The Ex on Apocalyptic Floods, Cow Poop Deodorant (?) and NoMeansNo

The Ex by Susana Martens

Note: The following is an adjunct to the big feature in the Straight on The Ex last week, which you should read first! This is just "what I did with the outtakes" (but they are fun ones). 

Songs by the Ex can sometimes take the form of impassioned, rhythmic, poetic rants. This is true both for the GW Sok years and the Arnold de Boer ones. In the case of Sok, take "Walt's Dizzyland", off 2001's Dizzy Spells. It takes on "quicksand Hollywood" and "slow-match fast food" (a slow match is like a cannon fuse, burning slowly and steadily, implying that fast food kills you cumulatively instead of all at once). The lyrics rail against falsification of reality forged by Disney and its effects on our minds, a phenomenon that, elsewhere on the album, is likened to the acts of a "money vulture... turning bullshit into culture." A sample lyric:

Everyone be seated, tell you a little story
"Once upon a time" it starts, then it chews the facts
With Mickey, Walt & Donald
Goofy cousin Ronald
They wanna swallow all your souls, as if they've inked a pact

Are we fucked, are we nice, are we ducks, are we mice, are we men, are we mean, are we living
Living in the dream-machine

Past lyricist/ vocalist of the Ex, G.W. Sok, when I asked about this song, re-read the words and observed: "it seems like this is sort of happening right now, also, but much worse than I expected. Disneyfication to the bone, but then the most dark version of it. Greedy scum in the White House, lying and cheating ALL the time, working their way towards the death of democracy. But still, I'm writing this with fingers crossed, hoping that somehow something good shall emerge soon. The world is pretty fucked up right now and we the people deserve so much better. much, much better."

Similar in passion, but slghtly more cryptic in its phrasing, "In the Rain"  is the "most in-your-face song" on the band's newest album, according to present vocalist/ lyricist/ guitarist Arnold de Boer. It sounds like Fugazi, if Fugazi included a free-associating Dutchman pouring out a stream of invective in a two-and-a-half minute word-flood. It's a challenge to follow along, especally since the lyrics are not given on their bandcamp; you have to go to the album's back cover to read them. In part, the lyrics go:

In the rain, I saw sheep gathering on a hill
Lining up, forming letters, letters then words
That say: You Are Not the World

In the rain, I saw the blurbs, blubber-burbs
Puffed-faced, back-laced Camel-smoking bubbles
Scream against sunscreen
That the burning is a healing
Swallow bleach to tune in with the leader

In the rain, them flapping their lungs out
Driving their bloody bottom golf cart, escape
To the plastic gardens of Roundup glyphosate
In the rain, rubbing tons of cowshit
Into their armpits to keep their right arms straight
In the rain, carrying farmer millionaires on a fishing boat
Blocking the ferries that try to save the school kids
For a better future
Their future.

The lyric is inspired by a poem by Joost Oomen, "Dieren en Dingen in de Regen" ("Animals and Things in the Rain"), which you can track down online in the original Dutch and translate, but it won't help unpack the specific images in the song. For instance, what's this about rubbing cowshit into your armpits, to help keep your right arm straight? We assume that last is a reference to a fascist salute, which leads us briefly down a Google rabbithole, trying to see if Elon Musk--the most famous (apparent) Sieg Heiler in recent memory--had, say, any ventures involving cow manure bath products. I mean, one never knows. It was entertaining, but bore no relevant fruit, though we did find an Instagram video involving cowshit shampoo, which is apparently a thing somewhere. 

De Boer has been too busy with the band's tour of Canada to elaborate further, but he does note that "The Loss", https://theex.bandcamp.com/track/the-loss another apocalyptic song on the album, is about "jumping on the last boat when you're about to lose everything"--another image, as with "Monday Song" discussed last week, of a world that has been apocalyptically flooded due to climate change. Some of the lyrics:

What did the sinking start
I'm getting dressed, sackcloth and ash
The people all ask me who died
And I say it is you who are dead
It's time to rebuild the ark
So we'll never need to use it in the end

The song ends on de Boer chanting "loss loss loss' over and over again--a grim catharsis, but a powerful one.

The idea of loss is also evoked by the remarkable cover painting for If Your Mirror Breaks, by "Woeloem" Hessels, the pen name of Wim Hessels, a Dutch painter whose work also graced the cover of the Ex's 1990 EP Dead Fish; he appears to have been the father of Terrie Hessels, AKA Terrie Ex, the sole founding member of the band to be playing Friday's show (though Andy Moor and Katharina Bornefeld have both been in the band since the 1980s). The image on the cover shows, with considerable abstraction, someone howling in grief as they embrace a fallen loved one.

As noted last week, to prepare for the show, If Your Mirror Breaks is really the only album (and maybe a bit of 27 Passports) that needs knowing; the Ex will not be delving into their back catalogue, which is just as well, since trying to play catchup on their 45-year back catalogue would be a daunting thing.

In fact, the last time they were in town was a 1991 two-night stand in Vancouver, headlining at the Cruel Elephant and then sharing a Commodore bill with Nomeansno, whom the Ex remain enthusiastic about. On the topic of the legendary local punk band, who retired in 2015, drummer Katherina Bornefeld tells the Straight, "we became good friends, because both the members of Nomeansno and their crew were incredibly kind and generous people with a great sense of humour. And their audience loved us too! We had a brilliant time together. It was our first time in Canada and it was a fantastic experience".

Since that time, the Ex and Nomeansno played 30 gigs together, also including shows in Europe, Bornefeld says. Sadly--and somewhat ironically--Nomeansno co-founder (and current Dead Bob bandleader) John Wright, who turned me onto the Ex over 20 years ago, will not be able to be at the Friday show; he has noted on social media that he wishes he could be there, but he is bringing Dead Bob to Europe this week and will be playing a Fusion Festival in Germany when the Ex is at the Hollywood in Vancouver.

In fact, Dutch Nomeansno fans who are reading this should take heed: Dead Bob, Wright's new band, who do a sizeable number of Nomeansno covers during their set, will be touring through the Netherlands in late September of this year.

Has Bornefeld managed to check out Dead Bob yet? Nope! "I didn’t know anything about John’s recent project, but I’m glad to hear he’s still active. He's a great drummer!"

The Ex plays tonight at the Hollywood Theatre. https://www.coastaljazz.ca/event/the-ex-with-grdina-lillinger/ There is some uncertainty about start times but I would suggest arriving before 7, to be sure to catch openers Grdina/ Lillinger.