Lougow – “Dull Thicket” LP – Ozark Level Full View Records [Album As Art #67]

Listen to Lougow’s music HERE

When I get a record in the mail, unwrap it carefully (I once damaged a De Facto LP badly in the process of unsheathing it from a sturdy length of cardboard) and place it on my turntable, I immediately begin thinking of band names I’ll be able to reference.

I know: It bugs the HELL out of musicians a lot of the time because y’all think — misguidedly in all cases — the stuff you write can’t be pigeonholed or categorized. But trust me, it can, and beyond that, I’m not comparing you to other bands because I suspect you’re deriving your material from them. The purpose of comparisons is simple: My job as a reviewer/critic/enthusiast is to foreshadow as best I can the nature of the music I’m evaluating.

Doing it without mentioning peers/like-mindeds/kindred spirits would be 97 percent tougher. It would probably be like my day job, where I write headlines — summarizing yards of type in four words or less — and proof stories and design pages. That’s NOT what I want to be doing on my free time, laboring. If you’re going to force me to write reviews bereft of comparisons why don’t you force me to sit on your waterboard while you’re at it? Why don’t you just cut of my balls and hold them in front of me, laughing? Why don’t you just get a picture taken with them like a fisherman after a mighty-fine catch? Why don’t you just sit there while I bleed to death, writhing in agony? HUH? HUH?

Now that I’ve spent far too much time pouting, I’ll jump into the subject at hand: Lougow‘s Dull Thicket. This is a sundazed-crazy one-man band from Washington state that has been causing my brain to blurt out the names of bands I haven’t thought about in awhile, such as:

Danielson
Panoply Academy Legionnaires/Glee Club/etc. (one of my all-time flavorites)
Akron/Family
super-old Modest Mouse material
Rapider Than Horsepower (great Racebannon side project)
The Unicorns (though admittedly I’ll use any excuse to bring the ‘Corns up)
The Detachment Kit (ooooh, finely one you probably haven’t heard of!)
strangely, certain grunge bands pop into mind, but I’ll just leave that to your imagination

Who am I kidding though, the first two bands above are the only ones that truly, truly lend any concrete influence, or at least are the only touchstones that would hold up in a court of law. Lougow have that kooked-out, ‘cluck-cluck’-crazy vibe and balance it out with a strange production technique, specifically on the double-tracked vocals and guitars, the latter of which are replete with high-arching, delicate bleats, that is eerily similar to classic Panoply songs. I’ve recorded a lot of music and still have no idea how this effect is achieved, but I’m glad SOMEone figured out how to do it again because I miss anoply-Pay (if you’re into Pig Latin).

Frontman Wayne Arsaga works in a secluded hotel and comes up with these songs in his time off, and they possess that locked-in-a-bedroom feel, to be sure. I bet this guy weirds people out when they first meet him — either that or he suppresses his eccentricities and lives out his oddity through his music.

Any way you slice it, you get a win-win sitch. Arsaga has his paws in all sorts of troughs, back-flipping from campfire sing-a-longs with his hired throngs (Megan Downey and Ava Arsaga be their names) to up-beat acoustic ragers in the snap of a digit, always bringing back a thumping bass-drum beat and bend-y guitar lunges before things get too dusty. Arsaga’s voice, on its surface, isn’t what one would call beautiful, but it’s beautifully earnest; he puts his lungs into his songs the way a moving man puts his back into his job.

I would classify Dull Thicket as more of a stony guitar album than, say, a chant-y post-Banhart coo-fest. The strumming is hard, hot and frothy and the vocals are pushed back just a bit, ‘cept when things get all squeaky and squawky — that’s when the soprano-plus vocal pounces reach far above the guitar swipes and into the salty heavens above, where ashes are poured upon golden toilet seats and dragons tangle with golden gods.

At least that’s how I imagine it; imbibe the above videos and audio links yourself … it’s the only way you’ll learn to Listen.