MUSIC: Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities

Artist: Sun Kil Moon
Album: Tiny Cities
Label: Caldo Verde
Released: 2005

Review: Nobody likes a cover band. A cover song here or there is okay, but cover bands are the things of bad frat parties thrown by that forty-year old brother who sticks Greek letter decals on his riding lawnmower license plate. Cover bands are those all-white funk bands that play at the bar adjunct to the Holiday Inn by the highway on Tuesday nights. Cover bands are on this planet for one reason alone...to play in dive bars when the high-school punk bands finish their set and have to go home for bedtime.

All that being said, it is understandable that most of the reviews I have read of the newest Sun Kil Moon album, Tiny Cities, are negative. The entire album which is 11 songs long, is an entire album dedicated to covering the music of Modest Mouse. My initial reaction to hearing about this album was also to scoff in disgust. With Modest Mouse lead singer, Isaac Brock's jittery, impossible-to-replicate lyrical delivery and the band's uniquely cacophonous melodies, why would anyone even attempt to replicate their sound. This initial reaction faded when I realized who was helming this seemingly absurd project.

Mark Kozelek, former frontman for the slow folk rock band Red House Painters has used his deep toned vocals to cover such bands as AC/DC and KISS in the past, transforming ridiculous power chords and screaming absurdities into fingerpicking and cooing that sounds as if it were coming from a medieval bard's tongue. So, why not Modest Mouse? MM is admittedly more complex and layered of a band than either AC/DC or KISS, and lyrically playful and dire all at once. Why not Modest Mouse indeed.

Kozelek and Co. made sure to include selections from each of Modest Mouse's full length releases as well as a couple of b-sides. Receiving much flak from reviewers and hipsters alike is the fact that most of these tracks sound very similar to each other in tone, barely deviating from pace or length. There is little more than a guitar and vocal track on each track with the exception of a few light string parts and a brushed drum beats. Kozelek himself admits that these recordings are his interpretations and reverences to a band that truly moves him with their music. Perhaps these recordings were never meant to be released as an album and critics will accuse Kozelek of trying to make a quick buck off of the newfound fame of Modest Mouse, but I think there was a more honorable and artistic reason for the release.

Kozelek's strength, no matter the band he surrounds himself with, has always been his voice. My first introduction to his songwriting and singing ability was on the a capella compilation, The Unaccompanied Voice, released by Secretly Canadian in 2000. It was on Kozelek's one track from this collection where I learned that to listen to his music, is to pay attention to the lyrical content.

And that is exactly where the new Sun Kil Moon hits and where the critics seem to miss. When Isaac Brock sings a Modest Mouse Song, it is much like watching a film where all the characters speak the same language as you, but with a thick regional accent. The gist of it is there, but something is missed in the delivery. Kozelek remedies this by first slowing the tempo of all of the songs on Tiny Cities down and second, enunciating the way your seventh grade English teacher wanted you to. The cadence of each song is still a bit off, much like the flow of any Modest mouse lyric, but Kozelek manages to make these cadences work. Though quiet and slower, each song is easily recognizable to any Modest Mouse fan and beautiful enough for anyone who is unfamiliar. The fans, however, will be granted an opportunity to revel in the lyrical content of Modest Mouse's music rather than trying to digest the entire package all at once.

Yes, Modest Mouse plays these songs better, but Mark Kozelek's strong voice and obvious respect for the songs shines through and makes for an interesting listen that won't disappoint. The album is also appropriately short, not overdoing it. The weakest aspect comes with the abrupt ending of each song, leaving the listener not necessarily wanting more, but wanting to understand. I've found that repeated listening is the only way to inch closer to that understanding.

Kozelek is a man of many talents, and unafraid to show his reverence for those who came before...as well as for his contemporaries. Tiny Cities may not be his best work, but it is an admirable project that enhances the poetic side of one of indie rock's most interesting bands.

Rating: 3.75 / 5

Purchase Tiny Cities at insound.com: Consume

Buy Other Mark Kozelek Releases

-Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003)
-Mark Kozelek - What's Next To The Moon CD (2001)
-Red House Painters - Old Ramon CD (2001)
-Various Artists - The Unaccompanied Voice CD (2000)
-Mark Kozelek - Rock 'N' Roll Singer CD (2000)
-Red House Painters - Retrospective 2xCD (1999)
-Red House Painters - Ocean Beach CD (1995)
-Red House Painters - Red House Painters II CD (1993)
-Red House Painters - Red House Painters I CD (1993)
-Red House Painters - Down Colorful Hill CD (1992)

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