Sunday, November 06, 2005

Sublime- Pawn Shop

I just noticed this song tonight for the very first time. I have spent hour upon hour listening to Sublime, and somehow this song always slipped past me. It was one of those songs that half the time I'd skip to another track, and the other half id let it play out so as not to ruin the Sublime set mood. But tonight, the song hit me like a swaying bag of potatoes; directly in the face.
The song begins with a razor sharp guitar; straight from the devil, sucking on to its last breaths of air before its is swallowed up by the lava be-low. Add bass with its rolling chocolate mountain of giant foot steps. Drum beat. Space. Hit, Enter beat, enter rastafari organ.
All of a sudden, I'm in a hot desert jungle watching a snake slithering through the deep golden grass, pleading with the dirt below for a sip of a rainwater. The dirt not much better off, a pale shade of grey, suggests crumbled balls of sick.
But all of a sudden, now that sublime has set up this sweaty jungle scene, the snake takes a new turn. Unexpectedly, things are developing musically. Out of nowhere, the razor guitar begins to solo. This isn't your average solo, either. There isn't that space filling mess of an improvisation. This is a constructed jam, much reminiscent of bands like phish, pink floyd, and genesis. The solo builds higher and higher, but the energy level doesn't change. You'd miss it if you blink twice, but this solo IS the essence of this song. This solo that sublime knew had to be turned into a song. Everything else is secondary. Everything else is background noise. Pay attention!
Listening to the song with headphones, I notice that this composition was mixed strangely. The guitar is played solely in the right speaker and the bass is primarily in the left. It sounds miserable. It sounds like an old time track. It needs to be remastered or better produced. Sublime was capable of more than this, was it not? And then...
Wap, was that feedback or did my headphones play the guitar out of both ears for a second? I hope the head phones aren't broken! And it happens again! It's a piercing note, but it's clearly a guitar note. Again, and again it happens. Bradley must accidentally be getting feedback off the same note and its picking up on both speakers. But then I hear it again, and this time it sounds purposefully loud and clear. Is this meant to be part of the music? Maybe this recording is going for something on the sound quality. Maybe this is the genius of sublime.
And then I hear IT. At 53 seconds, the guitar soars from one ear to the other like a shooting star, like the forth of July, like a carnival and like a symphony. As Bradley begins to sing, I am void of judgment. I am sold.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

this is definately an interesting post. I have been listening to sublime for more than a decade. I highly encourage you to search through the archive (http://www.sublimearchive.com/audio.php) and listen to more.

Take it easy.
J~!