the of mirror eye

* East River Pipe: Shiny, Shiny Pimpmobile (5 mb) | My Little Rainbow (3 mb) | Astrofarm (6 mb)
From The Gasoline Age : Merge Records : MRG164

When most people think of the lowly 8-track cassette recording, it’s usually in conjunction with demos, or with bands like Guided By Voices. Sebadoh, or Pavement, who used the inherent limitations of the medium to craft instantly recognizable lo-fidelity pop songs full of tape hiss and drop outs. East River Pipe on the other hand, is a completely different beast.

East River Pipe is one F.M. Cornog, who wrote, performed, recorded and mixed all of the sounds you hear on this record at his home in New Jersey on a Tascam 388 mini-studio. But the music herein could hardly be accused of sounding “lo-fi”; it practically shimmers. Cornog is a master at his craft; an artisan of melody and emotional lyricism. A connoisseur of simple yet uplifting pop songs. A genius at gleaning a lot from a little. There’s no fancy pants producer behind the glass, no six figure recording budget, and there will be no huge marketing blitz. No cross country tours. No flashy music videos. What we have here is simply some of the most enchanting music you are likely to hear this or in any other year. Sometimes, it’s the music itself that matters.

(from Merge Records)

I didn’t really get East River Pipe the first time I heard them. I was in the midst of my infatuation with the previously mentioned lo-fi bands because their sound seemed to be more “authentic”, whatever that means. I was puzzled, because everything I’d heard about F.M. Cornog lead me to believe that I would totally be into him. Here was a one man band that crafted pop songs in his bedroom after having escaped the mean streets of New York City where he’d been a homeless alcoholic for two years. But I just couldn’t get into the songs. They sounded much too produced and were way too simple with these weird little throw-away lyrics. It sounded like anyone and their grandmother could’ve written them (But trust me on this one, these songs are much harder to write than they sound. I should know…I tried! And the results were horrible).

But they stuck with me, those songs. They ingrained themselves in my mind until I was randomly singing lines like “shiny, shiny pimpmobile > runnin’ through the night > shiny, shiny pimpmobile > runnin’ through the night” or “yeah, it’s alright > my little rainbow > my little rainbow is here > and it’s alright now > my little rainbow > and it’s alright now” in my dreams. And I started to realize the beauty in what he was doing. The beauty in the minimalist instrumentation. The beauty in his lyrics, with their bittersweet glances into the human life. And ultimately, the beauty in the simple, shimmering bedroom pop that he produces.

—–+—–

Went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry to see the Body Worlds exhibit. And wow! That whole exhibit was incredible.

Throughout the ages, medical scholars and students have strived to understand how our bodies function through exploration of real human specimens. BODY WORLDS, one of the most highly attended touring exhibitions in the world, takes this tradition one step further by presenting a new look at the human body.

The exhibition features more than 200 authentic human specimens, including entire bodies, individual organs and transparent body slices that have been preserved through the process of “plastination,” a technique that replaces bodily fluids and fat. BODY WORLDS offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see and understand our own physiology and health and to gain new appreciation and respect for what it means to be human.

(from the website)

Highly recommended.