After 24 years and 10 albums, we’re still trying to figure out Trans Am. A statement of misguided complication or exaggeration? Maybe. But the trio—guitarist Phil Manley, bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Nathan Means, drummer Sebastian Thomson—hasn’t exactly made comprehension easy considering its non-linear progression, lack of canned press statements and refusal to submit to expectation. Trans Am’s throw-at-a-dartboard-and-see-what-sticks approach notwithstanding, the band finds itself with a 10th album in its laps. Volume X (Thrill Jockey) leans toward the streamlined sensibility of 2007’s Sex Change, snidely and playfully existing somewhere between krautrock, post-rock, electro-rock, punk rock and other prefix-rock. Trans Am will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on them.
Thomson: E.M. Forster‘s 1909 short story The Machine Stops tells of a future society where all of humanity lives in islolated underground cells and communicates (using instant messaging and video conferncing) via “The Machine.” We do not quite yet live in this world, but most of us can agree that we are veering toward it.
This is frightening because, of course, we want to hold on to our physical connection with reality. The first impulse is always a Luddite reactionaryism, but the best strategy is not to ignore or dismantle our digital communication, but to meld it with our most basic animal desires. That is why we should celebrate online dating app Tinder as the peacemaker that can satisfy our need for both prehistoric and modern interaction. Human romance evolved in the context of small groups, so flirting via Tinder is no more unnatural than flirting at an airport bar. We should embrace this new world of constant titilation as a wholesome and harmonious melding of technology and hormones.
