Or brakes an axle. Or sinks during an ill-advised attempt to ford a 23-foot-deep river, drowning your entire family of pioneers.
I was riding the metro home from work yesterday and was on a crowded car full of very loud and boisterous students. In my frantic attempt to find something on my iPod that would drown out the shrieking, I found myself listening to The Trials of Van Occupanther, the 2006 album by the band Midlake.
Mgdistrict gave me this album last summer during one of our periodic music swaps, and it was buried amid 20 or 25 other albums for several months before I decided to listen to it. It’s a strange sound to hear coming out of a supposed “indie rock” band – many of the tracks sound like they could have been written and performed in exactly the same way 30 years ago. I’m sure that’s a large part of the reason these songs have been compared to Fleetwood Mac and, to a lesser extent (though I can definitely hear it), Neil Young. The vocal harmonies are beautiful, and it’s got a nice, smooth, classic rock feel to it. It grabbed me the first time I listened to it.
Then I learned from Wikipedia that the record is rumored to be a concept album based on the computer game The Oregon Trail. Suddenly, every time I listened to it I imagined I was traversing the unforgiving terrain of the 19th-century American West in an 8-bit pixelated covered wagon with my wife Georgina, my twin daughters Shasta and Paprika, and my baby son Dr. Poop. Our material possessions may have been meager (37 bullets, 285 lbs. of food, a couple boxes of clothes, and a spare axle), but we had a healthy fear of God, a can-do spirit, and each other. And consarnit, we had music.
Anyway, I can’t find any verification of the rumor, but it’s enough for me that it could be true. The first two tracks are posted below and should give a flavor of what I’m talking about. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go hunting – Georgina couldn’t hit the broad side of a buffalo even if she weren’t laid up with dysentery, and Dr. Poop’s not gonna feed himself.
Roscoe by Midlake
Bandits by Midlake
Both tracks from The Trials of Van Occupanther.
I’ve heard better songs named “Roscoe”.
My opinion of Oregon Trail is much higher than my opinion of Midlake. I like em alright, I guess– like you said, they have great harmonies, etc. etc– but I always find myself asking what the point of their songs are. There’s never any bounce or kick or drama. They just kind of laze around.
I’m not totally sure what you mean when you say you’re wondering what the point of the songs is. I like a lot of music that I would describe as lacking “bounce” or “drama” (not “kick” though).
Having said that, it sounds like you’re describing something that you’ve expressed to me before about other music — that you find it boring. I definitely know that feeling — where the music you’re listening to isn’t necessarily bad, it just doesn’t interest you. Although I don’t think I can describe what about the music I do like makes it not boring, if that makes any sense.
Roscoe reference duly noted.