Antics

Antics-Interpol

Released: September 28, 2004

Matador Records

I don't know how the KEXP djs do it.  Especially John Richards and Cheryl  Waters.  During the pledge drives, they basically dj for 8 hours (from 6am until 2pm) while encouraging, cajoling, begging, cracking up and cracking listeners up.  For five days--except in the case of this drive because they started early.  Maybe they even showed up on other people's shows over the weekend.  I don't know.  I was working, so I didn't listen.  But my goodness!  I answered phones during the 10-2 slot on Wed. and Thurs., and then today did the 6-10 followed by the 10-2 shift and I'm EXHAUSTED!!!!  I got fed and got to laugh and enjoy the wonderful sense of community and camaraderie and take some pledges.  I had a script to follow.  I didn't have to actually think of new and interesting ways of asking for money and pick out great music to play.  

I can barely keep my eyes open.  I kept taking mini naps as I was listening to Interpol's excellent 2nd album.  This music is perfect for laying back and absorbing.  It's richly layered and fits in very nicely with the whole post-punk music genre.  (RIP Joy Division...)  An aspect of the entire album that I just love, love, love are the bass lines.  They are so clear and not simply used as.... well, as a bass line.  In each and every song the bass hovers above and is, quite frankly, easy to follow.  Not easy because it's not interesting, but I can HEAR it.  "Evil", which seems to be the favorite iTunes download, leads with the bass.  When the guitars join in, they're complementing the bass, not taking over the song, entirely.  Sometimes I think the bass is relegated to a less important role in music, simply there to dum, dum, dum along under all the other instruments.  Not with this band.  Carlos D. is not your average bass player, that is for sure.  And, having seen them perform, I can attest to his captivating stage presence.  Very intriguing.  When I saw them, he was done up all in black, with high lace up boots, suspenders... yeah, he looked a little apocalyptic military, but it was pretty coo-ul...

A dreamy sound, for Interpol, in "Public Pervert" as Banks sings near the end "Swoon baby, starry nights, may our bodies remain", only to then attack with the guitars reinforces the many musical surprises within the record.  I wouldn't call the songs negative, nor the sentiments necessarily downers, but there is definitely a sense of resigned loss.  "C'mere": "It's way too late, to be this locked inside ourselves/The trouble is, that you're in love with someone else/It should be me, oh, it should be me".  But it's not.  And that expresses a lot of the sentiments, as well as the overall sound, of Antics.  It's just not going to happen for "him" and so there's a little frustration, a little despair... a little edge to the voice.  But it's a lush despair.