Close Lobsters

Certain Songs #242: Close Lobsters – “Now Time”

July 6, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Kunstwerk in Spacetime EP
Year: 2014.

Here’s the thing: you don’t get to broken up for two decades, reunite for the inevitable nostalgia-driven shows for the older geezers, and then make new music of any kind of consequence. That’s not how it works: just ask Black Francis.

And sure, Dinosaur Jr has done it, but J. Mascis & Lou Barlow have been working songwriters for that entire time (and let’s face it: Mascis is an all-time great).

But a band that made two albums and an EP and then broke up? No way. Which is why the Close Lobsters 2014 comeback, “Now Time,” was such a pleasant surprise.

Certain Songs #241: Close Lobsters – “Knee Trembler”

July 5, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Headache Rhetoric
Year: 1989.

One of the great thing about the 1980s was that if I got into an artist late into their first album cycle, I’d often get inundated with new music from that artist just as I’d digested their debut. And so it was for me as Close Lobsters tossed two albums and an EP into my life — all of which I loved — in the space of little over a year.

After all, yearly releases weren’t an anomaly in the 1980s, but rather an expectation.

Then they broke up, of course, leading me to obsess over what they’d already done and mourn what they’d never do. Especially since their second record, Headache Rhetoric, was tougher and darker than Foxheads Stalk This Land. And while it wasn’t quite as consistent, Headache Rhetoric sported a couple of songs that I absolutely cherish: “Nature Thing” and one of my absolute favorite songs of the 1980s, “Knee Trembler.”

Certain Songs #240: Close Lobsters – “Let’s Make Some Plans”

July 3, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: What is There To Smile About? EP
Year: 1988.

Coming on the heels of Foxheads Stalk This Land, the late 1988 What Is There To Smile About? EP showed the Close Lobsters toughening up their music. They were still jangling all over the place, but this was one of those EPs that was more of a progress report than a stopgap. Songs like the title track and “Loopholes” sported the kind of world-class guitar riffs & hooks that would make Johnny Marr spin around in his grave.

And if you’ve ever heard any Close Lobsters song, chances are it’s “Let’s Make Some Plans.” Not only was there an actual video made, it was covered by the somewhat less obscure Wedding Present during the height of their somewhat less obscureness.

Certain Songs #239: Close Lobsters – “In Spite of These Times”

July 2, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Foxheads Stalk This Land
Year: 1987.

While Foxheads Stalk This Land came out in 1987, I didn’t buy it until 1988, which is why my memories of listening to it revolve around the apartment at Wishon & McKinley during the dread summer of 1988.

That summer was those times in my life where it felt like everything was crashing around me, and the Wishon & McKinley apartment was the first time in my life I’d ever lived alone, so music felt like it was pretty much all I had.

Thus, my love for “In Spite of These Times.”

Certain Songs #238: Close Lobsters – “A Prophecy”

July 1, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Foxheads Stalk This Land
Year: 1988.

One of my favorite running Twitter jokes is to take a random phrase that someone has just tweeted and use it as a band name. The usual construction is something like “I saw Fake Dead Girlfriend open for the Pixies at the i-Beam in 1991.”

The reason, of course, that this joke works is that there are real-life bands with names like “Close Lobsters.” It’s a name that makes no godsdamned sense, and it might even be just weird enough to be off-putting, which I guess is part of the point.

24 Musical Moments to Die For

August 29, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of a hook is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

The is the second in a series. The first one had 25, this one has 24.

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Oh, and this isn’t in any kind of order, despite the numbering.