Matthew Friedberger - Cut It Out

:::::::::Matthew Friedberger – Acoustic and Electronic Percussion / Vocals:::::::::

Cut It Out is the fourth offering this year from Matthew Friedberger. Comprised solely of drums and vocals, it’s a fairly straightforward continuation of his previous efforts in his epic 2011 masterpiece eight-album collection, Solos: similar songs, different instruments.  If you heard the first three you should pretty well know what you’re in for by now. 

Matthew is exploring composition in a way that not many, if any, other popular musicians have the talent and discipline for.  He is far more concerned with the development of themes and of motifs than he is with crafting songs.  Interestingly, during interviews he rarely, if ever, describes these Solos works as composition but rather always refers to them as “songs.”  He also rarely, if ever, makes any sense at all.  I, personally, hesitate to use the word song in reference to any of his solo material. 

Although this music is extremely formulaic, and I use that word in the most unconventional sense, Friedberger keeps the listener engaged in his almost comedic approach to the the drums.  The tones of the programmed percussion and funky robotic nature of the beats are reminiscent of Beck’s Midnite Vultures.   Remember driving to school and listening to “We like to sit around and get real paid,” laughing at, then, Puff Daddy’s and friends’ all too real enthusiasm for str8 benjamin$$$?  

This would really be a great album to have sex to if not for the extremely off-putting lyrical content and deranged vocal styling that have become Matthew's modus operandi in his Solos collection.  Actually, I would rather have sex to this than Midnite Vultures, which, according to Beck, is an album he wrote specifically so he could have something to have sex to.  You probably would too so, you know... just sayin'. 

Anyway, yes, I'm using sex to sell a Matthew Friedberger album. 

No, that is not really normal in the context of Matthew Friedberger but, well, yeah.  Use protection. 

Right now, it's 3:43 AM and I'm at work in Northbrook, Illinois.   I am extremely fortunate that my job requires little to no actual work.  I am left here in my swivel chair, ostensibly getting paid to contemplate the true nature of the Friedbergers.  

I always compare them to Frank Zappa, the only other popular musician I can think of with such obvious compositional leanings.  Are they smarter than Zappa? Again (see the Old Regimes post), the answer is no, but they are pretty damned smart and funny, enough so to create satyre of even themselves... which is really refreshing and, in today's music scene, brimming over with overblown dramatic facades and almost insultingly simplistic pop idiocy, something to be cherished.

Matthew Friedberger - Cut It Out