Various Artists
Colonel Jeffery Pumpernickel: A Concept Album
»
Various Artists
Colonel Jeffery Pumpernickel: A Concept Album
Off, 2001
RiYL: Quasi, Guided By Voices |
Colonel Jeffery Pumpernickel doesn't easily answer these questions, but it definitely poses them. This is a unique record in terms of structure and presentation, and I truly haven't heard anything quite like it. But that is not to say it is automatically a great album, great because of its uniqueness or originality. It is just plain confusing.
The big brains behind the record belong to one Mr. Chris Slusarenko, who apparently wrote a story about Colonel Jeffrey Pumpernickel in order to create a framework for a concept album. He then proceeded to farm out the actual musical duties (a chapter at a time) to a host of modern rock notaries, including but not limited to Guided By Voices, Quasi, Stephen Malkmus, the Minus 5, Poster Children, Grandaddy, the Minders, Mary Timony, Ann Magnuson & Dave Rick and the Black Heart Procession. Five excellent artists were then assigned to fill out the record's visual accompaniment and esteemed rock critic Richard Meltzer was brought aboard for liner note writing.
Meltzer confirms the banner on the cover: this is a "concept album," a "rock opera," if you will. But he goes on to concede the implausibility and incoherence of the various topics covered over the record's course. The overall goal of the record seems not so much to specifically convey the particular story of Cnl. Pumpernickel, but to celebrate the concept of concept albums on its own merit.
In keeping with that spirit, the artists weren't neccesarily even aware of the other parts to the story, or even what their own songs were supposed to mean. NATN Associate Editor Jonathan Cohen spoke briefly about the Colonel with GBV's Robert Pollard, who claimed to enjoy the experience of recording "Strident Wet Nurse," but admitted he was very confused as to what he was actually singing about (although one would expect Pollard runs into this problem often).
That said, this album has some dandy moments. The GBV, Minus 5 and Quasi songs are excellent representatives of their respective artists' sound, yet others stretch out within their idioms, searching for that elusive "Pumpernickel" feel. Stephen Malkmus' "Blue Rash Intact" bears little resemblance to traditional Malkmus fare, sounding more like a Ween/Underworld collaboration.
If, by the fourth track, you are still not feeling dragged into the world of the good Colonel, Ann Magnuson & Dave Rick's eight-and-a-half-minute opus "Dr. Mom" should do the trick. After four minutes of exercise on a beautiful descending melody, the song cuts into a choppy guitar-led narrative in which the protagonist (Jeffery?) finds him/herself climbing a mountain and encountering John Entwistle and a cute bear cub, then somehow frantically running away from its angry mother bear, falling into a river, entering a beaver dam and trying to escape it by crawling through a series of windows that never seem to end. Got that?
Mary Timony turns in the entrancing, somewhat scary "Doom In June...The Secret Order Of The Caterpillar," a beats, organ and voice number featuring still-strange lyrics like "49 days and 49 nights / i'll sing to the caterpillar of life." Much later, Macha comes at us with "He Remembers His Burial At Sea," which, in between bagpipe interludes, posits hints that Jeffery might have been part robot. "Taste of salt on my tounge / breath of salt in my lungs / and yet something electric / conducting / transmitting a message," croons Jason McKay, before surfing into a delectable chorus proclaiming "now the fight is over / i'm set free."
The album ends up sounding like a soundtrack compilation (which I suppose it is, in a way) with a lot of your favorite bands contributing previously unreleased tracks that may or may not be in line with their standard fare. In this way, it's certainly fun, and interesting, and worth a few bucks at your local record shop, even with all its inconsistency.
Diagnosis: Enjoy Colonel Jeffery Pumpernickel in pieces, because you like the artists, and you like their adventurous structures and pretty melodies. Celebrate concept albums by listening to one. Enjoy the words and how they flow off your favorite singer's tounge. But don't stress out about trying to figure out what it all means. The Colonel revels in his own ambiguity.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.