in the music and space in the land”, says Wennerstrom.

This wanderlust that Wennerstrom undertook can best be understood as a way for her to finally come to terms with the emotional crisis that she had to deal with during 2009.  The songs on Arrow paint this picture and also tie back into the theme of ‘Going Home’; home in this sense being an emotional place where she can finally let go of the past and find peace and security.  The song ‘Marathon’ starts the album off with Wennerstrom observing a marathon that is taking place inside the city limits and her thinking to herself “I ventured so far that I forgotten what I was running from, and time it takes you so far and I am longing to be back home”.

‘Parting Ways’ is the 2^nd song on the album (the first single to be released off the album but thank God it isn’t the best song on the album as my First Single Hypothesis states that if any albums best song is its first single, then that album is shit; hasn’t failed yet).  Check out the music video for ‘Parting Ways’ as it is sure to get a chuckle even though the artistic aim isn’t very high. 

The first great song off Arrows is ‘Only For You’.  ‘Only For You’ is a mysterious song filled with a very nervous and cautious excitement.  “I just don’t know what to do, my head is such a cloud, I’m so tired of trying….it’s been a while since I felt this way about someone….I will open my heart, only for you”.  And this is where the contrast in songs off Arrow is first noticeable. 

It seems half of the songs on the album attempt to tackle the major themes of the album with songs that fit the mood of searching for a home (contemplative, melancholic, anxious, hopeful) while the other half of the songs are distracting as the moods they capture (which is to say they really don’t capture any certain mood and are just very bland) has the effect of giving a jarring transition to the ears from the main songs on the album.  ‘Parted Ways’, ‘Got to Have Rock and Roll’, ‘Simple Feeling’, and ‘Late in the Night’ are all culprits.  For me, they didn’t add anything to the album and I usually skip them to listen to the other songs on the album.

Other stand out songs that join ‘Marathon’ & ‘Only For You’ include ‘Skin and Bones’ and ‘Low Low Low’.  By far though, the two most important songs on this record are ‘The Arrow Killed the Beast’ and the last song on the album, ‘Down in the Canyon’.  If you really want to know what the album Arrow is about and the emotions of Wennerstrom as she tries to overcome the fall out of her nine year relationship and all that entails and find her ‘home’, then listen to these two songs.

Both are the darkest and melancholic songs on the album but at the same time the most impactful and real.  ‘The Arrow Killed the Beast’ describes the metaphorical killing of a beast; the beast being a psychological state inside Wennerstrom.  The main question then is what is the arrow in the song that she is referring that finally kills the beast inside of her, “A simple life out here in the country where the sky is full of mystery….why don’t we go out, why don’t we head towards the sun.”  Open to interpretation for sure.

‘Down in a Canyon’ closes the album on what first seems like an unpleasant note.  Prior to ‘Down in a Canyon’ is the song ‘Low Low Low’, which (even though you can’t tell from the title) is an up-beat, happy song.  In ‘Low Low Low’ the listener is led to believe that Wennerstrom has successfully killed the beast and exorcised her demons and all is well in the bright sunshine, “I’m feeling the sun so warm on my skin, things are turning around again”. 

When ‘Down in a Canyon’ starts the scene is completely different.  No longer are you traveling in the warm sunlight of the day, but instead you are traveling through the darkness of a canyon.  Soon you find out by listening to the song that even though the beast may be dead, there are certain moments of silence and solitude where the memory of the beast comes through, “All this time we never saw the sun and now I’m back here again”.  However, unlike the past, this feeling is fleeting in nature and “I have one less ghost in my heart and things are turning around again.  And it feels like I never allowed you to let go…and now I, I will be home tomorrow”.

The greatest strength of the Heartless Bastards, as with any good band, is the ability of the band to be real and honest.  Wennerstrom’s songwriting is never so over the top or complicated to have the average listener not be able to connect to a song, nor is her song writing so simple that is doesn’t require the listener to think.

“I wanted to be in Akron when I was young”…..Wait!....What?....She wrote that lyric?  Never mind, take back everything I just wrote.  That is a complete lie.  No one would ever want to live in Akron lol.

Heartless Bastards – Arrow – 6.5/10