Joan Of Arc: Boo Human; Make Believe: Going To The Bone Church

For the most part, there are two kinds of musicians: those that make lots of records and those that make good ones. Of course there are notable exceptions to this rule, and Tim Kinsella is certainly one of those. In his relatively short life as a musician, he has released fifty-nine records, not one among them a throwaway.

Kinsella released two more records this spring, authored under two separate and well-established band names. The first, or number fifty-eight, is Make Believe’s Going to the Bone Church, an album that nearly didn’t happen when Kinsella left the band for a time after becoming disillusioned with touring and fronting the group. Long-time music conspirators Bobby Burg, cousin Nate Kinsella, and Sam Zurick pressed on in his absence, and when Tim rejoined sometime later, things began to gel again and Going to the Bone Church was born.

Make Believe’s greatest gift is in molding oddball rhythms into proper songs. A good example of this less-than-ordinary song structure is “Sam Rollerskating Backwards,” a tune that sounds as if it was culled together from randomly recorded bits and scraps. The title track is the closest the band gets to a “normal” song structure on this album, but, true to form, it doesn’t last. One minute from the end, bongos come in and Kinsella breaks into poetry while the rest of the band hoots and howls in the background. It all ends appropriately, in miscues and laughter.

Boo Human is the twelfth full-length release by Joan of Arc (there are also a pile of EPs and singles). Tim wrote the bulk of the songs for the record, and then enlisted, through a simple sign-up sheet, the help of some of Chicago’s most notable indie musicians, including brother Mike Kinsella, bassist Josh Abrams, and former Wilco member Leroy Bach to help him flesh them out.

The results are compelling: an album with very little musical continuity but a lyrical and spiritual continuum of loss and mourning throughout. The disc begins with “Shown and Told,” a morose, minor-chord tale plucked on a solitary guitar with Tim’s lilting vocals echoing almost in the background. The tempo and atmosphere pick up from time to time, but the underlying mood remains solemn. “9/11 2” compares a failed relationship to both the infamous terrorist attacks in 2001 and the “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq in the early days of that war.

Tim Kinsella is gifted at foretelling where a given relationship might go or may have gone. Ending the record like he started it, he returns to familiar territory: scorned man and guitar. On “So-And-So,” he peers into the future after a failed relationship, meeting his ex and her child on the street. It’s a creepy look into the mind of a person that isn’t afraid to put his most desperate thoughts on display. It’s probably a little early to be handing out lifetime achievement awards to Tim Kinsella, but he’s well on his way. And when that time finally comes, songs from both Going to the Bone Church and Boo Human are sure to be on the honorary playlist.

-Oakland L. Childers

Joan of Arc / Make Believe: www.joanfrc.com

Polyvinyl Records: www.polyvinylrecordingco

Flameshovel Records: www.flameshovel.com