There have been many a time when someone who is from a mild of weather climate has visited Michigan during the winter months and have asked "How do you deal with this?"
"Well, there's sledding, ice skating, snowmobiling, making snowmen, going out and doing 360's on freshly snowed roads as long as the car has rear wheel drive. Also, lots and lots of beer, whatever is on TV and cursing the weather outside comes into play. That helps us deal with the snow shoveling, getting stuck in snowbanks an the months on end of grey skies. And besides, it helps us appreciate the nice weather, when it comes around again. Basically, we don't like either but we've learned to deal with it. It's not usual to put it in song though. Well, that is until fellow Michiganders, the Johnny Ill Band, did such with their newest out on the X! label
Opening with strummed guitar and Jonathan Richman punk rock nephew croon about not wanting to go outside because it's too cold and there's no sunlight-"In The Wintertime" then kicks into Swell Mapsian DIY downstroke chug. A twinkly toy piano adds accents that resemble how the snow sparkles at dawn after a super frigid evening. Sure, that always looks pretty but anyone who deals with it knows that doesn't necessarily mean the blanket of white stuff covering the ground is all soft and fluffy. It could also mean it's hard and crusty and has left patches of those son of bitches all over the streets known as black ice.
Yes, it is true-No one really likes the winter though some pretend they do. You can't play really baseball or have a picnic in the wintertime and have to wear boots and gloves and sometimes scarves. Johnny Ill isn't sugarcoating it. They're just plain and simple telling you how it really is.
Opening with strummed guitar and Jonathan Richman punk rock nephew croon about not wanting to go outside because it's too cold and there's no sunlight-"In The Wintertime" then kicks into Swell Mapsian DIY downstroke chug. A twinkly toy piano adds accents that resemble how the snow sparkles at dawn after a super frigid evening. Sure, that always looks pretty but anyone who deals with it knows that doesn't necessarily mean the blanket of white stuff covering the ground is all soft and fluffy. It could also mean it's hard and crusty and has left patches of those son of bitches all over the streets known as black ice.
Yes, it is true-No one really likes the winter though some pretend they do. You can't play really baseball or have a picnic in the wintertime and have to wear boots and gloves and sometimes scarves. Johnny Ill isn't sugarcoating it. They're just plain and simple telling you how it really is.
The two tracks on the b-side, "Matt Larson" and "Doug Braun", are about two dudes they know from around town. The former hitting the Tyvek when they lock into a Wire groove. The latter is like that as well but splattered with a bit of wheezy, broken carnival calliope organ sounds.
http://johnnyill.com/
http://johnnyill.com/
Comments