Laying awake at night in my one bedroom apt. Been thinking about the Cardiacs and shorthand cultural references and taking things out of context. Uhhh… let’s start with a scene from Night of the Hunter taken out of context, as a way to get into what I’m talkin’ about.

Man, when I first saw this scene I was shocked out of my shoes. This movie is fucked up as balls. But I think some people aren’t quick to see what’s going on here, which is maybe why the movie bombed on its initial release. Since then it’s gotten due praise, but I’m still interested in why it went over so many heads. I can only start to guess that maybe most people want to follow a story. They see the story happening and how character actions reflect motivations. So what if Robert Mitchum stares into the light like he’s staring at his life as both a murderer and a movie actor? Does that mean the movie is weird? Ugh. I don’t know. The movie is weird.
What I’m trying to get at here, is that I think sometimes, or a lot of times, a consumer will engage entertainment with certain expectations and immediately see it in a way that they are familiar with. So for one person seeing Night of the Hunter is not much different than seeing Cape Fear. It depends on what the audience is bringing to the plate I guess? It’s sort of how whenever my band went out on tour, playing for strangers someone would come up to us and say we sounded like Zappa. When we sound nothing like Zappa. But Zappa is a common cultural reference point for time changes in rock music. By sheer willpower and luck (?) Frank Zappa forced himself into everyone’s pocket encyclopedia that they carry around. So Zappa = time changes in rock music, and when people hear time changes they can feel like they understand where the song is going, or what to expect from the experience. So all that shit gets lumped under Zappa or Naked City or King Crimson. The big three for whatever reason. But really it’s all a big misunderstanding. Also I should note that I’m super guilty of this way of describing things as well. And in this way a few bands get lost. I hope I’m being clear enough because there’s no way I’m going to try and tighten these thoughts up.
So that brings me to the Cardiacs, who one friend described to me as “Disney’s Light Parade on coke” or on “speed” or something like that. I can’t remember.


I’ve been thinking about the Cardiacs a lot lately. I listen to them all the time on my long LA bike rides. But I hardly ever listen to them in front of people for fear of some kind of cultural misunderstanding. I think this is because they give off so many cues. It’s the most unfortunate thing about them; this embarrassment about a period in time when rock music took the form of King Arthur on Ice.

I wish I could explain all the ways in which the Cardiacs are amazing, genius and charmingly flawed. But I am tired now. time for sleep. I’ll leave you with an example that encapsulates them pretty well and hope that you bring similar tools to hear them the way I hear them.

Is it too much to say that this song is like a meeting of the best of mid 90’s 120 Minutes sensibilities and Stravinsky’s Les Noces? Ah, am I embarrassing myself?