Today we continue House of Leaves week, by visiting the musical side of the story. But first, a Johnny Truant style aside. In courier.
Encountering Poe as a musical artist comes way before reading House of Leaves, when I was younger. See, I had read an article in a gaming magazine, about voice acting. Apparently, Poe was in a game, as an actress (rather than performing music)and the article was partially on the nature of voice acting in games (with amusing anecdotes on how to differentiate your screams of getting crushed versus your screams of being immolated), and partially on her own work.
Ok, I think, how can I locate this article so I can talk more in depth, I asked myself. Couldn't remember the name of the magazine, whether it was an EGM or maybe a Gamepro. Hell, it could have been any of those dozens of mags I used to read when I was younger. I tried to eliminate which mag it wasn't. Wasn't a UGP, because UGP was full of nutcases and beloved insane maniacs that one day traveled to PSM and took it over. Wasn't Game Informer. Too new. But it wasn't Gamefan, a beloved and much missed mag, with its glossy pages, intelligent writers, and superb layouts.
Fuck. See, even now I can't even name the dozens I've read, you know?
I try to narrow it down further. I tried to recall maybe the ballpark of years I'd read it. I tried to remember what I was doing, where I was, when I read it. I do remember my room. I get brief flashes of this room. I want to say in the last maybe 8 years. We lived in an apartment then, after getting kicked out of the rented house we'd lived in for about 10 years, kicked out my senior year of high school. The apartment was shrouded in thick trees, from the main street, so the room was always dark. Lucky we never had to pay a lot for electric cuz we always had the lights on in the house, even in high afternoon. My sister and I shared a room, so it was always cramped and made the room darker. I remember the dark a lot. It was kinda stuffy, even though we had a/c.
See, this is where I thought I'd read this article, in the apartment, but when I pushed the memory farther, I see a big dresser at the foot of my bed, a trundle bed, which meant my sisters rolled under it, and mine was sky high. Our beds were perpendicular, right angles, and I can see at the head of the bed is our window, a high window, and that let all the light in, but that room was dark too.
And as Shakespeare says, therein lies the rub. I haven't been in that house in over 10 years. And I am positive I'd read the article more recently than high school. Positive, damn it.
So which was it? Does it matter? I'd read an ass old article about Poe in a video games, and now I'm thinking I must be mistaken, because I can't find evidence of her work, and I must be making that up. Poe was never in a game, as an actress, I'm mistaken. Plenty of pretty blonde women singers must use the stage name Poe.
But again.
I do remember Poe now. There was a song. Its on a cassette, cuz in those days we didn't have Limewire of itunes, only a radio, and my station was Alice, but I can't for the life of me remember the call sign. I remember the song. Its Hello. But its not the album verion, its a mix, the Nevan Electronica Mix I know now, and I remember the refrain of "la la la la da da". As soon as I hear it, my mind inserts those pops and clicks from the cassette tape, and I remember as I'm listening, i don't have the whole song, its at the end of the tape, and in reality, I can't for the life of me remember how the song ends. But I remember the words, so as I listen to this song, more than 10 years later, the rush of the 90s I can only remember through a game about dreams and jesters comes back. I sing along with the song on a computer, Hello Hello, are you out there. She doesn't sing a question, she sings it as a statement.
Are you out there.
I spent money on this post, as I went to the itunes store and bought some albums. So today, I'm entitled to freewrite. To be honest, you can't seem to write about House of Leaves unless its freewrite, so that everything flows out, damn the structure, or an academic paper.
Enough of my ranting. Sometimes you got to have the levity to play when you read a book like this. Not that Poe's music helps you in keeping your sanity. However I fell into Poe from an ash tree or a jester doesn't matter, what matters is today we're gonna talk about the music.
We'll start with my first and until now only experience with Poe outside of that article that exists or doesn't. We'll start with Hello.
Ok, I know nothing of this woman except that I know her voice has haunted me since the mid 90s, with this song alone. Because this song has two versions; one rock oriented and the one I'm most familiar with is this one, which according to iTunes is interchangeable with Hello and Hello (Nevin Electronica Mix), and with the film Stir of Echoes. Never seen it. But it has Kevin Bacon. I guess I'm down for that.
Listening back to this song now, after not knowing who the artist was, what it was called, or even what movie it was involved in, I get pisces of mind back. I mean, I have a glut of music I don't know who its attached to, only remembering the lyrics and snippets of melodies. It also brings me a wave of nostalgia. It is SO close, the memories of the time period the song brings back I can almost feel it right now. Its weird. Its only one song, yet its already pulling at me with these claws of nostalgia that I almost tear up. Music must be so powerful a thing. I suppose right now this says a lot of me. Why Hello brings back these visceral feelings of memory, and these almost tangible sensations, I don't know why. But I can even remember what the song looked like back then.
Uh oh, its time to ship Dio off to the funny farm. She can see what music looks like.
