Premiere: Doug Bleek “The Prince of Clowns”

23 Oct 2013 — Henry Schiller

As faithful readers will have noticed, we’re not hugely into guitar rock here at NFOP (I don’t know how often you read this blog, but let’s assume you’re a die hard fan). At least as far as I know, this isn’t a de facto stance; it’s more like a reaction to the fact that guitar music isn’t all that interesting these days. Cue Doug Bleek, a Brooklyn-based guitar musician and lyrical misanthrope. His new single, “The Prince of Clowns” combines exquisite guitar penmanship with a Schoolhouse Rock vibe with didactic tendencies extending to urban escapist fantasies. “The Prince of Clowns” and B-side “The Pope Calls for Peace” make me think of the works of Robert Crumb as interpreted by a coffee-addled Andrew Bird; or vice versa. I don’t know. I’ve read Fritz the Cat so I think I “get it”, but I don’t know.

“The Pope Calls for Peace” shows Bleek’s hand as an adept scholar of contemporary indie pop, with a series of celestial guitar arpeggios that would sound at home in a dilapidated Bushwick storefront turned insufferable venue. But they could work equally well in a Super Smash Bros. game. A vocal refrain from bassist Fox Swach that mimics the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Breaking the Girl”, before the song tilts into a lounge version of itself. But again, all standard genre modifiers are tinted by more experimental fare. The song might inspire both panic and flights of fancy in anyone who’s ever been tied down to a job, or had an intense craving for a metaphysical adventure with members of the clergy and other 21st century bohemians.

There’s too much going on here for me to write about this single in a way that does either of these tracks justice, so I’ll stop now but not before I tell you to check out Doug Bleek below: