from the LP When the Red King Comes, Elephant Six Recording Co, 1997“It seems like I'm in danger, distracted by all that I see, and even the nodding strangers can tell what is happening to me; well, the boats we ride have been leaking lately, and the tunnel of frozen time has been increasing greatly…” Warbling along in a gauzy psychedelic haze made up of acoustic guitar, a xylophone & some heavily processed (damaged) effects, this song fully hits the mark for me: a perfect combination of existential, near quasi-paranoid, lyrics and bittersweet minor chord melodies, emerging like the taciturn parable of some ‘luded hermit prophet. Coming along in the second wave of Elephant Six crews, Athens’ own Elf Power always stood out from the pack for me, and though they still relied heavily upon the shared neo-psych sensibilities of that entire collective, their songs always seemed a bit more ethereal and spacey than their peers’ more fey endeavors; that said, most of the heavyweights from that scene had cameos on this LP, including Jeff Magnum (that’s him sitting in on guitar and tossing off one of his signature lilting harmonies in response to the lyric, “…then, to my friends, I'll be gone, and they'll gather and put me away; I hope Jeff will sing me a song, and everyone else will play…”). Anyone who’s gone through rough patches in life for long enough to make trouble your friend knows that always-sinking feeling which often follows you onto a better path, waiting for the other boot to fall, ‘cause it always did, “…there’s a knot in my throat, and the arrow files close, closer all the time…”
