[series] Fifteen for Thirty - Part Two

[saikou]

02. "The Verve Pipe" by The Verve Pipe

While I can't promise that every one of these entries/dissections will be as epic as the peaen to "Year Zero", I'm going to try my best to deliver some quality musical thought to chew on. That said, we have reached an album I'd almost forgotten about, 13 years after it was on constant and relentless repeat in my CD player (aww, that sounds almost quaint).

When you think about The Verve Pipe, if you ever think about The Verve Pipe, you're going to think of "The Freshmen". This song haunts me for entirely different reasons than it haunts Brian van der Ark, lead singer and lyricist of the band. "The Freshmen", lead single and breakout hit from the band's 1996 album "Villains", catapulted them to musical fame at an auspicious time in the industry. Tastes were veering away from the alternative rock craze of the early-to-mid 90's, and more into nu metal, pop, and techno influence. By the time The Verve Pipe released its eponymous follow-up to "Villains" in 1999, America just didn't care anymore. Which is a shame, because "The Verve Pipe" is a brilliant album.

"Villains" was brilliant as well, with dark musical beauties like "Ominous Man" (a lovely, tender ballad about a stalker with a restraining order against him) and "Myself" (a spiteful ode to actress Sophie Marceau, or so the stories go). The Verve Pipe were a band that recorded two stellar albums in the span of four years. I listened to both of them religiously, to the point where they still tend to overlap in my mind. But in choosing which to place in my favorites list, the sheer narrative and pathos of "The Verve Pipe" has to win out.

It's short, coming it at just over 45 minutes, but in that span of time it manages to pack in lyrical twists and turns that match perfectly with the tight, rough-around-the-edges, but ultimately graceful music The Verve Pipe was known for.

In essence, "The Verve Pipe" is an album about fame. But somehow, in all of that cliche business, it becomes something more.

It begins with "Supergig", a simple rock song at first, with typical lyrics about a typical rock show.

Then, things get interesting, in the usual van der Ark way. We go from the narrative of a band playing a run-of-the-mill gig to a powerful remark on the life cycle of a band. And somehow, the presentation manages to make it not in the first person.

Supergig by veepinku

The catalog of ballads
We played to clean your palates
We used to care, we don't care anymore

So, simply, the album starts off depressing. It does the opposite of what "Year Zero" did, in this case. The album begins from a cynical point of view, but a palpably adult on in a very specific place. This worked really well for a teenager listening, though.

The song that follows, "She Loves Everybody", actually inspired a screenplay I worked on for a couple of years directly following high school. Don't bother asking about it, it was shit. But the fact still remains, this song was enough of a snapshot, a question, a scene, that it inspired that. Sadly, almost none of The Verve Pipe's lesser known songs are on YouTube, and their official website still embeds songs IN REALPLAYER FORMAT, so I had to make some quick and dirty videos and upload them to Dailymotion to give you an audio sample. However, as wonderful as I find the music on "The Verve Pipe" to be, it's really about the lyrics for me. Imagine if Colin Meloy wrote about fame culture. It would read like a Brian van der Ark song.

She Loves Everybody by veepinku


The evidence sits in the VCR
He's choking on apologies
She's channeling a superstar
A tiny elbow through the crowd
The flashing lights, the music's loud
I'm questioning if this is destiny
Diseappering from the rants
Ignoring risen sycophants
I close my eyes

A smattering of radio airplay went to the album's lead single, "Hero", which itself delivers on the theme of the album with tongue-in-cheek playfulness. It even got a video! (imagine that!)

Now, make no mistake, this video is so 90's it practically screams angelfire.com, Craig Kilborn on the Daily Show, and frosted tips on guys. Oh, wait... that's just Brian van der Ark's hair. And, admittedly, he's got the mannerisms of a drag queen (I want to take this moment to point out that I had a huge crush on Brian van der Ark). But keep in mind, this isn't their speed. They are not, and were never, a "media band". My friend Tom, whose encyclopedic music knowledge astounds and humbles me to this day, saw the Verve Pipe live in an acoustic set and claimed they were one of the best-sounding live bands he's ever heard. Professionalism and musicianship, that's what it was all about. Therefore...

Love me, love me sweet cowardice
Now that the thrill is mine for the moment
We really didn't need another suicide
Or a song explaining why, why it's not dignified
But i can't seem to kiss it goodbye

"Hero" keeps it upbeat and radio-friendly while still delivering the message of "fuck this one-hit wonder mess", as they reference "The Freshmen" for not the first time on the record and definitely not the last.

Which brings us to the album's moral (and cynical) heart: "The F Word".

Here's a hint: "The F Word" is not "Fuck".

It's "Freshmen".

