Phil Elvrum may've cast K king Calvin Johnson as "The Universe" on his last longplayer,
but recent years have found The Microphones honcho himself establishing himself
as the center of the K universe, an artistic catalyst casting his ideas onto
K staples like Calvin and Mirah, whilst his own longplayers've found inspired
contributions — and,
in turn, inspired — traveling pals Little Wings and The Blow. And the pinnacle
at the center of this newly-defined K world was The Microphones' Mount Eerie,
a colossal concept-record cum indie-rock rock-opera whose ambitious ascent shot
for heavenly artistic heights. Since scaling such, Elvrum's little on-the-side
outing has found its popularity escalating greatly; which, as the way always
goes, has been both blessing and curse, the upshot of this being a fracturing
of The Microphones' identity, and, of recent, the sounds of Phil descending the
hill, coming back down from his recent discographical peak. See, as quickly as
word spread through the rank-and-file of file-sharing kids that Mount Eerie was
a monumental longplayer, word spread that Phil Elvrum's Microphones live shows
didn't match the majesty of the album, this gossipy conviction a kind of yin/yang
of praise/slander that seems more indicative of human nature than it does of
any sort of pop-cultural truism. Sure, those who expecting a Taiko drum troupe
or an on-stage record replication may've been dismayed when they found, most
often, some solitary soldier sitting on the stage fumbling at an acoustic guitar,
but to say this disqualifies this element of Elvrum's performative artistry seems
a little too harsh. And, then, well, there's a chance that fans' gig-attending
dismay came from the fact that the live show found a whole bunch of new songs;
and, lo, all these songs turn up on this new live album. Although calling it
a live album gives the wrong idea: the title essentially belies its contents.
Sure, the disc was really recorded over three nights in Japan, but it's naught
but new material, forsaking the regular live-album staples — old hits played
for rapturous crowd — to stand in for what's basically the latest Microphones
longplayer. It's also likely the last Microphones longplayer, as, a year after Mount
Eerie, Elvrum — now known as Elverum for reasons yet to be known — has
declared his Microphones bandname permanently ditched in favor of the moniker
Mount Eerie (no less). Which means Live in Japan is cleaning-house closure
to his Microphones era, its collection of unreleased cuts culled as a gesture
of finality for those same fans that may've blanched at the live shows themselves.
As album, it's a set of twangy free-form Microphones tunes, which actually sound
more tuneful, here, than they regularly do on his own on-disc missives. And,
running contrary to those who decried his solo live performances, the best things
herein are where he goes it alone; the set beginning with a pair of glorious
solo songwriterish numbers — "Great Ghosts" and "The Blow Pt.2" (an ode
to said friend that commences, magically: "Oh, Khaela, you have burned me/ You
have taken me and turned me/ Into a cloud of smoke lost on a humming wind") — that
usher in Elverum as songsmith shrouded in profound angst. These are followed,
later on, by a couple off-the-cuff moments where he sets his own absurdist lyrics
to the tunes of "My Favorite Things" and "Silent Night." Yet, the set has this
distinct feeling of growing grander by the passing song; with numerous numbers
finding Johnson and Little Wings hero Kyle Field helping out on various instruments
and intermittent backing vocals. Curiously, their contributions end up equating
to this being the most "straight" Microphones album, songs like "Universe Conclusion" and "After
N. Young" displaying striking similarities between Phil and Will (Oldham that
is), Elverum's croaky vocals showing he's learned many a lesson at the altar
of the master of moniker-ditching-lo-fi-troubadour artifice. |
