Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Spizzle Trunk

An old school punk rocker measuring just over one minute and complete with unintelligible lyrics and piano banging, "Spizzle Trunk" demonstrates the inner-rocker within Stephen Malkmus. SM would go on to a solo career where he'd experiment with a similar aesthetic in his live shows...and throughout his most recent album, sans the youthful punk ethos.

The spizzle is for the sound. The trunk describes the curmudgeon.

The lyrics describe a middle-aged man living a miserable life with his cat and his detestable neighbors, family, and friends. You can picture the grump sitting at the kitchen table, shoveling cornflakes down his throat just before he sneezes them out his nose. He's got male-pattern baldness and nasty disposition.

"Spizzle Trunk" is punk rock for the balding, forty-year-old grump in all of us.

1 comment:

douglas said...

It's been too long since I spun Westing. Nasal Corn Flakes, ouch! More like nascent middle-age misery, a deplorable neighbor who hates my typewriter & turntable, a nine-year-old cat, pit-stained T-shirt, distant friends and faraway family, and an undeniable grumpy demeanor ... we'll spin it tonight!