Originally called the Rock Springs Six, Free Salamander Exhibit makes no bones about being influenced by the early work of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. “Yeah, we all have that first record,” they mutter nonchalantly. Their new name is taken from the Sleepytime Gorilla Press’s 1916 leaflet distributed by Pentecostal snake-handler George Went Hensley of Tennessee, wherein the gospel dictum “They shall take up serpents and salamanders” was treated to more or less literal interpretation. “Yeah, we all handle them, salamanders that is,” they confess. Yes, they have renounced their snake handling ways in favor of the modern hair-shirt, i.e. the burlap gown. Certainly their outfits are uncomfortable and make playing difficult, especially for the non-rock instruments they sometimes employ, but what price beauty?
It seems the past is something this band of burlap brothers would rather put to rest. Free Salamander Exhibit gained some notoriety in the early 2000s by impersonating the members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, even going so far as insinuating themselves into the SGM members’ households. When it was announced in 2010 that SGM had been “subsumed” into the very bodies of Free Salamander Exhibit, the music press understood this to figuratively refer to a simple regrouping. Boy, were they wrong.
Currently based in Oakland, CA, Free Salamander Exhibit continues to shed its dead skin cells, casting off an accumulated detritus of metal, prog-rock, and art-rock influences. Nils, Dan, Michael, David, and Drew (at least these are the names they claim) meet regularly in an underground concrete shelter. Here they sit at an oval-shaped table in a spirit of constructive argumentation, poring over the nature of memory and the illusory promise of free will. Eventually they emerge, ready again to absorb the environmental stimuli that nourish their world-view. Through this circular process of absorption and molting, Free Salamander Exhibit hopes to augment the mass of your own pillow as well.
Shed some skin with Free Salamander Exhibit in your town soon!
-taken from http://freesalamanderexhibit.com
FREE SALAMANDER EXHIBIT is:
Nils Frykdahl – vocals, guitar, flute
Dan Rathbun – bass, sledgehammer dulcimer, vocals
Michael Mellender – guitar, trumpet, baritone, tangularium, spleen, double-bladed cat sneeze, percussion-guitar, vocals
David Shamrock – drums, glockenspiel
Drew Wheeler – guitar, glockenspiel, theremin, waterphone, vocals
Unreliable Narrator
Free Salamander Exhibit Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Raise the catafalque high
Raise the catachresis
See the eagle rise
Carrying its nest of stones to the sky
See its mute and calcified progeny rain down
On a desert fraught
Mit ein unvorstellbarer Gott
In the desert of glas
Unrwiting the master's voice
Unwriting the name of god, gl
Unwriting the flame of Geist
Unwriting the gl the gl the glas
Catachresis Catafalque Cataglot
Always already we have started
Always already we're there
Always already we are cinders
Always already we're gone
Teach a god to speak
Let it be Hebrew or Greek
Im Anfang var die Logos
Give holocaust to the sun
From flower to fruit to wine to blood to the fire
The all-burning, all-giving always already retreating formless unvorstellbarer god of the desert
God of the East, rising to learn to fall
To learn to die in the arms of the West
The ashes remain
The lyrics to Free Salamander Exhibit's song "Unreliable Narrator" are abstract and open to interpretation. The song seems to be discussing the limitations of language and communication, as well as the concepts of power and destruction.
The first verse seems to suggest that attempting to teach a stone to fly is a futile task, much like attempting to impose language on something that is not capable of understanding it. The following lines refer to raising a catafalque high and a catachresis, both of which are references to burial and death. The imagery of the eagle carrying its nest of stones to the sky and the calcified progeny raining down suggests that even the powerful can be destroyed.
The next verse continues to explore the limitations of language and communication, with references to Hegel and the desert of glass. The lines "unwriting the master's voice, unwriting the name of God, unwriting the flame of Geist" suggest a rejection of authority and tradition. The repeated use of the words "catachresis," "catafalque," and "cataglot" add to the sense of confusion and chaos.
Overall, "Unreliable Narrator" is a song that encourages listeners to think critically about the role of language and power in our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Teach a stone to fly
Attempt the impossible
Raise the catafalque high
Elevate the symbolic coffin
Raise the catachresis
Elevate misuse of language
See the eagle rise
Observe the freedom bird ascend
Carrying its nest of stones to the sky
Transporting its home made of rock upward
See its mute and calcified progeny rain down
Watch the offspring, petrified and silent, fall from the sky
On a desert fraught
In a perilous wasteland
Mit ein unvorstellbarer Gott
With an inconceivable god
No place for the eagle of Hegel
Hegelian teachings cannot apply here
In the desert of glas
In the glass desert
Unrwiting the master's voice
Challenging the authority's words
Unwriting the name of god, gl
Erasing the name of God, GL
Unwriting the flame of Geist
Extinguishing the spirit's spark
Unwriting the gl the gl the glas
Deleting the repeated GLAS
Catachresis Catafalque Cataglot
Perversion, coffin, jargon
Always already we have started
We have already begun
Always already we're there
We have already arrived
Always already we are cinders
We are already ashes
Always already we're gone
We have already left
Teach a god to speak
Teach the divine to communicate
Let it be Hebrew or Greek
Whether it be in Hebrew or Greek
Im Anfang var die Logos
In the beginning was the Word
Give holocaust to the sun
Sacrifice to the sun
From flower to fruit to wine to blood to the fire
The cycle of creation, destruction and transformation
The all-burning, all-giving always already retreating formless unvorstellbarer god of the desert
The shapeless deity of the desert, constantly receding while providing and consuming all
God of the East, rising to learn to fall
Eastern god ascending to learn how to descend
To learn to die in the arms of the West
To learn how to die in the embrace of the Western god
The ashes remain
Only ashes are left
Contributed by Amelia E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.