Thursday, 25 Feb 2010
By Jon Stone | @jwstone
I’m going to take a bit of a different angle for my review of Joe Pug’s fabulous show last night at Canopy Club in Urbana. First, however, I should say that Pug is a CU favorite. He has a large crowd of fiercely loyal fans here who crammed into a sold out, bar-side, “Void Room” concert nook. They sang along, lifted their glasses, and put the tour-weary Pug and Co. at ease. So much so, Joe Pug knew he couldn’t put one over on them and told about how he’d been telling every other city that Andrew Harrison (pedal-steel/guitar/vocals/beard) was “born and raised” in their town. He was especially proud that when he said it in Denver, the Huffington Post printed it as gospel truth. You can’t help but believe everything the guy says, though. Maybe it was just the near-hometown crowd, but it felt like Joe was in a room with 200 of his closest friends. I like that feeling.
Anyway, rather than a rehash of the entire show which blossomed from solo, to duo, to full-band and back to solo over the hour Joe was on stage, I’d like to focus in on a single song and a single performance. The song is “Not So Sure” — the third track on Pug’s recently released and first full-length LP Messenger. “Not So Sure” was the subject of one of our local (and great, I should add before I get critical) blogs, Smile Politely. In the article, the author John Steinbacher praises Pug as a musician and makes sure to elevate the new record for its musical advances — full band, great instrumentation, lovely arrangements. But then he lays into the lyrics saying that “this isn’t music where the words [should be] an afterthought.” “Mostly,” he says “they’re kind of the point. And mostly [on Messenger] they miss.” He then moves through several of the songs on the record, calling the lyrics “cringeworthy,” lacking “full narratives,” and then, misquoting the chorus of “Not So Sure” (I bought expensive cigarettes, I read John Steinbeck’s books), he calls the lyrics “completely unnecessary.”
Now, I mean no quarrel with Steinbacher; surely we have likely stood shoulder to shoulder at previous CU shows. I only mean to completely disagree with him. As my only evidence against each of his claims, here are the lyrics to “Not So Sure”:
There was a time when I heard you calling out my name
But these days I’m not so sure
When the room went dark and your voice was gone, I heard you all the same
But these days I’m not so sure
I knew I could remember your bedroom and your touch
But these days I’m not so sure
Definitely was the word I used far too much
Cause these days I’m not so sure
I bummed expensive cigarettes
I wrote John Steinbeck’s books
I undressed someone’s daughter and then complained about her looks
Stealing was so easy then I wish that it still were
Now as I pick my own pocket I know these days I’m not so sure
The church was my kitchen, the world was my church
But these days I’m not so sure
The choirs I would listen, the briers I would search
But these days I’m not so sure
I sacrificed my sister, I prayed my own soul to keep
I told my dying father that a man should never weep
Breathing was so easy then I wish that it still were
Now as the breeze just makes me colder, I know these days I’m not so sure
So if you see me tripping, I’ve forgotten how to walk
and I spend my days wishing after her
My steps are without rhythm and her name is drawn in chalk
as these days I’m not so sure
I drank my wine for breakfast every morning I was born
in the black electric winter my back was always warm
Sleeping was so easy then I wish that it still were
Now in my sleepless bedroom, I know these days I’m not so sure.
“Not So Sure” was the highlight of the show. It came about halfway in and was the first song Pug played with Andrew Harrison. Something about the simplicity of that Guild acoustic guitar and pedal-steel just bowls me over. Add to that sweet vocals and vocal harmonies singing the lyrics printed above and you have my favorite performance of the year so far.
There were other highlights. I promise. The backing band is a great new element to both the record and the live show. I couldn’t get enough of Andrew Harrison’s playing — he makes country picking look easy when he’s not playing the pedal steel. I will mention that near the end of the show, Joe played Hymn #101 — most of the crowd knew and sang every word. And considering the densely beautiful, repetitive, Dylan-esque nature of that song, it was quite a feat. And wow, I love hearing a whole room singing “I have come to test the timbre of my heart.” Apropos.
Buy: Joe Pug – Messenger
February 25th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Hey thanks for the referencing Smile Politely. I can say for sure that both music editors at Smile Politely are big fans of Muzzle of Bees. I admit to misquoting the lyrics, but certainly don’t think my misquotes did any harm or changed the general sappiness. If anything, the lyrics make much more sense as I have them. Obviously, this is all open to interpretation (that’s what makes it fun), but what the hell does “I wrote John Steinbeck’s books” mean? (And I really hope the answer isn’t that he quoted lines from The Pearl to impress women.)
