Cotton Mather’s Robert Harrison gets brownie points for ambition. Death Of The Cool (The Star Apple Kingdom) comprises 11 of the 64 songs he’s been writing in an extended fit of creativity inspired by the I Ching, the ancient Chinese divination text—one tune per hexagram (or reading). Seriously. Harrison will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
Harrison: Last night I dreamt I was at our record-release show for Death Of The Cool, standing in a very dark and empty venue, waiting for the opening band to arrive. And the opening band was actually Spoon, but they were performing under the name Stem. Then Britt Daniel was brought to me in a wheelbarrow, sitting atop a pile of logs and wearing a Laura Ingalls Wilder-style bonnet. He explained to me that the name change and disguise were part of his effort not to upstage Cotton Mather, but unfortunately word had gotten out anyway. Then he apologized because he expected a lot of people to show up and then leave immediately after they were done. I thanked him for doing what he could. Britt’s always been great like that.
Of course I realize the dream emanated from the concern of knowing how our new record had been landing on desks across the country these last weeks during conventions, bombings and the growing terrifying rise of a certain presidential candidate who couldn’t pass a basic psych evaluation for the local police academy. I certainly haven’t wanted to hear new music. And then one fan in particular told me over the phone yesterday, how even though he was in love with the new record, it took him four listens to “get it,” because he was just wanting it to be Kontiki. Oh boy! I don’t even remember who I was 17 years ago. One thing is the same all these years later, though. We’re still here in Texas where the grass turns brown in August, and feeling very “close to the sun”—a little too close for the next two months. So close in fact, I’m thinking about buying a Laura Ingalls Wilder bonnet.
