About a month ago I bought an album by a guy from Seattle named Aaron Sprinkle. His name sounded familiar and it was in the cut out bin for three bucks and the album cover reminded me vaguely of some old Japanese prints I use to admire way back in my undergrad art history courses and so I rolled the dice. Much to my good fortune they came up snake eyes! Actually I don't even know what that means other than I think snake eyes is a good thing when rolling dice, isn't it? Well if its not, then forget that metaphor and replace it with your own that means something good happened when you took a risk. Because something good happened. Aaron Sprinkle made a good record and I bought it for three dollars. This guy has a real knack for writing bouncy, memorable melodies that aren't cheesy. In all his happy songs there is a hint of melancholy and in every sad song there is a glimpse of hope. I think that can be said of most skilled songwriters. That's the way it should be anyway, I mean that's the way life is most of the time.
After listening for a while I rememered where I knew him from. I already have one of his albums from five or six years ago and I forgot about it. This is a sure indication that I have far too many cd's. But my friend birty has even more so that will be my justification. Birty and I often speak about life and the world and we've often discussed the desire to simplfy our lives. To reduce. But when we say that we never mean music.
I'm rambling because I've not eaten lunch and my blood sugar is low and my brain is getting all skittish and goofy. So if this post annoys you I'm sorry. Bring me a sandwhich or something.
Soooo- Check out this album by Aaron Sprinkle called Lackluster and see what you think. It's just good ol' poppy rock and roll right up the middle. It's not gonna change your life (like say, Radiohead's The Bends, or u2's Joshua Tree, or Paul Simon's Graceland, or Over the Rhine's Good Dog Bad Dog: the Home Recordings, or Bob Dylan's eight minute spoken word poem Last thoughts On Woody Guthrie, or John Lee Hooker's Real Folk Blues, or Neutral Milk Hotel's in an Aeroplane Over the Sea, or Guided By Voices Bee Thousand, or My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, or Arcade Fire's Funeral, or the Bealtes' Sgt. Pepper, or the Actual Hoots Of Joy's legendary live performance in Upland, Indiana circa 1995, or the first time you heard Led Zepplin, or everything Neil Diamond ever recorded, that last part was sarcasm) but it is a good record of good songs. No frills. Melody, harmony, guitars and hooks. That stuff never goes out of style. Neither do sandwhiches. Which by they way, where's that sandwhich I ordered like ten minutes ago? Geez.
This is coming out of your tip.
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