Author Archives: The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

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About The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

Just one man who's making his way through life one day at a time writing about the songs he has on his phone. And other things at some points.

#695: The Wombats – Kill the Director

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Haven’t written about The Wombats in a while. Last time I did was in 2014. ‘Backfire at the Disco’ was a track I did a blog on here too, talking about how much I like it, why that is and so on and so forth. Some time between then and now I grew tired of it and it is now off the phone. That was The Wombats’ first single, I believe, and I remember seeing its video on MTV2 most of the time. It was all right. But it was the next single that got me thinking ‘This band might be onto something here’. Or something to that equivalent when I was 12 years old.

‘Kill the Director’ is the first ‘proper’ song from the band’s debut album, apparently inspired by the rom-com film The Holiday from 2006. It’s basically about the feeling of futility that one can feel when it comes to dating, trying to put on an act to try and impress a girl and failing in the process. The message is all in the song’s main refrain – “If this is a rom-com, kill the director”, roughly bows down to – if this is what love is meant to be like then end it now because it’s not worth it.

It works great as the opener, coming through with these alternating bass and guitar chords alongside Dan Haggis’ busy drumming. It’s fast, fast, fast stuff, exploding into the song’s chorus each time with the ‘ooh-ooh’ backing vocals that are a staple throughout the album. The ‘This is no/Bridget Jones’ coda gets a bit stale after a while for me, it doesn’t have to be repeated that many times or the line could have started just a few measures later, but as a whole the track doesn’t disappoint in delivering a hook upon hook in just under three minutes.

#694: The Who – The Kids Are Alright

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During the summer of 2010 I began listening to The Who. I was fifteen, heading into my proper GCSE year in secondary school, and thinking that things from that point weren’t going to be the same. I had to get my shit together. I think it was a random choice that I just started searching for The Who songs on YouTube one day, and that just sent me into a spiral. The Beatles had been my new discovery for year 10. In year 11, it was all about The Who.

The video for ‘The Kids Are Alright’ was on YouTube all those years ago. Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon are in a park somewhere miming to the song and don’t particularly look like they’re having the greatest of times. Despite this, the song itself sounds very bright and quite cheerful. One of the best melodies that Pete Townshend wrote in the group I think, and its enhanced by the three part vocal harmonies that are present throughout the track.

The lyrics however tell a different story. All this time I thought it was commentary on the hip young groovers of the 60s and somehow saying that the older generation have no need to worry because ‘the kids are alright’. But after actually doing some research, it may be about a man who wants to pursue his dreams and leave his wife at home with the children. She can see other guys and he’ll go crazy if he doesn’t get away, but it doesn’t matter because at least the kids will be okay. That situation does make a lot more sense.

In the end, the interpretation doesn’t alter the way I feel about the music. It’s a great jangle-pop classic. From about 1968 onward, the band didn’t care to make these types of power pop singles again so it’s always great to see and hear how they started out.

#693: Radiohead – Kid A

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The title track from Radiohead’s fourth album is a strange one. At least that’s what I thought of it when I first listened to it. I’ve just grown to like it because of its unsettling nature. I was a child in 2000 so I can only imagine how people who were expecting an OK Computer Part 2 reacted when hearing Kid A upon its initial release. 2012 was when I decided to take it on. I didn’t think ‘Everything in Its Right Place’ was too out there, but ‘Kid A’ certainly takes things in another direction.

The music, written by the band’s lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, has an innocent child-like music box quality to it, which is layered upon by these soothing guitar chords that feel very warm and very comfortable. Then Thom Yorke comes in. He had some lyrics for the song that he didn’t want to sing. Instead, he spoke them into the microphone and Greenwood improvised a melody when processing the vocal through an Ondes Martenot. As a result, Yorke’s voice as a robotic tone to it that greatly contrasts with the comforting music box notes that persist throughout.

