by: Seanboy
Owls, the Chicago quartet, are concerned more with the crafting of sounds than the crafting of songs. Absent are the typical chord structures along with any semblance of verse, chorus, verse. In their place the Owls offer loose, improvised instrumentation, accompanied by melancholic, barely-in-tune vocals. Tim Kinsella’s dry delivery of random thoughts and non-sequiturs exemplify the musicality of language. The vocals are simply another instrument, an instrument from which nothing emanates but sound. In the lyrics, elusive of meaning, one refreshingly hears words, not as signifiers, but as musical notes: Aren’t we just like envelopes? / Keep in touch with my hands/Have you yet met the new guys? / Let’s play who here would’ve gone Nazi / Oh I enjoy myself / I’m sorry I want to die.
Formerly known as Cap’N Jazz, the members of Owls regroup some seven years later and rein in the often frantic efforts of their previous band, and make a go at the same theme albeit more straightforward and mature. Of note, a later incarnation of capon Jazz featured the Promise Ring’s Davie von Bohlen. It seems these musicians had quite an influence on von Bohlen--if they were to tighten up the riffs, structure their songs as such, add end rhymes, guitar solos, and a few bop bop doo doo’s, The Promise Ring would be nothing more than a complete Owls/Cap’N Jazz rip-off.
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