Obscure (but should not have been) album of the week...

EAST RIVER PIPE - The Gasoline Age (1999)

I first came across East River Pipe in NME's review of The Gasoline Age a decade ago. It would be another few years before I actually bought the album, as no local record store I perused stocked any of his records and crazed Internet shopping had not quite taken off in a way that it has now. Aside from the typical hyberbole that accompanies many a favourable NME release, the first line from the article always stuck in my mind, "There is bliss to be found in emptiness." This is a neat summation of the East River Pipe approach, in which the bleak, artificial landscapes and desperate characters of FM Cornog's songs are channelled through his strained yet eerie voice, juxtaposed with lush keyboards and chiming guitars. It's a contradiction that sits oddly to some ears, but I find it strangely compelling.

Given that at least half of the subject matter concerns cars and the vast nothingness of highway-riddled america, The Gasoline Age (save for a few inconsequential moments), could almost be labelled a lo-fi concept album of sorts. Every character within the songs, despite their yearning for freedom on the open road, acknowledges the futility of the journey ahead. It's the dark side of the American dream, the sinister flipside to On the Road for the new millenium. Tracks like 'Cybercar' and 'Astrofarm' paint a lightly dystopian vision of the future without going all Gary Numan (think of a more human Kraftwerk instead), while the opening number 'Shiny, Shiny Pimpmobile' (beyond it's great title), is a twinkling delight that perfectly evokes fast cars and glittering cityscapes yet is undercut with a slice of patriotic malice:

We're all alone, just get inside

We're going for a little ride

The cherry bombs, confederate flags

Don't forget that's all you are.

Other songs take the lonely highway chancer to familiar American pastimes, in the epic (and just a mite overlong) Atlantic City (Gonna Make A Million Tonight) where the gambler, after recounting his history of family neglect and poor choices, is convinced he is a "big time player" and will finally hit the jackpot and turn his life around.

Being modestly home-recorded, with nary a session musician or record producer in sight, the majority of East River Pipe's output tends to feature a rather cheap-sounding drum machine and/or drum samples. One can choose to be frustrated by this minor sonic setback or adopt the view that were East River Pipe's songs given the full band treatment and production, they would lose something in the translation. These are deceptively simple songs; intimate, warts-and-all but also full of pathos and quirky humour that is deeply ingrained in FM Cornog's lo-fi aesthetic.

Sadly, FM Cornog rarely performs live, which one could argue has limited his exposure somewhat. Nonetheless, this hasn't stopped other artists (Lambchop, for instance) recognising his singular talent and covering his works on stage and on record. So, in the absence of any future East River Pipe tour dates, if you do find a copy of The Gasoline Age in a record store, you won't regret the purchase. The album that followed this after a four year gap, Garbageheads On Endless Stun, is equally as impressive, filled with more of FM Cornog's slanted tales, so be sure to invest in that should you find a copy as well.

-AMCS