The F Word by veepinku

I've got to get arrested to keep you interested
I should have known that I can't change the world by staring at it

My arms have little feeling from lifting to the ceiling
A recipe for stealing hearts I have no power in healing

And i suppose the jesus pose is tired and superficial, lame
I wrote a song, I'm moving on, I'm praying you can do the same

I'm changing my direction making a correction
Oh my god, I've dodged the unexpected bullets behind accolades and

Shake your head of leisure get your head and body into seizure
And battle with whoever hides assault disguised as dancing

This rotting phase of hands that raise, bumping heads that pass each other
It's a boring phase, so part the wave and drop the dead as driftwood surfer

Another song, it all went wrong, the radio refused to play it
I'm not afraid to serenade, the f word saved and sucked the life from me

Now... the funny thing about this is, with the writing of this piece I can see how "The Verve Pipe" might come off as indulgent and self-centered as an album. I never had this reaction to the album. Perhaps it's the tone with which it's delivered. It has the frenetic quality of an album designed to say exactly what it's saying, without posturing or trying to make itself a statement or a reaction. The words are bombs within the songs, they are not the meaning of the album. And yet, the theme of the wages of fame unites the entire thing. It's never over-the-top, it never pretends to be something it's not. If you take the brilliance that was the relatively quiet "Villains", and add a heavy dose of fucked-over chutzpah, you get this. It's the same band. It's the same formula. But the band is bringing us so much more, without making it too obvious.

I think it has to do with the Verve Pipe being a largely unknown band. It has to do with their identity as a one-hit wonder. You expect one-hit wonders to take the fifteen minutes of fame, enjoy it, and then move on to other projects and bigger and better things (like high school teaching gigs or hosting shows on VH1). But the Verve Pipe becomes the mouse that roared and tells us, unequivocally and repeatedly, that this is bullshit. We can't hate them, because as a standard audience we never got the chance to know them. This isn't U2 whining about fame or Aerosmith saying "you guys always ask us to play the same four songs, waaahhh". These are the little guys, calling it like it is. And somehow it manages to be accessible, friendly, and playful.

On top of that, there are some genuinely mind-blowing alternative rock music moments.

"La La", the album's closer, is the crowning gem of the album and possibly of the Verve Pipe's entire discography.

La La by veepinku

From the moment that I give out
We begin to live out scenes from a romantic prose
We're tethered to the roles
What was meant disguised as sentiment could hang
Misunderstood and left unanswered

That screenplay I talked about earlier? I had the last scene planned to this song, where the best-friends-and-intellectual-cohorts-and-maaaaaybe-more almost kiss. It just turns into dancing and smiling and just being happy to have a best friend. I relate it to falling for your best friend, but it's relatable to so much. The lyrics hit the heart, and if the song's last verse doesn't make you grin, you're black-hearted.

So, unlike "Year Zero", "The Verve Pipe" takes a potentially sour and dreadfully cynical album, and turns it around at the end with one of the most hopeful, uplifting songs in the band's entire catalog. It's not that "La La" negates everything that came before it... it's that "La La" becomes more sincere when taken in the context of the album. Sure, there's the intimately sweet ballad "Kiss Me Idle" and the high-flying majesty of "She Has Faces" (oh, hey, that was on the Acclamation playlist), but "La La" ties it all up with some universal and undeniable happiness.

I'll always contend that I would never like the Verve Pipe as much without Brian van der Ark's songwriting. He has a method of stringing words together that is poetic. Such poise with meter and rhyme, and a stunning vocabulary that doesn't go too far into Colin Meloy territory as to be indecipherably dense. He simply knows how words work, and how they work in the context of music.

It's really a shame about the Verve Pipe's radio career, but in the grand scheme of things this was the perfect way for it to happen.

Thanks, boys.

Hint for Part Three: This classic is so hipster, it was Vampire Weekend before Vampire Weekend was Vampire Weekend. In 1985. You heard me.

Comments

[seishin.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing 'Hero' and quite liking it! I'm sure I DL'ed it off Napster. LOL Thinking I'm might have to give this album another spin.


Why is your hint making me think of Devo, mashed up with Brian Costello and Adam Ant? This is probably a sign I need to get my ass to bed. When you post it I'm probably going to smack myself at not figuring it out sooner. :P

[engel-sehnsucht.livejournal.com]

I'll have to give them a listen sometime. :)

[lalalive23.livejournal.com]

Omg, I haven't thought about The Verve Pipe in aaaggeessss. I have Villains somewhere in my endless shoeboxes of CDs. This is making me want to pull it out and listen to them. God, they were so good. I think bands with 'verve' in the name were destined to be one hit wonders, even though they were so talented. The Verve was another one of those. So good and such a shame that they couldn't really break here.

Brb gonna go drown in the 1990s.