Into The Airwaves
We want records to touch us. We not only want them to change our lives, but to make our lives work. With a great record, our lives are complete. Too bad there aren’t many great ones left.
I find it tough listening to the oldies. There’s no sense of surprise. It’s like living in "Groundhog Day". I was flipping through the tracks on my iPod last night and I landed on David Gray’s "White Ladder". I remembered discovering the record at the turn of the century. I haven’t discovered many records since.
I debated skipping by, but I let the song play through. Fast-forward enough, and nothing sounds good. And while I wasn’t paying attention, the song switched, and what came through my headphones was so stupendous, so good, that it completely changed my mood, put a smile on my face, made me a believer once again. It was a eureka moment.
From an empty room on the first floor
As the cars pass by the liquor store
I deconstruct my thoughts at this piano
And it’s all that I can do to stay with
All the things I didn’t say to you
Before you moved across the country
"Deconstruct"? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that term in a song. You’d expect it to be in the work of an oldster, but this was coming out of the mouth of a twentysomething.
Andrew McMahon was on the road so much, pursuing his dream of stardom with his band Something Corporate, that when he got back to L.A. he found his life in disarray. That woman, she was gone.
What do you do when they leave? In rap tracks it never happens. Ho’s are kicked to the curb. It’s about hanging with your homies. Maybe there’s a population that lives that life, but not me. My life has got a little magic, but more loss.
And from the burning building where I lay
As I watch the stars become the day
The L.A. girls were lacing up their sneakers
They run the boardwalks and the beach
This fish bowl life is all they need
It’s everything I needed, too
Until I heard the news
Wow, maybe too emo for some, but I like the imagery of the burning building, because what you once had, there’s not a shred left. And if you haven’t been up all night, to the point where the sun suddenly arises, you’ve never experienced heartbreak. God, I remember playing all six sides of "Sandinista!" just to get me through.
And that’s L.A. Where the body is king. It is how you look, it is about your image. And everybody is looking, everybody’s outside. They might not be walking, but they’re driving their convertibles, their brown skin shining in the sun, with their sunglasses on.  It’s easy to get caught up in it, until something happens that touches your insides. Not a zit, or a dent in your car, but something that impacts your feelings. Do you have feelings? Do you have a relationship? Or are you just too scared to put yourself out there. Or are you involved, but holding back, to avoid feeling like the singer in this song…
I’ll send this message through the speakers
They told me that you moved
I’ll cross this country on a frequency
What’s a song for, if not to reveal your emotions, your truth. Even if futile, it’s cathartic to get your message out. You feel in touch with YOURSELF!
On Third Street, the freak show thrives
Santa Monica’s alive, but
Something’s not so right inside
Living with the news
I never go to the Third Street Promenade. Unless I need something at the Apple Store. It freaks me out. It’s all those fish bowl people Andrew sings about. Or maybe it’s just people in general, where do I fit in?
Savage Garden sang about the Third Street Promenade, but lovingly, as visitors from Australia might. Whereas Andrew McMahon was living here. But he’s not living in this song. You feel like there’s no future, like A.J. Soprano, when you’re dumped.
I am slipping through, I am slipping through
I am slipping into the airwaves
(The static’s where you’ll find me)
And this is nothing new, you are slipping through
My fingers and into the airwaves
Into the airwaves
And the emotion being expressed. It’s got nothing to do with melisma, it doesn’t say LOOK AT ME, rather it’s an open wound. We don’t see wounds in the pop music sung by people who didn’t write it. There’s a performance, but no truth. But "Into The Airwaves" is only truth. Did he ever really have her? I’ve been wondering whether I need a relationship like that, where I’m not sure I possess the other person. Do I need their desire to leave to keep me paying attention? And what kind of relationship can you have sleeping with one eye open, always the underdog?
Jack’s Mannequin (the name under which Mr. McMahon released this album, entitled "Everything In Transit") is unknown by the baby boomer arbiters of truth. And the hipsters pooh-pooh the whining boys. But is he whining, or speaking to his audience? People who have emotions, who’ve been hurt?
The amazing thing about "Into The Airwaves" is that even if the words were from a nursery rhyme, it would work. This guy’s got a sense of melody and changes. He knows the building blocks. And the production fits the message. You know the record didn’t cost a fortune to make, but it didn’t need to be slick. Life isn’t slick.
I really thought this album would be bigger. Not that it tanked. Not that it got zero push, hell it came out almost two years ago on Maverick. But if you do some research, "Everything In Transit" is a hit amongst its target audience. It’s got FIVE STARS on Amazon! Yup, averaging all 321 reviews, it ended up with the full complement.
This guy is really good. He’s got talent. The fact that his voice is not "American Idol" perfect is irrelevant. Because you can hear him in the grooves, like you could hear Dylan and the poets of yore.
The great music of today is played on a smaller stage, it’s more personal. The big statement is for hacks.
I liked "Everything In Transit" when it came out, I could hear its quality back then. But revisiting it by accident last night, I saw its significance. There’s a whole cadre of young people who feel what I felt. Who believe that this record is their statement, that they’ve got something to hold on to. They want to go to the show, they’re excited about music. Listening, I’m excited about music too.
