LUCINDA
WILLIAMS
continued from page 22
LOCAL H
LIFERS
(AntiFragile)
25 years after their debut, Scott Lucas’
Local H continue to defy the odds not only
producing aggressive music that still mat-
ters, but being a band that can appeal to
both suburban and city crowds. Their
musical magnetism continues to be strong
across both musical spectrums and that’s
no small feat.
LIFERS wasn’t planned for release in a
pandemic, but their "at home" record
release livestream last month showed they
live for live performances whether there’s
a crowd on hand or not. With constant
touring every year, one would expect
Lucas sees all kinds of characters at his
shows, and “Patrick Bateman” (a character
from Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho)
mocks the front-of-the stage bro culture
(reminding us of a grown up version of
1996’s “High Fiving MF”) beneath a bar-
rage of relentless guitars and an avalanche
of Ryan Harding's massive drums. Lead
single “Turn the Bow” is a punk "Telstar,"
a modern dirge-y reintroduction to the
band. It's also the kind of tune that pro-
ducer Steve Albini finds comfort in.
What’s always set Local H apart was a
penchant to mix sly and erudite melodi-
cism with an undeterred procession of gui-
tars, but the poignant “Sunday Best,”
shows Lucas can stop and smell the roses,
chaperoned by a chiming acoustic guitar
and a spare and beautiful melody.
After 7 years Lucas and Harding have
settled in, and arguably have become the
best version of Local H. When it’s safe to
tour again we’ll welcome them at Metro
for a properly sweaty album release show
for LIFERS.
– David Gedge
8
CY CURNIN
Lockdown
(Self)
Fixx frontman Cy Curnin has returned
with his fifth solo LP, his latest since 2013’s
The Horse’s Mouth. The town crier contin-
ues to roam the global village with a sweet
voice that conveys bitter truths when it
must. That voice may not always bring
comfort, but it nonetheless assures us that
we’re not alone. By naming his new album
Lockdown, Curnin renders this collection of
socio-political and environmental caution-
ary tales as a time capsule of today’s head-
lines.
“Dinosaurs” introduces Lockdown’s
song cycle with deceptively gentle key-
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2020
board balladry and understated but tech-
savvy pop. Curnin finds a parallel for
humanity’s headlong flight toward obliv-
ion in the fate of the dodo bird, or the lim-
ited lifespan of a dinosaur gazing in
uncomprehending
wonder
at
an
approaching meteor. The singer’s lyrics
have often championed resilience despite
apparent fragility. The title track from
2005’s album Mayfly celebrated the
ephemeral insect’s brief gift of life. During
“In the Blink of an Eye,” Curnin identifies
“the flower in the rainstorm, holding its
head up high.” However, the song takes a
darker turn by suggesting that what
makes us stronger can also kill us with
ruthless efficiency. Extinction can arrive in
a cataclysmic flash – or at least appear like
a binary event to those who have flouted
the remonstrations of Mother Earth.
“Should have taken the warning,” Curnin
has often sung during Cold War protest
anthem “Red Skies at Night.” “It‘s just
people ignoring.” The low spark of “Hell
Hath No Fury” continues along the thread,
describing the consequences of scorning
the woman of the world. Grim tidings
unfold while Curnin lowers his agile tenor
into a rumbling baritone akin to Tom
Waits. Curnin’s affinity for Moroccan
instrumentation informs the downtempo
vibe of “The Land of the Blind,” recalling
fan-favorite “Just Before Dawn” from the
Fixx’s 2012 LP Beautiful Friction. “In the
land of the blind, the one-eyed man is
king,” sings Curnin. It’s a land of delusion
where the population collectively forsakes
their other senses as well, drowning the
sound of reason in a sea of their own noise
and the ranting of the king. The song begs
the question of whether social media help
us to navigate uncertainty together, or
whether it stokes collective paranoia. “It
won’t get better ‘til we hit rock bottom,”
Curnin sings during “Rock Bottom.” The
song inverts the contemporary quest to
flatten the curve–whether that line is
Continued on page 32
IE: Over the past few years, it’s easy to
wonder if there is indeed an honest man
left on Earth. But your song sums it up
best — “Man Without a Soul.” Trump, of
course.
