The Superficial Music Project: The Library is on Fire pt. 2

We Can Tell How Good A Band Is Without Listening to Them!

On Tuesday we blindly picked a band to unfairly judge based on things aside from their music. Today we look at photos of the band but still refuse to listen to their music.

The Band We Are Blindly Judging This Week:

The Library is on Fire (now with photos!!!)

Araceli: They don’t look like complete dirt bags, but I’m only stating that because I’ve become immune to that look: dark rimmed glasses (got a pair), fingerless gloves (got those too), “messy hair” (yup), sedated-eyes, with a shimmer of malnourishment (check). All of these characteristics are equivalent to a typical hipster, my counterparts. Though on behalf of of the Library Is On Fire, I’d like to add that anyone under 40 who is an “artist” doesn’t have any other option but to wear rags and look greasy––doing otherwise takes too much effort, and we all know that our generation lacks motivation, but I digress. Rating: 6

Lille: As a collective the band looks a little bit like a team of janitors. Maybe that’s why they’re called Library on Fire. Maybe they were bibliotheque custodians who set books on fire. And then they have to expose their photos in weird manners, or wear white paint to camouflage themselves and not get caught by the authorities. For some reason these photos REALLY REALLY REALLY make me want to listen to their music. Not. Rating: 3

Brian: Okay, well.  The first pic they look inoffensive enough (wait… is the guy on the left wearing a janitor jumpsuit?).  But THEN the second pic, egads, there are so many cliches going on.  I see two questionable hats, a suitcoat-over-blazer, wayfarers, skinny jeans, and Pumas.  Not to mention, the photo’s colors are inverted.  Here, let me un-invert the image…

not so cool anymore right? Hipstah Pleeez.  My Rating: 4

On Friday, we will actually listen to the music and give ‘em a fair shot.

Geronimo Jackson: LOST Rock Found

The Fictional Geronimo Jackson -- they look like Sawyer's people

Except for a few times in Season 1, when the lovable Hurley would put on his Discman to listen to some god-awful Grey’s Anatomy reject songs while observing life on The Island in slo-mo, the two things I tend to obsess over — LOST and pop music — rarely come together.

But lo and behold, hipster culture dictator Pitchfork Media broke a VERY interesting development a few weeks ago: The story of a fictional classic rock band Geronimo Jackson / real San Diego throwback rockers The Donkeys. The Phork reports:

On a recent episode, the character Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) is heard listening to a Geronimo Jackson song called “Dharma Lady”, and last week, the song appeared as a free download on iTunes. Over on the “Lost” message board Dark UFO, someone noticed that “Dharma Lady” is almost the exact same song as “Excelsior Lady” by the Donkeys …

The non-fictional Donkeys

Well played Dark UFO dude! Pitchfork, thorough journalists as they are, took it straight to The Donkeys’ label, Dead Oceans, to pose the question, “Are the Donkeys Geronimo Jackson?”. The reply was revealing, also, hilarious:

“It seems as though it’s possible that the Donkeys also existed as Geronimo Jackson in 1977. It might be possible that they were part of a Dharma Initiative experiment on time travel … Geronimo Jackson is likely to appear on extras of the season five ‘Lost’ DVD, where they will feature the band recording ‘Dharma Lady’.”

Hahahah. It seems they did indeed. Alrighty then. A simple “yes” would have sufficed.

Anyway, Geronimo Jackson seems to be a recurring reference in the show — on T-shirts, on posters, but most prominently in the scene below. Hurley and Charlie (who could easily pass for clerks at Championship Vinyl) sift through the Dharma record collection and come across the GerJack LP Magna Carta…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFb3Qji9ffk]

Innnnnnnteresting Charlie. Hmmm. You say you’re an “expert of all things musical,” but you’ve never heard of them, eh? Hmmmm. Maybe that’s because YOU’RE IN THE BAND in the past (future episodes)!?!?! Wha? Sounds ridiculous, but why not?

I personally like to think that Charlie is bound to show up again. First of all, one of the lesbians hiding in the Looking Glass told Charlie that the stations’ passcode was the song “Good Vibrations” and that it was originally programmed “by a musician”. That’s a weird tidbit of information to throw out there as your dying words, isn’t it Bonnie?

Also Charlie gets the code on the first crack before he drowns. Is it too crazy to assume that Charlie himself wrote that passcode? I don’t think so. Meaning, Charlie didn’t die at that point, and is sure to have lived and done other things, like, ummmmm, jumping through time and forming a band in the 70s. It’s possible. After all, we’ve seen people we thought were dead come back to life in the show before. Isn’t it possible that Charlie is in the band Geronimo Jackson? Could be.

Also, is it at all possible that Geronimo is actually the name of Jack’s son? Doubtful.

You can down the Donkey’s on music blog Gramotunes.com: The Donkeys - “Excelsior Lady”