Red Crayola
Malefactor, Ade
[Drag City]
Rating: 1.5
I'd venture to say that sunburn-brained Houstonian Mayo Thompson's last
essential contribution to modern music was his lead guitar work on a few
early '80s Pere Ubu albums, and maybe his 1994 collaboration with disciples
Jim O'Rourke and David Grubbs on a surprisingly stunning guitar album.
Unfortunately, on this reissue of 1989's Malefactor, Ade, Thompson
comes off like a senile, Depends-sporting old coot goofing off in his
nursing home suite. Red Krayola circa 1967? Nah, not really. Drop the "K,"
add a "C," and what do you get? Thompson farting around under the ostensible
guise of that influential Dadaist underground institution he helped found,
like, 170 years ago.
Naturally, this incarnation of Red Crayola features a backing band that
consists of severe Deiter-like German types. These goofy Kraut noise-makers
assist Thompson in bringing forth his garbled musical vision: there's plenty
of ridiculously off-beat drumming, maybe a few programmed beats here and there,
and someone's bass burps occasionally. Certainly, this is apt nonsensical
backing music for Thompson's nonsensical lyric-writing and palsied guitar
strumming. Every once in awhile, classical-sounding backward tape loops flutter
about like so much discarded newspaper caught in a breeze. And with songs
covering such insightful topics as frogs that resemble baby Jesus, auto-
mechanical sex, dead actors' gardens, coasters, and blue jeans, what's to love?
The anti-campfire singalong, "Bluejeans," is an annoying pseudo-post-modern
exercise in stupidity-as-art: "BLOO-jeans," Thompson insists. "BLOO-jeans!!
Ahaaha!" "Colour Theory No.4" features more incoherent acid-trip lyrics over
an off-center drumbeat and tinkling jack-in-the-box music. "TB—Tissues" is,
more or less, 2½ minutes of repeated sounds that resemble a power drill boring
a hole into a piece of scrap metal. Again, I'm at a loss as to what the
expected reaction to this should be. Laughter? Paralysis? A sudden urge to
part with $15 to further the Red Crayola cause?
In Thompson's case, when true creativity fails, you abuse your instruments
in song and play up the fact that you're an incoherent freak. Lo and behold,
you'll get away with musical murder, since most indie rock aesthetes won't
be able to differentiate between Ornette Coleman's abstract expressionist
genius and the mindless clutter that wastes digital space on Malefactor,
Ade.
Though, remarkably, on "Franz Von Assisi," we do get an honest-to-goodness
chord progression-- undercut, of course, by the sound of mechanical ducks
quacking in the background. And towards the end of this disordered sound-
universe, we're offered a few more tracks with no particular musical value:
we get ejaculations of backward-looped Hitchcock-ian soundtrack music, and
a song that features a single note bassline underpinning the occasional
fractured tape segment, with atonal piano plinking and bleep noises comparable
to a confused R2-D2.
Still, Thompson has proved he has the talent and ability to far surpass this
pedestrian experimental junk. Blame Malefactor, Ade on the lack of a
voice of reason amongst the many jabbering in his head. But hey, he's an
established rock deity in certain circles, so it's no sweat getting the
arbiters of Chicagoan cool at Drag City to re-release an album that anyone's
Alzheimer-ridden grandparents could make if they were given a budget and
proper recording facilities. Again, though, someone somewhere will find a
use for this non-music. If you have a nasty bug problem in your apartment,
try keeping Malefactor, Ade on medium volume at all times. Cockroaches,
no matter how hungry, won't even think about venturing out into the open.
For the hell of it, why not bring this, Old Time Relijun's Uterus and
Fire and Sonic Youth's NYC Ghosts and Flowers to the next
neighborhood hipster party you're forced to attend. Bully your way to the
disc changer, drop these choice selections in, and hit "shuffle." Though
everyone in attendance will suffer extraordinary auditory discomfort, no
one will dare protest your selections. In fact, you may end up becoming the
most popular, yet secretly-hated enigma on your block.
-Michael Sandlin