The lyrics, like many others, were assembled randomly after having been written and cut up. There aren’t many present on the track. There are six phrases throughout: “I slipped away/I slipped on a little white lie/We’ve got heads on sticks and you’ve got ventriloquists/Standing in the shadows at the end of my bed/The rats and children follow me out of town/Come on kids”. Very dark, visual and mysterious imagery on show. Clearly, there aren’t a lot of lyrics either. But the group are still able to make something grand out of very little. That’s a reoccurring theme throughout the album.

With a piercing wail, the song comes to an end and transitions into ‘The National Anthem’, which takes the unsettling tones to another level.

#692: Pavement – Kennel District

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Wowee Zowee isn’t my favourite Pavement album. Not because it’s bad. It has some of the band’s best songs on there. ‘Grounded’ being one…. ‘Grave Architecture’ another. And today’s song, ‘Kennel District’, written by Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg. The record is a hard one to get through at times because for every two perfect indie rock come these other compositions that throw the flow out of the window. And yet, that specific thing is the main reason why a lot of people consider it a classic and the most ‘Pavement’ album.

I wanted to get closer to it and so I purchased the album’s 33 1/3 book in 2018. It’s a fantastic read. I learned a lot of new things about the album and the songs on there. For example, ‘Kennel District’ was written when Kannberg had broken up with his girlfriend and was simultaneously becoming friends with a woman who was feeling trapped in her own marriage. That’s where the line ‘Can’t believe she’s married to rope’ comes from. The song title also has nothing to do with the lyrical content, and was inspired by a thought Kannberg had about New York having its own district where all dogs were kept.

One thing’s for sure. If I didn’t like the song the first time I listened to the album the whole way through, I’m very sure I did after the second listen. It’s one of the most easy-listening, digestible, perfect indie-rock cuts on there. Apparently, the band’s record label wanted to make the track a single but not without re-recording it first. The track is led by a fuzzy bass and a roaring guitar in the left channel that more or less play the same chord sequence throughout. On top of that is a weird keyboard that plays its own little riff on top of that. And with this some great music is made. It worked so well in fact that Kannberg pretty much rewrote the track and made ‘Date w/ IKEA’ for Brighten the Corners a few years later.

I don’t know. I don’t think I have much else to say about it. I admire its simplicity and its ability to still give me some chills after all this time. It was initially recorded during the sessions for Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and it didn’t make the cut, but I’ll put that version below so you can check it out and compare to the version that everybody knows.

#691: be your own PET – The Kelly Affair

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2008 is so long ago now. It’s actually a year I can barely remember. I would have been in year 8. 12 going on into teenage years. Life was pretty carefree. I was there but I don’t think I took the time to take things in.

One thing I do remember was be your own PET releasing their second album Get Awkward in March of that year. That turned out to be the band’s final album too. I had been following them since they released their ‘Damn Damn Leash’ single in 2005, so it was always good to see something new by them appear on TV or just be given to the masses in general. I believe ‘The Kelly Affair’ was the first official single from the album. I’m not sure that I cared for it that much. Thinking on it now I couldn’t say why. Jemina Pearl’s voice had a lot more power behind it. They’d also gained a new drummer after their first one left. Jonas Stein’s guitar and Nathan Vasquez’s bass playing were just as playful and riffy as they were on the debut album. But nothing too major had changed. It took me to download Get Awkward and listen to the track within the context of the album to realise that hey, ‘The Kelly Affair’ isn’t that bad. You think silly things when you’re twelve.

The track’s been in my library for so long now that I’ve never thought to research on what it’s about. From listening to the lyrics, I thought that Pearl made up this song about being in a fake band called The Carrie Nations and living in a valley where everywhere you look someone’s taking a few anti-depressants. But no. The song is just about what happens in the film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. There is a band who are called The Carrie Nations who were originally called The Kelly Affair. ‘Z-Man’ is the guy who makes himself the band’s producer. And ‘the valley’ is where all the sex and drugs happens. Maybe I’ll watch the film if be your own PET think it was good enough to write a song about.