David Pajo - Scream with Me (Black Tent Press, 2009)

Un superbe mini-album de covers signé David Pajo, dans la même veine que le maxi proposé récemment - donc du folk à pleurer dans la veine du regretté Elliott Smith. Des reprises? Oui, et qui plus est des reprises de Glenn Danzig des Misfits, qui entre les mains de l'ex-Slint et Tortoise subissent le même traitement que celles d'AC/DC revues par Mark Kozelek - à savoir qu'elles en sortent transfigurées. Je le redis, le résultat est superbe.

David Pajo
Scream with Me
CD Black Tent Press No.2 (USA, 02-2009)

01. Angelfuck
02. Hybrid Moments
03. Where Eagles Dare
04. Bullet
05. Teenagers from Mars
06. Devil's Whorehouse
07. I Turned into a Martian
08. Horror Business
09. Attitude

Note : Songs written by Glenn Danzig (the Misfits).
Experimental cover albums generally tend to disappoint. Usually an artist’s motives for interpretation are sound, yet the final product is rarely impressive, often belittling the original work. Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), known for his “interpretive covers,” has reconstructed a myriad of works ranging from Francis Scott Key’s “The Star Spangled Banner,” to various AC/DC tracks, to an entire collection of Modest Mouse songs (Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities). The problem with Kozelek’s covers, as with others who compose hyper-experimental covers, is that frankly, no one really cares. All he really did (and this is no knock on Kozelek’s earlier work like Down Colorful Hill, just his questionable later years) was write a completely unrelated song with his own trademark musical style. Then instead of writing lyrics that could tie a noose around any listener’s neck, he used the author’s original ones…obviously.
Unlike Kozelek’s frequent use of “poetic license,” David Pajo’s relatively unknown, vinyl only release, Scream With Me, finds a tolerable balance between interpretation and reiteration. As you’ve probably guessed, the record takes a rather sobering look at a collection of songs from the original Kings of the Underworld, The Misfits.
Pajo is probably the most important guitarist since the late 80s, and even though this record doesn’t really add to his impressive resumé (Slint – Spiderland & Tweez, Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die & TNT, Royal Trux – 3 Song EP), it does serve as an intriguing work.
Anyways, if you the thought 3-chord punk couldn’t be simplified any further, then you’ve been misled. Pajo takes punk’s musical manifesto and turns it into very simple lo-fi acoustic jams. Pajo follows the chordal tonality of each song, then turning the power chords into natural chords more suitable for the tenderness of plucking and finger picking. Pajo’s feeble vocals could bother some, but they are pleasantly human.
You’re not going to find a whole lot of progressive jazz riffs, piercing harmonics, spastic time signatures or anything else that made Pajo a Louisville legend, but there is a great way to enjoy this album: build a camp fire deep within your local wilderness destination, crack open a few cold ones and indulge in one of the most epic sing-a-longs courtesy of Pajo.

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