Reviews
Vague Angels
Let’s Duke It Out at Kilkenny Katz
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2006-07-09
Here’s the situation: I just watched the Colorado Rockies blow a five-run lead in the slowest and most excruciating way possible, costing me some money. This is the second time in a week that it has come down to the Rockies and that they’ve sodomized me. I’m in a splendid mood, let me tell you! So when I sat down to pick an album to listen to and work on a review for the first time in a while, Vague Angels was calling my name.
I’ve had Let’s Duke It Out at Kilkenny Katz for a while now. I actually got in touch with Pretty Activity Records to review this album and ALOKE was also sent, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Vague Angels filled me with intrigue, in part due to it being the musical project of Chris Leo -- brother of Ted Leo, whom readers of this site know I adore. Brothers aren’t always alike and I can attest to that, being as that me and my own brother are basically polar opposites.
Chris Leo’s music is plodding, and his lyrics are wracked with self doubt and what almost sounds like depression. He doesn’t so much sing them as he does speak them over mostly-acoustic guitar. When I am in the mood to have music brighten my day I will often throw on a Ted Leo & the Pharmacists album, and right now -- when I honestly injured my wrist pounding the wall when the Rockies fucked me over again -- I turned to Chris Leo. So you see, that whole polar opposite thing definitely applies here. Although one thing the brothers Leo do have in common is they are both very talented. Accessibility just isn’t important to Chris, or so it would appear.
“The Hollowed (Unhallowed) Whole Note” is your introduction to Vague Angels, and you aren’t eased in. Leo’s words are very much poetry and hearing what he says is easy in the clear-spoken way it is delivered, but deciphering it is far more complicated. Is this a mangled version of a poetic, confused love song? I keep listening and that is my best estimation but I will never know unless I were to ask Chris himself. In the right mood -- such as the one I am in tonight -- it can be captivating, but in the wrong mood I have found myself having a tough time getting through half of this album.
So when Chris Leo takes the vocals away for two minutes and thirty seconds on “Holiday Guitar,” the result is fascinating. For this and only this brief period, you can see the family resemblance and picture Ted Leo singing over this infectious and jubilant acoustic guitar. The lead in to “Holiday Guitar” is draining and the emotional break the listener gets during this interlude is vital to the album working as a whole. Besides, when you can play guitar like this, fuckin’ right you should take a song to show it off.
“Just Blow, Don Quixote! Blow” is a solidly sordid song which utilizes an awesome sarcastic exclamation point. The song goes on for eight minutes, and nothing that happens does so in any sort of hurry. It takes a few minutes to get going and has a couple similar transitional moments during the course. It all culminates in watershed moment of the entire album, if you ask me: “The word is…liar/The word is…failure/The word is…Christopher Damien Leo/The word is…Jennifer Maureen Armstrong/The word is….keep pulling up grass, you faggot, and punching the earth.” All of that comes across deadpan with Leo hardly raising his voice. I am not sure exactly what it means, but my guess is it refers to blaming external factors for problems as opposed to realizing that it is probably internal. Anybody who knows the story of Don Quixote and how he lived his entire life in a fantasy world might believe my interpretation has credence.
Being the lesser known brother doesn’t seem to bother Chris Leo. Anyone recording an album like Let’s Duke It Out at Kilkenny Katz is doing so cognizant that it runs no risk of anything resembling mainstream success. I have the utmost respect for that. Now that doesn’t mean I prefer Vague Angels over Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, because honestly it isn’t even close. However, tonight and any night like tonight, Vague Angels was just the drug that I needed and I am thankful for that.
Score: 6.5
- Dan