If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Chris Strong As we begin preparing ourselves for the final Joan of Arc album in December, we have a new single to contend with. "Something Kind" was written and is sung by Melina Ausikaitis, and starts off as a fairly mellow indie rock song with an intensely quietly simmering beneath. As Ausikaitis explains: “I've never been a fan of the Manfred Mann's Earth Band song ‘Blinded by the Light,’ even after I found out that the lyrics weren't revved up like a douche' like I thought. Same goes for Eric Burdon & War's ‘Spill the Wine.  I started writing ‘Something Kind’ in a light hearted jokey mood. But as I wrote I began getting angrier and angrier. I felt that the women in those songs were incidental. And that, at times in my life, I had been made to feel that way. ”  The way Ausikaitis explains the writing process is exactly how the song feels to listen to. It starts off relatively lighthearted, but then erupts into these bursts that seem to get ...

Photo by Chris Strong Joan of Arc have been an indie rock staple for twenty five years now. Throughout that twenty five year history, Tim Kinsella has been the only permanent member of the group. The band is set to release their final album in December, and "Destiny Revision" is the first single from that final album. It's a quiet, lovely song that feels deeply intimate. It's the kind of song that lulls you into almost a trance, and then gently pulls you out with the occasional burst of quiet noise, including what may be a guitar solo towards the end.  Tim Kinsella says of the song:  “‘ Destiny Revision’ was a personal song when it was written a couple years ago, about winging it when your life fails to play out as you'd imagined .  Unfortunately that simple sentiment now has a much more expansive and darker resonance as all of us in America face a fascist administration using the pandemic as an opportunity to consolidate power, and we all struggle to imagin...