Caught in the Carousel

Mock Orange

By Alex Green

Mock Orange

"The musician—that is, he who develops music to clear, distinct consciousness—is everywhere surrounded by melody and harmony," wrote E.T.A. Hoffman in 1814's Kreisleriana. "It is not an empty simile and not an allegory," he went on, "when musicians say that colors, scents and beams appear to them as tones, and that musicians are aware of their intermingling as in a wonderful concert…Thus the sudden inspirations of musicians and the formation of melodies within the soul would be the conscious apperception and understanding of the secret music of nature as the principle of life and its activities."

Which brings us to the new Mock Orange album Captain Love.

Mock Orange

Furnished with deep melodic layers and complex, colorful coats of rhythms, Captain Love is at once a confluence of the stark shades of darkness, the blinding fluorescence of the natural world and a profound understanding of Hoffman's secret music of nature. Musically, it might even be lazily described as a cross between Josef K, The Flaming Lips and Yes and this wouldn't be far off—its progressive musical propulsion is played with undeniable expertise, and there's a pop center lurking in each groove—but a more accurate description of the effect rather than the sound of Captain Love might best be outsourced to Igor Stravinsky, who, in his autobiography wrote: "Music is the sole domain in which man realizes the present. By the imperfection of his nature, man is doomed to submit to the passage of time—to its categories of past and future—without ever being able to give substance, therefore stability, to the category of the present."

Mock Orange

Recorded in Tennessee with producer Jeremy Ferguson (Be Your Own Pet, Josh Rouse), lyrically Captain Love is about the bones of the past, the skeletons of the future, the timidity of the heart, the boldness of age, living and dying and the frustration that comes with trying to do both of them the right way. It's as much about Stravinsky's concept of the imperfection of man's nature as it is about realizing that one's lifetime is finite and precise.

Set against pulsing arrangements that surge and ripple with post punk grooves (guitarist Joe Asher is in fine, idiosyncratic form), singer Ryan Grisham sings of "impermanent thoughts from the future," and wonders aloud, "Where have I been when I'm gone," his circular lyrical conundrums bringing to mind Escher's box-inside-of-a-box brand of illustrations or the more elliptical work of Magritte. But rhythmic puzzles and lyrical logogriphs aside, Captain Love, in spite of its complexity and dense compositions, is a catchy album. There's the bustling, cheery beauty of the title track; "Smile On" is pop music for robots and the dark and churning "World Of Machines" with its wistful alarm clock narrator ("I used to be a little bit brighter in the morning") summons the more animist work of poet James Tate.

Mock Orange

Quirky, strange and decidedly funny, Captain Love wants us to think about the big stuff but it doesn't want the big stuff to ruin our lives. The dark humor of "Song In D" cautions "we're so serious about everything"; "Lila" tells the story of a man who, "…walks down the street/And he's playing the part of a modern guy," and "Majestic Raincoat" urges the listener to "Just look at the happy ending you run to in your head."

Although this Evansville, Indiana outfit are critic's darlings in the United States, they've also gotten quite big in Japan. About to hit the road in support of Captain Love, Mock Orange checked in with CITC to give us their Consummate Top Ten list.

And here it is.

Mock Orange's Top 10 Favorite Things About Japan:
1. The toilets. Washlet? Yes.
2. It's not really that rare for a fully-grown man to get completely naked after a meal in a fancy restaurant (at least in our experience).
3. One-man hotel rooms.
4. Nagoya Chicken Wings
5. Giant Crab Store
6. 7/11 sandwiches, just like mom never made.
7. Real Karaoke
8. AFTERPARTY!!!
9. Dr. Togo and his bouncing bus
10. Johnnie Walker Red Label is only 9.00USD a bottle. I don't know why, but it is.

Discography:
Captain Love (2008)
Daniels E.P. (2006)
Mind Is Not Brain (2004)
The First E.P. (2002)
Amplified (2000)
The Record Play (2000)
Nines And Sixes (1998)

Internet:
www.mockorange.net
www.myspace.com/mockorange

Captain Love is out now on Wednesday Records.