National Skyline >> You could disappear into thin air

National Skyline - "Ghosts" •/•/•/•

(File 13 Records, 2001) º/º/º/º

National Skyline began as a "supergroup" of Champaign / Urbana indie rock dudes in the mid-'90s, whose alleged goal was to write one 45-minute masterpiece song.  Apparently they actually recorded it in '97, but it was never released.  The group's core members were Jeff Garber (ex-Castor) on vocals, guitar and other stuff, and Jeff Dimpsey (ex-Hum) on bass and other stuff.  I think they've always used drum machines rather than real drumming.  Much like the band Idaho (see post on them from a few weeks ago), Nat Sky later was winnowed down to be essentially a one-man project, helmed by Garber.  He later joined Year Of The Rabbit as a guitarist, and fronted the short-lived but amazing band The Joy Circuit.  After years of silence on the Nat Sky front, he has revived the moniker and released a slew of music in the last four or so years.  Garber is pretty much a musical genius in my mind, or at least a master of amazing melodies.  "I love you in the shape of swirling gas" is one of the most strangely romantic lyrics ever written.

I love how the song starts off with just a primitive, muffled drum sample and minimalist, almost womblike keyboards, and then come in the vocals, then louder, more complex drum machine beats, then piano.  The combination of slow vocals and relatively fast beats messes up the brain's ability to keep time.  Lots of Nat Sky songs have incredible guitar parts (especially "Reinkiller"), but this one is so rock-solid and perfect that it doesn't even need any axe.  My only complaint about it is that Garber doesn't unleash his celestially gorgeous falsetto voice in it, as he does on, say, "A Night At The Drugstore" or "Air."  This song is from the 2001 EP Exit Now, which also features the absolutely staggering 12-minute shoegaze-tronic space-drone-noize opus "Karolina II."

Exit Now

National Skyline were famous for the elaborate light show at their concerts and for their obsession with sonic detail.  They once arrived at a club which had booked them for a show, checked out its sound system, decided it wasn't up to snuff, and then simply left.  If I had gone to that show I would've been pretty furious, but, eh... rock stars.
I obtained this EP, and the band's incredible debut album This = Everything, from download service eMusic in 2003, back when you had unlimited downloads, so I just downloaded untold hundreds of albums, ending up with only a few diamonds in the rough.  After becoming completely obsessed with Nat Sky that summer, I later bought both of those releases on actual CD, for a dollar each on eBay.  I vividly remember blasting this song as loud as my truck's stereo would go while surveying the damage in New Orleans' City Park a few weeks after Katrina, as though it would somehow make the trees grow back and make people feel more optimistic.  To be more specific, I was standing on the empty golf course (I've never played golf in my life) by Tad Gormley stadium while my Suburban was parked on the street next to it, playing this song.  No one else was there, in this normally-crowded park.  I had lost my sweet little '94 Integra in the flood, so my dad passed on his big lumbering '95 Suburban to me.  It had a significantly more powerful stereo, as well as a CD player.  The Integra only had a tape deck, which is part of the reason why I have amassed so many cassettes.

Jeff Garber

This song's piano solo, beginning at about 3:30, is the most stunning one I have ever heard.  I could live in it.  It is surely the most heart-stoppingly beautiful thing ever created, and my entire body still gets covered in goosebumps whenever I hear it.  You should see me play every note of it with absolute precision while driving.  (Yes, using both hands.)  The piano in this song slightly edges out the piano in:
"Lloyd's Register" by Rachel's
"When The Winter's Gone (Song For A Stranger)" by David Benoit & Jennifer Warnes
"Frou-frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires" by Cocteau Twins
"1/1" by Brian Eno & Robert Wyatt
"Chloe Dancer" by Mother Love Bone
"The Cutting Edge" by The Comsat Angels
"Litany Against Fear" by Christian Scott
"Telegraph Hill" by Michael Krassner (Boxhead Ensemble)
"Swingset Chain" by Loquat
"October" by U2
"February Sea" by George Winston
"We Float" by PJ Harvey (piano by PJH & Rob Ellis)
"Speechless" by Liz Story

On the topic of ghosts, I've always been an atheist, and always will be, but I believe in ghosts / spirits / souls and the like, including the concept of "guardian angels," since I believe I was saved from a car crash in Nov. '07 by one.  Blah blah, just listen to the song again.  But after that near-crash, I drove over to, guess where... City Park... and sat in my car under the oaks and thought about a lot of things for a few hours.

Exit Now

Note: "Ghosts" (as well as "Karolina II") was included as a bonus track on the Japanese CD edition of This = Everything, on a label called Stiff Slack.

I've recently really gotten into the song "Regret" by New Order, to the point where I sing it to myself constantly, and a week ago found & bought the CD single for $2, and today even heard it in a Lowe's, so in order to get it to quit stalking me, here it is:

I'd say it's their second-best song, after "Shell Shock":

Obviously, National Skyline, at least in their early-'00s incarnation, were quite influenced by New Order.  I never really took New Order seriously, but like I said, I've recently been giving them more of a chance and am starting to understand why they were so mega-influential.

As for Casey Anthony being found not guilty today, someone on TV right afterwards (I think Jane Velez-Mitchell) pointed out something very interesting, which is that America hates to execute celebrities, or even to send them to prison.  I then thought about the fact that we (by which I mean the overwhelming majority of Americans who wanted to see her get the death penalty) all unwittingly made this anonymous skeezer into a star by the simple fact that we followed her case for three years and put her on countless magazine covers.  So we unwittingly saved her life, even though we all wanted the opposite.  If we hadn't paid so much attention to the case, she would've been more likely to have been found guilty.  D'oh.

Casey throwin' up what is presumably a failed Wesside.  The only way this
photo could be any more white trash would be if that were an Ed Hardy shirt.

This photo brings to mind only one song... No, not ELO's "Evil Woman," silly... I am referring to Billy Reid's "White Chicks And Gang Signs":

Planets with similar climates: The Comsat Angels - "The Cutting Edge" (1986), Radiohead - "Fake Plastic Trees" (1995), Over The Rhine - "Jacksie" (~1990), Verve - "On Your Own" (1995), Bark Psychosis - "Absent Friend" (1993), Mogwai w/ Aidan Moffat - "R U Still In 2 It?" (1997), Ova Looven - "Invisible Triangle" (2003), Placebo - "Without You I'm Nothing" (1998).


Currently enjoying the concept of: Motorcyclist Dies On Ride Protesting Helmet Law In New York
This reminded me of the time Flavor Flav, who at the time was fresh off the success of the single "911 Is A Joke" with Public Enemy, one of the few songs of theirs on which he sang lead, got in a car wreck and had to call 911 to come save his ass.