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March 30, 2006
Alone? Painfully So? Might I Interest You in a Casiotone?
I was first confronted with the lo-fi electric miserablism of Owen Ashworth's one man band, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, as an opening act for LCD Soundsystem. Impatient for a dance-off, I was underwhelmed. But upon listening to his latest release and fourth full length, Etiquette, it dawned on me that these songs were far better suited to listening with headphones and a lyric sheet than shifting weight among a group of chattering non-fans. They're just too personal and precise to be powerful under fleeting attention. But given time, not to mention a fleshed out sound that incorporates revolving string, piano, and lap steel in addition to the namesake low tech keys, Etiquette stands as the lonely one's most successful attempt to connect.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Young Shields
A quarter life crisis with a backbeat, current single "Young Shields" details the slights and setbacks of twenty somethings coming unhinged. The music recalls the cracked and bleeding electronica of Xiu Xiu's more pop moments, but binds them with a narrator who is more relatable (if not likable) than Jamie Stewart's freakshow. Maybe the details of stillborn relationships and money troubles ignored by parents are a bit banal and embarrassing, but have you looked at MySpace lately? Banal and embarrassing is where it's at.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Holly Hobby
For those allergic to Ashworth's monotone delivery get a sweet respite in the form of guest vocals by Portland indie popsters' Dear Nora front gal Katy Davidson. Here, washed out organs cradle her story of a one sided relationship hitting a wall. The mean dis of the chorus' "You're just a hobby, Holly" takes on more of a "them's the breaks" gentility than it would have if Owen had handled his own lyrical turn, and proves to be the right approach.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - New Year's Kiss
Also, like Jamie Stewart, Owen has a way with believably casting songs from a female perspective. With a short story writers' specificity, he sings the deceivingly sophisticated tale of a girl's one night stand in a Smog-like baritone. He smartly starts at the end, treating the proceedings as a foregone conclusion:
"Woke up with fingers crossed/ On a boy's bed with your pants off/ After polite declines of coffee and toast/ Walked home itching in last night's clothes"
By the time we get to the title's event, the suggestion that things couldn't have gone any other way gives the narrative a nihilistic but realistic emotional heft. The nimble wit of the lyric itself recalls the elegance of early Magnetic Fields records, and saves the song from slipping into hopeless depression:
"Not the way that you'd imagined it/ On a balcony with champagne lips/ But in a pantry against the pancake mix"
By playing up the minutiae CFTPA achieves a backwards universality and lets its listeners be alone, together.
Offical band site here.
Tags: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Xiu Xiu, Dear Nora, Smog, Magnetic Fields
Posted by Jeff Klingman at March 30, 2006 04:29 AM
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