Hear me out. See, around this period of time, I remember being pretty enamored of the video game NiGHTS: into dreams. Ha, like I ever stopped, you know? I did a lot of creating during these years, out of elementary school right on til now, with these tiny worlds I created based on things I loved dearly. So yeah, I do have some interesting lil characters inspired by NiGHTS flitting about my head even now, but then it was pretty life-devouring. Then there's Hello. Hello so vividly brings back memories of the game setting, but not quite as someone would assume. I remember the town the game is based on, loosely. There's the streets, black and slicked with rain, in the middle of Twin Seeds. Driving in a car, through the rain, after midnight in Twin Seeds. Yellow orange lights in sparkles across the jet black asphalt, the hum of tires over the wet street, and Poe's voice.
Only its not Twin Seeds the whole time, its a freeway now, travelling away from the city, the lights are coming farther and few between, until the only sight is yellowed headlights on wet road, driving away, and longing. Longing, that's about all I can say about it, driving and longing and not having any heading whatsoever.
Annnnnnnd, maybe now its time to cart me off. Where NiGHTS even gets involved in this, i have no idea, but its that dream-like quality of going nowhere, but going. That's Hello to me. I remember this so vividly, as well as my room at my mother's house in Manteca. I had the second floor room that faced the street with a huge window. I had a wall mounted tv in there, a shelf above my head of the bed that had figurines and drapery that my mom did. I could go on and on about this room, that I haven't been in for over 10 years now. But the fact remains, its just this one song that brings back two vivid memories: driving in the rain and the room in my mother's old house.
This was gonna be more of an exploration of her music, but I see I've already gone long off the beaten path, so I'll settle on two more songs, trying to keep in the theme of the book, and then let you go off and call the mads to come get me.
I want 2 robots to accompany me though, and one of them better be wisecracking.
I do want to add that this version of the song Haunted is balanced differently, since there's been some loss in the sound. It echoes more than the album version, and while normally I would take issue with it a bit, I find its done some good for the song. Her vocals seem to led easy to lossy format internet audio.
Speaking of vocals, I do recognize some similarity the singer for Johnny Hollow sounds to Poe. Which I assume is why I'm rather fond of Johnny Hollow (if you would like a sample, Yoko's got it on her iPod).
There's some beautiful twang, lovely vocal variety, and this sense of longing, not unlike Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, only their voices are totally different. Poe's is etherial, sometimes ghostly, but clear and melodic in a way I can't quite express in my limited skill of speaking about music. Mary's is low and husky and beautiful in a way a blues singer is, a voice that's seen some heartache and knows how to express it (if you'd like an example of her work, Yoko's got a track of hers and Akira Yamaoka's). However, another track on the Poe's Haunted album, Control, has qualities similar to Mary's.
I have no clue what I'm trying to say. I really don't got no idea at all, I just know I would marry her voice. But now you've all gotten the idea of the genre of music Poe works in, rock, with some electrical touches, sometimes slow, but other times faster (unlisted tracks that are like that are Walk the Walk and Wild, which midway actually switches its drumbeat and takes off in an entirely different direction; its 9 minutes long, making it the longest track on the album by almost 3 minutes; warning: near the end, you'll want to watch the intense distortion, so use caution when listening on headphones). But through it all are her haunting vocals that are bright, clear, and occasionally pierceing and accusing, while at other times, reverent and gentle and conversational. If you're a fan of Akira Yamaoka's music, the rock portions of his Silent Hill soundtracks especially, then you're probably going to like what you're going to hear from Poe.
I chose the live version of 5 1/2 Minute Hallway because I found it to be close to the version I have on the album. I also chose it because its preceeded by a recording of Poe's (and Danielewski's) late father. They're a poignant sort of connection with a the past, and of course a house (this recording mentions the word), and i can't help but wonder what their father must think (if it were me, I would be beyond touched; this attains an immortality most people cannot have, and through the repetitions from the tours, the recordings that make it to the net, and are further posted, reposted, embedded, linked, their father lives on, a part of the legacy).
I also adore the live version as much as the album version. That wounded longing that the hallway in the song evokes of the house's hallway is present in the song. I also just love the beginning of the song, that begins almost as a bluesy, folksy, but intimate, as if she's singing straight to you, in a stairwell of a building with a single guitar, the curls of cigarette smoke hanging lazily above your head, life sprawling out before you with its infinite possibility. A lot of her songs are like that, in that hazy middle between what is right now, and what might/could/would/should/may happen, beer nirvana, which is right before you've had too much and just enough to get those bare moments of serene clarity, away from the noise of living.
Deep? Fuck if I know. But that's how it sounds and feels to me. There's a short story somewhere here, but I'm too busy writing ones about MLIA submissions.
I was going to add one more track, which is actually entitled House of Leaves, off of Haunted, but no one on youtube (which google sites only uses besides google video) seems to have it. Unfortunately, I lack the means at the mo to upload it, so for now I'll have to simply direct you to itunes to pick up the Haunted (Bonus Track Version), and leave you with the videos already posted and embedded here. I realize this musical trip was nothing more than a few asides to the actual artist more than my own impressions, but you know, the house does that to you. After all, Poe's music is a part of House of Leaves as much as the reader himself is. Its realizing you've been in love, not noticing until you're confronted head on, and grasp it was meant to be.
--Dio (10/12/10) Happy Birthday Dad!