GRANT LEE BUFFALO - MIGHTY JOE MOON
What’s the appropriate aural version of saying for ‘sight for sore eyes’? Whatever it is, it applies to Mighty Joe Moon. As I pressed play there was an audible sigh of relief for the familiarity the first few chords of ‘Lone Star Song’ provides.
Grant Lee Buffalo is layered with haunting guitars and organ but its comforting rather than mournful...soothing in that Mellon Collie and the Infinite sadness kind of way before that album existed. Can a reference be a reference if it didn't even exist yet?
Grant Lee Buffalo supported REM on the Monster world tour in 95. Listening to this album conjures up strong memories of half standing half sitting punters, distracted by their conversations and nursing beers in the warm summery wind of the Myer Music Bowl. I was 15 and my tickets were my Christmas present. Being the ultimate in teenage cool I was there with my Mum who said many times afterwards that she feared being crushed by a sea of Doc Martins or accidentally stoned by the second hand smoke wafting over the crowd. I was supposed to go with this girl Sarah, but being the flaky, unreliable bimbo she was, she flaked out. This experience would set the tone for the next few years until at Uni I met my most reliable best friend who came to just about anything with me...even Savage Garden...twice. For those in between years and even after, I would skip the bullshit of others and go on my own...or with my Dad. Like I said, I’m as cool as they get.
Around the time of the REM tour, Grant Lee Buffalo was on high rotation on ‘rage’ with the music video for ‘Mockingbirds’ which became a constant in my dream life. I still dream once a year that I’m in the video in a big bird costume in B&W. It’s likely that I spent too many weekends staying up all night watching music videos.
Mighty Joe Moon makes me think of the in between seasons like Autumn and Spring for reasons that I don’t understand. Its the kind of album I’d listen to if I was at College somewhere in America and had boy trouble. When I was at Uni though the only Grant Lee Buffolo connection was the pastry chef where I worked part time was obsessed with them. I always found it odd...he had long blond hair, drove an old wagon that broke down constantly and surfed. This equation messed with my head as the internal stereotype machine I use everyday, couldn't put all these pieces together in a way that fit. Do surfers listen to wistful alt-country? Isn't Jack Johnson more their thing?
STAND OUT TRACKS:
# All of them: Grant Lee Phillips could sing the instruction booklet to a microwave and it would sound prophetic
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