Four vans destroyed and sold for scrap metal. Five guitar amps crackled, hissed, and went silent, exhaling a final puff of smoke. An irreplacable vintage keyboard face down at the bottom of a flight of stairs, 13 keys cracked and lifted, never to make a sound again.
A string of misfortune seemed to follow the five young men comprising Michigan's Mason Proper (named for an obscure phrase relating to Freemasonry) last year as they toured in support of their 2007 debut album, There is a Moth in Your Chest. Each time they packed up their belongings to head to another town, they would search their bags and equipment for arcane symbols, unexplained objects, anything that might prove to be evidence of the curse of unluckiness they seemed to be living under. "It was a ritual we took up half-jokingly," singer and primary songwriter Jonathan Visger said, "but the second part of the joke was always that if we ever found anything, it would certainly explain a lot."
The band powered on through the mishaps and continued to play as many of the shows as they could make it to, despite sending van after van to the junkyard. The early shows were energetic and bubbling with enthusiasm, but as the band encountered more and more trouble they became progressively wilder and more dangerously frenetic, coping by learning to take a sick delight in watching the chaos around them. They were in the grip of mental instability. During this time period, keyboardist Matt Thomson would often disappear for hours at a time without telling anyone where he was going. He even missed the beginning of several shows, including a well-documented incident at Denver, Colorado's Monolith Festival, where he disappeared into the mountains. Around this time a wild-eyed and bruised Jonathan was quoted as saying, "I'm disappointed if I don't shed a little blood by the end of a show," when asked about his wild and self-destructive performances.
The band's most fervent supporters are a group known as "The New Destroyers," named after an unreleased song the band retired from their live set after noticing that things would mysteriously break whenever they played it. Some of the New Destroyers cracked the coded messages woven into the artwork of Moth, and through it discovered the secret website the band had created, allowing anonymous communication with the band via the same code.
Shortly after they began using it, several unsettling coded messages came in threateningly alluding to private matters in the band's lives. Shaken by the amount of information the person seemed to have, Mason Proper temporarily shut down the site, but not before one last message came in; it decoded as: KEEP GOING CURSESTELLO.
Convinced that this was a reference to the Elvis Costello-like glasses Jonathan wore through this time period, bassist Zac Fineberg and guitarist Brian Konicek refused to do any further touring with what they now suspected was the cursed item. Jonathan refused to destroy them, saying they had sentimental value and that he would just lock them away instead, but drummer Garrett Jones, the most superstitious of them all, stole them in the night and burned them in Zac's fire pit.
After the allegedly cursed glasses were gone, the band decided to turn over a new leaf and look to the future, hopefully leaving their dark past behind them. They met with producer Chris Coady (TV on the Radio, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blonde Redhead), and with him selected 10 songs from a pool of 30 they had to choose from, aiming to make a very cohesive album, with a tone that reflected the band's collective state of mind as accurately as possible. They rented a small, empty house for a month and recorded the album, and Jonathan met up with Chris again at Carriage House Studios to mix what would become Olly Oxen Free (on the same console the Pixies' "Doolittle" was mixed on).
While some of the songs on Olly Oxen Free do update the dense, electronically-enhanced rock sound the band wielded recklessly on it's debut (which are sure to please longtime fans), it is the times when the band veers off into entirely new territory that are the most intriguing. On "Point A to Point B," nearly all the band's trademark noisiness is gone, while Jonathan sings "In past lives I was wealthy, so probably unhappy. Oh, I'm so glad I died," over a bouncy beat, and a sparse bed of bass and guitar ambience, before opening up to a beautifully simple chorus of, "I swore to myself last time was the last time." The band chose to close the record with "Safe for the Time Being," a song that had surprised the band by becoming an instant live favorite in the months before. A post-apocalyptic slow burner that stays sparse with only a heartbeat kick drum, thin guitar, and the most dynamic vocal melody the band has ever penned, until it explodes at the end in a grand wall of fuzz.
Olly Oxen Free will be out September 23rd on New York's Dovecote Records.
written by Lewis Muzynski, band friend and historian.
Related links:
Mason Proper (official site)
Mason Proper on Myspace
Dovecote Records
Alone
Mason Proper Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
shaking hands, yes they're doing good
cause business is good
and being polite makes everything go real smoothly
swarms of aunts and uncles with tiny hands
crossing roads, looking both ways
and weighing the pros and the cons of that step
but they'll cross that bridge when they get there
i am a totally different person when i'm alone
forty-odd thousand, twenty-something tiny dots
shuffled into a box
where we're sorted and shuffled back
with a certified false sense of big bad dot-dom.
and we shimmy and shake and vibrate
on the same strands of energy we've always been stuck to
i'd love to jump across one day
try to change states
i am a totally different person when i'm alone
The song "Alone" by Mason Proper is a commentary on society and the feeling of being alone in a crowded world. The opening lines describe a bustling block with four hundred people, all seemingly doing well because they are polite to each other. The image of swarms of aunts and uncles with tiny hands crossing roads and weighing the pros and cons of each step is a metaphor for the cautious and calculated way that society moves. The line "but they'll cross that bridge when they get there" suggests that people are willing to take risks, but only when they feel comfortable doing so.
The chorus, "I am a totally different person when I'm alone," is the heart of the song. It speaks to the feeling of being disconnected from the world and longing for a deeper sense of self. The second verse describes the anonymity of modern life, where people are reduced to tiny dots and shuffled around in boxes. The line "with a certified false sense of big bad dot-dom" suggests that people are given a false sense of importance in a world that doesn't really care about them.
The final lines of the song again emphasize the theme of being alone. The image of vibrating on the same strands of energy we've always been stuck to is a commentary on the cyclical nature of life, and the desire to break free from it. The line "I'd love to jump across one day, try to change states" is a metaphor for the desire to break free from the norm and become something different.
Overall, "Alone" is a thoughtful and introspective song that delves into the complexities of modern life and the desire for deeper meaning and connection.
Line by Line Meaning
four hundred people on this block
There are many individuals in the vicinity.
shaking hands, yes they're doing good
People are being polite and friendly in their interactions with each other.
cause business is good
There seems to be a profitable economy in this area.
and being polite makes everything go real smoothly
When people are polite, it helps to create a harmonious environment.
swarms of aunts and uncles with tiny hands
There are many family members in this area.
crossing roads, looking both ways
People are taking precautions while making their way across the streets.
and weighing the pros and the cons of that step
They are considering the advantages and disadvantages of their actions.
but they'll cross that bridge when they get there
They will tackle the difficulties that come their way when they have to.
i am a totally different person when i'm alone
I manifest a completely different persona when I am not around people.
forty-odd thousand, twenty-something tiny dots
There are many individuals like me in the world.
shuffled into a box
We are contained and compressed into a limited space.
where we're sorted and shuffled back
We are subjected to categorization and repetition.
with a certified false sense of big bad dot-dom.
We are given the illusion of being significant in the grand scheme of things, but in reality, our existence is relatively inconsequential.
and we shimmy and shake and vibrate
We move around vibrantly, seemingly full of energy.
on the same strands of energy we've always been stuck to
We are limited to the same basic patterns and habits that we have always exhibited.
i'd love to jump across one day
I desire to break free from the monotony of my existence.
try to change states
To see if I am capable of altering my current form and state of being.
Contributed by Elizabeth J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.