The Mr T Experience - "Zero" (live)

Aug 22 2018 · 3:59 PM

117 views

https://youtu.be/zd9G9BX4tmE Hail Woden, hail hail rock and roll, and hail hail hail to all of you. Welcome to another Wodensdæg. And as is my wont, if wont is the world I want, I have another song cued up on the internet video machine. (Though the internet will contrive to hide it from you, no doubt. Find it and watch it anyway. Don't let them win.) And yeah, I used to play guitar like that! What we have here is another song from that crazy, crazy night in Southampton, UK, Summer of '92. "Zero" is one of Jon von's finest tunes, still relevant and pointed after all these years -- it's still over, people are still playing (including us!) and it's still a "damn shame." The lyrics are kind of a minimalist-nihilist koan that perhaps would only be weakened by too much dissection, but I have no doubt it's absolutely the case that zero is what it means, whatever "it" may be. Well, it was really fun to play, and that means something: possibly a further paradox? Hm, all of a sudden this write-up seems to have gone over my head just a bit... Along with "So Long Sucker" this song was on our first single on Lookout (Lookout #23, if you're counting) after Rough Trade US folded. These tracks represented at least a bit of a step up in how carefully we were choosing and recording songs. The two tracks, plus four others, were from a demo we recorded to try to find a new label... we sent it pretty much everywhere to no avail, though I think we got a sarcastic rejection from Sub Pop. Anyway, Lookout came to the rescue, in the spirit of charity and blatant localism, I imagine, like the St Vincent de Paul. But that guitar hero stuff... even extending to "tapping" and biting the strings... boy. All respectably semi-ironic of course, but still, it's pretty hilarious. Anyhow, it was fun, I can tell by how I kept doing it. And that will wrap it up for this edition of Songs for Odin. See you next time. I've got some pretty interesting things on deck. Bless. #music #minds #punkrock #poppunk