LW: I know. Everybody’s responding to
that. We all need this right now. And other
artists need to step up to the plate. And I
see some of ‘em doing it — that’s one of the
good things that’s come out of all this. I’ve
started seeing people addressing those
issues through their music. Like, it wasn’t
cool for a while, remember? But remember
back when there were political songs like
“Ohio”? It felt so good back then, to feel
that feeling of ‘We’re all in this together.’
Otherwise, it’s just complacency. So I’m
fighting back the only way I know how
right now. We haven’t toured yet because
you can’t get out of the house, so we had to
cancel all of our stuff through May. But
that’s the best way I can do it by speaking
out through my music. My grandpar-
ents on my dad’s side were social
democrats. That’s what my grandfa-
ther called himself because he was
invited into the Southern tenant
farmer’s union struggle. But now you
can’t even say the phrase ‘social demo-
crat’ without offending someone.
People are so ignorant; they’re not
educated enough to know the differ-
ence. Everybody on my dad’s side was
a progressive thinker. But now, all of a
sudden, a couple of cousins on that
side of the family have turned around
and joined the other side. And I’m like,
“Oh, my God! Our grandfather must
be rolling over in his grave!” One of
‘em was on FaceBook and wrote, “I’m
working at the bakery at Wal-Mart,
and I’m risking my life to go work
there. But does anyone care about
what I’m doing?” And she ended it by
saying, “Trump cares what I’m doing.
He cares about me. But do YOU care
about me?” And I try to stay out of
these things on FaceBook, but I had to
respond and say, “With all due respect,
what makes you think that Trump
cares about you?” But there’s no hav-
ing a logical, rational conversation
with people like that. They’re so brain-
washed. Even people watching the debates
— are they really going to decide who to
vote for just by watching the debate? But
maybe with this pandemic, things might
finally change. And I still trust some news
sources. But you just have to use common
sense. Whatever happened to under-
ground news? Remember that? Remember
when we had those kinds of publications
that really did tell the truth?
IE: It feels like you’ve been listening to a
lot of Gospel for this album.
LW: Yeah! Because it feels good. The old
stuff, the Gospel-blues stuff, and all that.
And that’s kind of what I was doing with
that song at the end of the album, “Good
Souls.” It has that ‘Everything’s gonna be
okay’ kind of feeling. And regardless of
organized religion or any of that, there are
other things at work here. Because I get
asked this a lot — Am I religious? Because
I use a lot of biblical — for lack of a better
word — imagery, like the devil. But it’s
kind of like in blues music, where there’s a
lot of that, as well. Nick Cave does that a
lot, and of course Bob Dylan — “God said
to Abraham ‘Kill me a son’/ And Abe said
‘Man, you’ve gotta be putting me on.” And
of course, there’s Leonard Cohen.
IE: “I’ve seen the future, baby/ It is mur-
der.”
LW: Yeah. Both of my grandfathers were
Methodist ministers, so I’ve got that way
down in there, too. But my father’s father
— the one I was telling you about — was a
Christian in the truest sense of the word.
He left the church because of the inherent
racism and other things — he was very
progressive. So I grew up with that whole
social democrat thing, and I’m watching
Bernie Sanders, and I think that he’s a
social democrat, just like my grandfather
was. So that’s nothing new. And I remem-
ber my grandmother on my father’s side
walking around the house and humming
hymns — those beautiful old Protestant
hymns like “The Old Rugged Cross.” And
my dad remembered ‘em and would sing
‘em sometimes, too. So it’s all in there. But
the thing that I find really fascinating is the
art of Sante Ria and the Latin Catholic
imagery — Jesus on the cross, Mother
Mary and all that. I’ve got this collection of
art from that, and I’ve started collecting
crosses. It’s just a certain thing that really
pulls me in — it’s fascinating, but it’s hard
7
to explain to people. I remember one time,
this journalist doing an interview came
into my apartment, and he sees all these
crosses on the wall and goes, “oh, are you
Catholic?” And I said, “uhh, no I’m not
Catholic.” People just don’t get it. My
father was pulled away from the
Protestant church, and he referred to him-
self as an agnostic when I was growing up.
So it’s all mixed in.
IE: So when was the last time you attend-
ed church?
LW: The last time I went inside a church
was when Tom’s father died, and we went
to the service for that. It was a Catholic
service, and I was actually kind of fascinat-
ed with the whole thing. The ceremony
goes on for a couple of days. At first, they
have the body in the casket, open viewing,
and that sort of threw me off a little bit.
They have a visitation, and you can walk
right up to the casket and see the person
continues on page 39