We get weird when things change. It makes us paranoid and disappointed that we placed our trust in something, as though the core or essence of it has been compromised somehow. Things can get so bad in our fixations with "progress,' we might blind ourselves to the more enticing aspects of spiritual and physical evolution. It's as futile as screaming at a clock.
I mention all of this because the Burning Hell has changed a lot over the past decade but are also essentially still the same-an idiosyncratic hub that trusts ideas and invention first and worries about bypassing logistical parameters maybe fourth or fifth.
Because they are funny and present rather empathetic, selfless perspectives via catchy-ass songs, they are not lauded as the truly great band they are by self-serious arbiters of taste in the media, who will throw in with fashion before consistency, eight days a week. At one point, their founder, primary lyricist, and singer Mathias Kom played punk songs with a ukulele, which is a very tiny guitar that macho men do not take seriously. Now he plays an electric guitar and macho men are still kind of dicks about it.
But Kom and the various people he has collaborated with over the years are laughing their way to the credit union. Because they've composed the dizzyingly word-y, musically rich, witty pop songs on Public Library, including the completely perfect, "Fuck the Government, I Love You," they rise above the hard marketing of *art' we're meant to accept on a daily basis.
Currently writing in a reflective cycle of nostalgia tinged with cynicism (a good cleanse begins with scrutinizing our memories), Kom looks at our collective, socio-cultural existence and seems utterly fascinated by how much we think we've changed in adulthood. He finds, I think, that our formative periods, as young people, really built an unshakable foundation and all of the new information and knowledge we've processed and accrued is merely a selective add-on to our fundamental selves.
Remember The Muppet Babies? Was that the first ever "prequel?" Or was it kinda, sorta Back to the Future 1/? Maybe the first prequel was actually the flashback sequence in The Godfather Part I. In any case, listening to the Burning Hell is a lot like experiencing some cross between The Muppet Babies and The Godfather Part Il. We change a little but we're the same. Wocka Wocka Wocka.
Vish Khanna
