The G.R.O.D.D. Initiative: Day 7 – maybe you’re not the same as me

With this post we’ve reached the end of the G.R.O.D.D. Initiative theme week, and I can’t think of a more appropriate way to close it out than with a track from Sheffield’s Monkey Swallows the Universe. Friend Zartan, the ginchiest librarian in Texas, recommended the band to me, and informed me that their name is a reference to this TV show.

In some ways, the band reminds me a lot of the ultra-minimalist postpunk act, Young Marble Giants. Both acts feature sweet female vocals and sparse musical arrangements, but while the Giants’ material is cold in its flensed-to-the-bone minimalism (their Colossal Youth LP would make a perfect soundtrack for the heat death of the universe), Monkey Swallows the Universe’s acoustic sound is warmer and more intimate.

It’s a cold February night. You’re in a small club, watching the last set before closing time. Most of the patrons have left, but you’ve decided to put off the long slog home over slush-covered sidewalks a while longer. Since the crowds are no longer an issue, you walk up right to the edge of the stage to watch the band play. The music is warm and soothing, the melodies are perfect, and you feel they are performing this set for you and you alone. No matter how much the mercury has dipped or how fiercely the winds outside have begun to gust, you realize that on this night, at least, you will not feel the chill.

That’s pretty much how this track made me feel.

Monkey Swallows the Universe – Martin (from The Bright Carvings, 2006)