Word: chords
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...jazz, like current classical music, sacrifices originality for technical perfection. He emphasized that "Jazz is about exploring," and that this element must be preserved. Theory and form should take a backseat to creativity, explained Fox, and he offered his paraphrase of Stravinsky as evidence: "Stravinsky said, `I like this chord...I dig this.'" Fox added, "You don't have to have a label on it to make it legitimate...
...sound like?" you ask. Initially, a din: Knox is just one guy, but he can be just as aggressively distorted as any six-piece overamplified noise band. Listen again, though, and the songs get very clear: over twenty of them, almost every one with its own simple chord structure, a single, simpler, cycling rhythm, and a riff likely to burrow into the average listener's inner ear and take up permanent residence. (Chris Knox himself favors disgusting metaphors, too--check out some of his cover...
...songs take chord structures simpler, even, than Lois Maffeo's--simpler than anything; sometimes only two chords will do for a whole song, switching back and forth in sinuously uneven rhythms like the ghosts of hobo-laden freight trains switching tracks. There are no guitar "pyrotechnics" allowed, or even possible, here; there's not even much distortion, despite the Sub Pop name on the label (though recording at AmRep Studios in Minneapolis must have helped to put an electric edge on the guitar sound, an edge that's developed only since last year). Rebecca Gates' playing has to carry...
...from being lush or orchestral, Game Theory's sound is always crisp (there's barely any reverb or delay on this entire CD, and when there is, it's a special effect). No matter how thin you slice the songs--down to a single bass riff, or a single chord progression--almost every unit you come up with is not only something new, but something hummable. More of life gets into this music than could ever get into a simpler pop form...
...Like the miraculous veterinarian, GBV main guy Robert Pollard has a respect for the diverse beasts of the rock and roll jungle that lets him get them to do his bidding. Like Dr. Doolittle, Pollard can convince animals that would normally be at each other's throats--a two-chord, thumping stomp, say, and its natural enemy, a spiraling, self-involved vocal line--to team up and make nice. And, like Dr. Doolittle, GBV seems out of place in a world that includes compact discs, cable TV, Ministry and Steve Albini...