Theoria

Rainer Maria Appreciation Edition

According to that beacon of “indie rock” “culture,” Pitchfork Media (one should not be fooled by their reviews of 50 Cent, The Game, Kelly Clarkson, and JT, of course), the only woman-led “emo” band of any note (and, possibly – if you can believe it – the most pretentiously named one too), Rainer Maria, have announced that they will no longer continue as a band. I can’t say that I’ve followed them since I was in high school; the last record of theirs I listened to when it was new was their 1999 album, “Look Now, Look Again.” All the same, I enjoyed them when I was in high school – this was before The O.C., and before “emo” moved into the zone formally occupied by “indie pop.”

Don’t we all remember Seth climbing on to a table, yelling to the world – and to his beloved Summer – “I’m emo! So sue me!” (or some such [YouTube, Television Without Pity]), and his short-lived affection for Death Cab for Cutie (what we called an “indie pop” band when I was in high school), whose concert he missed to prove his love. But I digress. And, so, a few selections from their collected body of work. I’ll admit that until I downloaded them earlier this week, I was absolutely unfamiliar with about eighty percent of it.

• Post-Worn Searching – “Always More Often” [mp3] and “Homeopathy [mp3]. What doesn’t “want to feed you bad things”?
• Look Now, Look Again – “Breakfast of Champions” [mp3] and “Rise” [mp3]. No idea if the song is a coy reference to the cereal slogan or the Kurt Vonnegut. Maybe it just sounds good. The second, I think, is good example of them trying to live up to their pretentious band name.

The above was written a day or two ago. Upon further review, there seems to be a reason why I lost interest in them. All the same…

Those looking for “loud” (as promised last week) will have to wait another week.