Writing blog blurbs about upcoming concerts lends itself to a style that is somewhere between a promotional one-sheet (”They sound like Pavement-meets-Dolly Parton!”) and the new-new-music criticism (”dauntingly terrifying, vaguely unsettling, yet somehow perfect, like dumping too much hot sauce on a batch of scrambled eggs the morning after your first date with a transvestite.”). Here, those things fall mostly flat, because in the most un-pretentious way possible, David Strackaney (stage name Paleo) is a serious artist and unflinchingly earnest. His songs, which sound like contemporary folk, work by cutting through the bullshit. I’m reminded of a radio essay I heard once about George Burns, where the thrity-something woman interviewing him felt exposed and shallow in his wizened presence, like so many of the teenage girls that she was convinced she could see right through. Certain perspectives reject trivia and posturing; they have (or at least seem to have) a broader perspective on life and art and “the important things,” which are the things, that, from where you sit, are just out of reach and unprioritized. So perhaps Paleo is an old soul, perhaps I’m a douchebag; either way, his music penetrates me, which is why I keep letting it back in. He wrote a song a day for a whole year–it doesn’t take a genuis to see that a project like that is much about discipline as it is about songcraft. I’m thrilled, and a little bit nervous, to be involved in Public Space One, a project that he once ran. He produced the brilliant new These United States record. He puts out all of his records himself.
I have a good feeling, or perhaps a hope, that something about Paleo’s performance at the Mill on Friday night will catch you off guard. It might be the warble in his voice, his unassuming yet commanding stage presence, or the emotional precision of his music. Even it it’s a stopover on your ride to Old Time Relijun, it’s a good place to visit. Stay too long, and you might just end up in love with the guy.
Download: Paleo - What Is Love?
Paleo plays with Old Time Relijun, Dead Larry, Adam Matthew Havlin, and The Zebras at the Mill on Friday, 9pm showtime, $6.
0 Responses to “Freak Focus: Paleo”