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The base elements in my music are there because my brain feels so cluttered most of the time. I guess everybody's art is everybody's fantasy maybe, or maybe what they're not having so they come up with it in this ether world that's a direct response to dealing with the real world. -How Gelb |
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Neon Filler
The notion of music as commerce and music as art, and the possibly irreconcilable gap between the two poles, is a ghost that lingers in Giant Sand's house. At no point could one say Howe Gelb made concessions to the marketplace, sticking tenaciously to work stoked and seasoned by an inner flame that often requires a patient, open-minded audience to get over.
 Giant Sand |
"I'm kinda entertained by the notion of it all. It's confounding. There's that art in there that has nothing to do with actual art – the art of placement," says Gelb, whose own work is now often referenced in the press, introduced in a way, by the better known lineage of artists that have evolved from Giant Sand, particularly Calexico and Friends of Dean Martinez, whose ranks include multiple alumni of the Giant Sand school of rock. In terms of placement, it's the descendents that have gotten the spotlight rather than the root source, their notoriety gaining more general coinage than the many years Gelb has spent in the trenches.
"It's a unique position, I think. That art of placement, as I've grown older, I've grown to understand it and how it's been applied, and not always by those who understood it but just felt their way along," continues Gelb. "In other words, it's like you think you have to work hard all the time to make your music. You think you have to play hard and play a lot but at some point you're playing too much. It's better if you back off a bit, that 'less is more' thing. People will enjoy it more and you won't dis-include them in the music by playing too much. If you keep it open enough and simple enough they can participate in it. You have an interesting epiphany at some point where you realize, 'Oh, I just have to represent. I don't have to feel like I'm working or feel like I'm threatened to make it happen.' Then there's others who figure it out and decide to adorn it and that's a Christmas tree, and that's really what people want to see. And that's okay, too. Again, it becomes less and less about you playing and more about your taste in your art."
There's a way into Giant Sand's music these days that much of the earlier work simply didn't allow. There's a directness and overarching veracity that's immediate, fueled by music of great force but also great accessibility. While there's been no drop-off in Gelb's poetic, leapfrogging lyrics, there's a stronger hand that enfolds us when it's pouring out our stereos, a loving, humanizing grip. Giant Sand's earlier work is plenty deep but proVISIONS just gets at the real meat of things quicker and more surely.
"It's certainly been a rough eight years to contend with [referring to duration of George W. Bush's time in the White House], overall, just the way the planet's taken a turn and the way the government has been so pathetic and uninspiring," says Gelb. "We got a lot of mileage out of the last World War, with all its 'We're the cavalry coming to the rescue' reputation, and never being the aggressors. That all went without saying, and then everything just went to hell in the past eight years. There's no diplomacy, no intelligence," says Gelb. "I don't care much for politics to begin with because I don't believe in them that much. I don't give them much power. I don't think anything political lasts anywhere near as long as a song. Generations can sing some old, powerful song from 50 or 100 years ago. Politicians just come and go. Most of that's just a sheen or a shellac. That's why the lyrics on this record are politically charged but I can't be so blatant as to paint too crystal a picture with any of them. For one, it's not my style, but I just don't believe in it. I think it should still be art; it should still be there for YOU to make what you will of it. Almost every song has something to do with either the political environment or love, or surviving both. Hey, love is politics, on a much healthier level."
Pitch & Sway
Way out on the horizon there's a monsoon waiting
Way out there beyond your eyes, son, there's dreaded anticipation
With the darkness here prevailing even stars are taking cover
There's a profound desire in many people to ascribe some overriding logic or scripted cosmic narrative to their lives. They feel adrift and long for a god that has written the story of their life down for them but most empirical evidence suggests that human existence is more likely driven by sundry, ever-changing circumstances, the end result more happenstance than destiny.
"I love happenstance," says Gelb. "On the very first album I made in 1980 I tried to record what was in my head and it was just a mess. I didn't like it, and what really confused me was this was what I was hearing in my head and I put it down and I didn't like it. There's an element of balance and torment to music, and that's when I started using happenstance and accidents more. There's so much more going on than you realize and you can use it if you recognize that, if you have the antenna enough to pick up what's going through the room and enjoy it instead of trying to control it."
"In the early years, I never gave the flood much merit or importance. Now that I'm older, I can look at it and go, 'Oh yeah!' I didn't feel like 'oh woe is me' or depressed or horrified or scared – I was fascinated. That whole neighborhood was destroyed. They say the water was six-feet over the roof so it was straight devastating. But all that stuff seemed more of a plus than a minus," says Gelb. "What I'm saying is I'm sure my life has had trajectory. When something changes so severely like a flood and you live through that then the small changes that happen everyday will inspire you to persevere."
Giant Sand is on tour now. They play in L.A. tonight (10/08) and San Francisco on Thursday. Complete tour dates available here.
This is a new one for "Increment of Love" off proVISIONS, a live-in-the-studio take:
And here's a nice live version of "Spiral," also off the new album:
JamBase | Desperate Kingdom of Love
Go See Live Music!
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