about
I’m having fun performing out in my new group, Teen Girl Scientist Monthly, and it’s gotten me thinking about live performance in a way I haven’t for a while. Ghosty, my project earlier this year, was so close in sound and feel to my previous bands that I didn’t take the time to think about how different performing live feels depending on the project. I mean - obvious, sure. But I’ve never played in a folk group or funk band. It’s all been punk for me - Thrashing, jumping, screaming, etc. The experience is familiar and I don’t often give it a second thought.
When I began writing for TGSM, I thought a lot about the Arcade Fire, and how much I enjoyed their music, and watching clips from their live shows. There’s something very theatrical about it all - or, at least, they certainly know how to create a spectacle. I knew then that I wanted my next project to be about audience interaction. For years I’ve done everything I can to assault/entertain an audience from the stage. What I really want to do now is be in the same room with them, have them feel like they’re part of the band (singing/stomping along), and having them watch something unfold and build up before them. One show in, I’m starting to feel very good about that direction. It’s a totally different experience to what I’m used to.
So for this week’s (late) Song Cycle entry, I wanted to explore the feeling of a live experience that I’m not familiar with, but really interested in. Almost instantly I thought about the movie 24 Hour Party People, and the Happy Mondays. What that band did looked like an incredible amount of fun, and, though some of their music feels huge, the experience of seeing them play very much must have felt like it was happening totally in the here/now - not intimate, I mean, but LIVE; like you were in on something good and totally just for you. I’ve long had a fascination with that punkier live sort of dance music (early Rapture, early Yeah Yeah Yeahs), flirting with those sounds and basslines in previous work. For Bite Size, I tried to channel the sweaty fun it is to play live, down on the dance floor, surrounded by people moving and jumping and just as lost in the music as you are.
lyrics
Sick sense but I’m numb to see
That there’s a present hesitation in the coming feed
So I pull my teeth
Left flexed, but she feels the fool
And that’s another paragraph that she’s swallowed whole
She got a long ride home to get to eat
You gotta lift right, Bite Size;
Get set, get tight.
So sell yourself a little clearance, come on
You swing a left-right, chest height
Split lip, red light
You’re sick of spitting just what it mean
Undone, but it only eats
When you serve it like setting on a nightly beat
So, oh, no, get yourself to sleep
You gotta lift right, Bite Size;
Get set, get tight.
So sell yourself a little clearance, come on You swing a left-right, chest height
Split lip, red light
You’re sick of hearing just what I think
But, oh,
Sister, sister, no.
A fitter picture, oh
Stay close to me
Oh,
Sister, sister, no.
A little self-control
Stay on your feet
credits
from
Singles 2010,
released December 31, 2010
Music and lyrics by Mattroi
license
all rights reserved