Considering my name, I obviously have a soft spot for Mr. Steinbeck, so I think writer better have their shit together when they namecheck him.
P.S. Don’t you mean undressed rather than undresses
February 25th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Touché, John. Glad you’re cool with a little back and forth. To be fair, during a different song (“Speak Plainly, Diana”) Joe sings the phrase “I don’t mind riding around” over and over. My buddy leaned over and said something like “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a line more ambivalent sung with such conviction” — it’s not just a little reminiscent of a certain Gin Blossoms song. You know, the one where the “cops chase us around.” That’s where I would have spent my critical energy.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Oh, and speaking of Smile Politely, here are some great SP pictures from the short, freezing “secret show” that Joe did on campus earlier in the afternoon c/o Jaime Newell.
http://www.smilepolitely.com/splog/joe_pug_impromptu_show/
February 25th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
John – you guys rock. keep up the good work.
Jon – Gin Blossoms were my second concert ever.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Ha! I’m gonna get struck by some home-state-Arizona lightning for that Gin Blossoms remark.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Oh yes, I know that song. I wouldn’t have felt good about making pronouncements about the whole album without listening to the whole thing at least a couple of times. With the risk of sounding pretentious, I thought that song was like shooting fish in a barrel. But like everything, it’s all about personal taste. Some of my favorite lyrics of all time are, “gonna walk around and drink some more” repeated over and over again.
February 25th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
He better not try to trick us into thinking Andrew Harrison is from Madison!
February 28th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
I liked both reviews and thought they both had merit. However, in my opinion changing “wrote” to “read” does not make more sense. In the same verse he talks about “stealing.” The whole song seems to be about insensitivity and lack of an identity. Pop songs often get their meaning in sappiness. That is why they are sung and not recited.
March 1st, 2010 at 1:01 am
I’m agreed with Rob. The song is about nostalgia and remorse. The narrator’s former sense of confidence begins to seem immature and naïve now, and he recognizes that it cost him something important. The first verse suggests the lover that he took for granted. The second the pretentious ass that he was. “I wrote John Steinbeck’s books” indicates that he took himself so grandiosely as to think himself capable of writing on a par with a nobel prize winning author, just as he was capable of casually critiquing (the miracle of) his lover’s naked body. It’s a dis on himself, not Steinbeck. Though not necessarily the case, if the song is even semi-autobiographical, I’m guessing that Pug meant it as a respectful nod to Steinbeck. I’d say a guy like Pug would think Steinbeck’s ability to channel political and social commentary through art as truly genius and – as a result – the audacity of believing he might possess it as all the more shameful.
Rich
November 15th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Well, I had Joe at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival a couple years ago; and, loved him. Loved the CD when first sent to me by Agent Kaplan at Monterey. Spending the year trying to give a fair listen to the nearly 300 CD’s that drop on my desk can be weary. This morning, I went for something familiar, that I remembered fondly. Joe Pug, early in the morning, loud as I cleaned the kitchen, getting ready to make my daughter breakfast. Coming down the stairs, she said, “who’s this Daddy”. “Joe Pug, I said.” “It’s cool.” 1 9th grader wise beyond her years, but loving mostly the sounds of her generation…. she was caught and mesmerized by Joe. Asking me, “what does he mean by that”?
We listened to cut #2, “How Good Your Are” several times, she was mesmerized. Making me take the disk to the car for the drive to school. Listening intently without comment. Getting out of the car, “That’s really good, Daddy”. Ironic, for the past two weeks she’s been wanting to get out of this small town where her Daddy puts on the big festivals, and everyone knows her as daddy’s girl. I smiled on the way home… recalling the lyrics, “I was born into a festival, and went off to join a home”…. thinking that’s just how she feels….
She’s never shut up and listened to a disk so closely the first time since I first played her Mumford and Sons, “Sigh No More” well over a year ago.
Love that Joe….
Had to come home and see what others were thinking…
And that “I wrote John Steinbeck’s books”? Makes perfect sense to me, in about a half dozen different ways.
This guy is an awesome writer. And his performance at The Folks Festival a couple years ago is among the few I’ll never forget.
my two cents,
Craig Ferguson
Producer, Planet Bluegrass