Cohesion / No Cohesion

I used to listen to Owls and various other Kinsella projects (joan of arc, Make Believe) with a smirk on my face. What is the prolific and ADD-ridden Tim Kinsella trying to do with his music? He dances with extreme awkwardness on stage, yells out seemingly random phrases throughout songs, and 'sings' strangely, accompanied with screams and fast, random syllabic placements- all within some signature style he managed to create. He also shifts from band to band at a dizzying rate. I was aware of the fact that this... 'style' was intentional. Still, I wondered if they (The Kinsellas) were getting away with more than they deserved- in terms of lyricism, instrumentation, and awkward-as-fuck vocals.

I concluded that in some cases, the Kinsellas (and mainly Tim) do deserve the credit. In Owls, their signature rhythms and strange flow accompanied with Tim Kinsella's semi-random/philosophical lyrics constantly pull you in different directions (credit: Stuart S.), due to their spontaneous and seemingly improvised song structures. In terms of instrumentation, the textured spider-godhand also known as Victor Villareal's guitar playing is superb and actually unique, which is a breath of fresh air. In other cases, however, Tim reuses various lines from previous songs, using the exact same 'melody' and phrasing, generating a different version of the same song over and over again. This is how the genius gets away with too much.

Alot of music doesn't require an acquired taste. The Kinsella stuff does. Some of it is genuinely bad, but the good is full of merit. Like a strange cheese, it takes courage and tolerance to get into it.