Bobby Bare Jr.
Young Criminals' Starvation League
Bloodshot Records

by William Michael Smith

Dancing machines with broken feet
Glamorize their desperate needs
And have no use for what is true
And hide behind those who do
-- "The Monk at the Disco," Bobby Bare Jr.

Bobby Bare Jr.'s latest record certainly qualifies for the unexpected, out-of-left-field, why-this award for 2002. A dark, often angry and foreboding genre-mauling curiosity, Young Criminals' Starvation League finds the former Southern/punk rocker traveling with Mark Nevers and members of Lambchop (Nashville's self-proclaimed "most fucked-up country band") through an opaque, swirling folky singer-songwriter songscape. Well, sorta...Young Criminals' Starvation League is hardly an album one understands in one listening. Or describes in one sitting. Things keep occurring in the record and thoughts keep occurring as one absorbs it. Ever watch The Twilight Zone through a kaleidoscope? After washing down three Seconals and a Black Molly with a bottle of paregoric and a fifth of peppermint schnaps?

While it certainly has kinky charm, there is nothing easy about this record. There is nothing "pretty" about Bare's voice either, but given a chance his vocal eccentricities can grow on you within the context of his curious, quirky songs like "Flat Chested Girl from Maynardville" or "Bullet Through My Teeth." In the big picture, Bare's vocals are often little more than another instrumental twist in the cacophonous mix of lilting melodies and manic staccato crescendos. He makes it work and that's what counts, right?

Given the odd, layered, purposely uneven (in a you-better-pay-attention-or-you'll-miss-a-cool-trick way), one might conclude that this is Mr. Bare's audition as a prospective arranger/producer. If so, it is entirely successful. The arrangements are complex and ingenious. From the opening gentle, laconic, summery strum of "I'll Be Around," full mental engagement is required to follow all the subtle changes that occur on this 4 1/2 minute track as it progresses in barely perceptible shifts from a folky bubblegum singer-songwriter tune to a full-blown pop-soul arrangement complete with a bright, infectious brass section reinforcing the happy-go-lucky melody. If you like your music with three chords, a hook you can memorize easily, and a chorus you can sing in the shower, your synapses may short out listening to "I'll Be Around."

One might also conclude Mr. Bare is experimenting with derivation as the album abruptly segues from bright and happy to a Beatle-y "Day in the Life"/"She's Leaving Home" composition about a flat-chested girl from Maynardville in which Bare memorializes the daily existence of an insecure, desperate, frustrated, hopeful teenager. It ain't pretty but it's so real, and it establishes Bare's maturing songwriting credentials. Bare delivers in a sing-songy voice, as though reading an awkward doggerel rhyme.

Flat chested girl from Maynardville is skipping school to stay home and read
Kicks her cat into the fan and giggles as he bleeds
While standing on her bed she screams secrets that fall out from her dreams
Does anyone want any part of me, please, take anything that you want
Do what you will with me

But before we decide derivation is Bare's game here, we need to come to grips with what may the be most interesting song on Young Criminals' Starvation League, "Dig Down." On the surface, there is absolutely no doubt what Bare means as he points out the poor state and derivative nature of rock these days by haranguing Pete Townsend, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and the Stones.

This letter is addressed to Mr. Pete Townsend
Hey brother I write you to say thanks for nothin'
Your generation used up all the feelings
And if we rock it looks like we're ripping you off
Hey Mr. Jimi, as I write upon this page
My hands they shake with a delicate rage
My amplifier has no aim
For all it plays sounds derivative and mundane

Beneath the obvious creative frustration noted in the literal meanings, one might assume that the song reflects Bare's additional frustrations with the critics and their acceptance of Bare Jr. (the band). And there is no doubt that he is also deriding the MTV Nation as he implies that the whole genre is, if not dead, at least petrifying.

Chuck Berry, Chuck Berry, you wrote the only original song
Some white boys stole it, we all still sing along
Chuck Berry sing to us one more time
Before Fred Bisquit freezes everybody's mind

In a glorious production touch, the song fades away to a ragged background chorus that imitates (rips off!) the Rolling Stone's "Sympathy for the Devil" with its tinny "Oooh-oooh, oooh-oooh." The irony is rich and vicious.

"Stay In Texas" seems surprisingly mild and almost out of place here. With George W. in the White House and the likes of Pat Green on the country charts, Texas has become an even larger target of ridicule than it normally is, but Bare Jr. sings with a seemingly straight face as he puts down Hollywood, Key West, West Virginia, and San Francisco and concludes, "I wanna stay in Texas/Faraway places seem faceless/I wanna stay in Texas/I want a home that does not roam."

Shel Silverstein wrote a number of Bobby Bare Sr.'s hits and spent much time in the Bare household when Jr. was growing up. Mr. Bare reprises Silverstein's "Painting Her Fingernails" and this is one of the few tracks where one hears the genetic echoes of Bare Sr.'s tone, phrasing, and empathy in Jr.'s vocal. Silverstein drew portraits with a photographic precision and Jr. does this one full justice. Even more surprising and seemingly out of place is his cover of The Smiths' "What Difference Does It Make." Bare owns this one.

"The Ending," written with Tony Crow, is a brilliant lyric and Bare's vocal angst works beautifully with the subtle alt.country arrangement. Alt.country, that is, until those bright mellow horns appear to briefly punctuate the melody. This track could serve as an example of the smartness and melodic inventiveness that one finds throughout the album.

Taken as a whole, Young Criminals' Starvation League seems to make a statement that Bobby Bare Jr. is frustrated, pissed off, bored, and restless, but is thick-necked and bull-headed enough to say, "Screw it, I'm not quitting. I'm going to attempt to do something different. I'm an artist and this is what I'm supposed to do." The album makes a statement that he is certainly an interesting, inventive, literate, evolving songwriter who has the cojones to keep trying, even if it seems to become harder and harder to do something out of the ordinary. Having had the good fortune to rub up against the likes of Shel Silverstein, Bare seems particularly well tooled to do just that. Will he take over the airwaves with Young Criminals' Starvation League? Yeah, right. Will Young Criminals' Starvation League become a cult classic? With homages like these to the likes of The Pixies, don't bet against it.

Black Francis, Black Francis, you were the last motherfucker out
Grabbing all the good stuff and leaving no doubt
That if rock and roll dies it's not my fault
I do the best with the leftovers I got
-- "Dig Down," Bobby Bare Jr.

* Gee, imagine, a weird, off-the-wall, cult appeal album from Bloodshot Records. www.bloodshotrecords.com Info on Bare Jr. (the man and the rock band) at www.barejr.net

 
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