Guest blogger Justin Z takes a break from hammering to reflect on something he may or may not have heard before.
Hypothetical Auditory Amnesiamania is a mental condition where the subject secretly or publicly desires to experience amnesia for the sole purpose of listening to something they've already heard before and experiencing it again for the first time. Some people have this desire with movies or books as well, craving that initial thrill the mind undergoes when it first watches or reads them.
In lieu of beating yourself in the head with a hammer (which only has a small percentage of causing amnesia, anyway) you can listen to Pickin' On Modest Mouse by Iron Horse. To truly appreciate this music, you have to meet two qualifications. First, you have to like bluegrass. Second, you have to have listened to enough Modest Mouse to consider yourself a Hypothetical Auditorial Amnesiamaniac. If you meet these two qualifiers, then you owe it to yourself to supplement your HAA with these tracks.
The music is more than just taking Modest Mouse chords and playing them on acoustic instruments. The chords and lyrics have been successfully melded with bluegrass fills and vocal harmonies. Never have two things melded so successfully since Jean Luc-Picard melded minds with Spock's father Sarek. Listen closely and you can hear the original riffs first invented by Modest Mouse and, by listening equally as close, you can pick out the new runs that make these songs unique. It's a competent piece of work which continues to bridge the enigmatic link between counter-culture indie rock with kitsch-culture bluegrass.
Do yourself a favor and listen to something again for the first time. And while Pickin' On Modest Mouse might alleviate the Hypothetical Auditory Amnesiamania for Moon and Antarctica, there's nothing to alleviate the Hypothetical Auditory Amnesiamania for Pickin' On Modest Mouse.
Comments