Papa M Hole of Burning Alms review

Papa M
Hole of Burning Alms
Singles Collection 1995-2000
Drag City

We all know what we’re getting here. Papa M, M, Aerial M, M to the Mmmmth power, whatever he calls himself, David Pajo is a man who manipulates guitars and drums, and anything else he can get a hold of, to produce his own special alterna/folk/rock songs. The 12 tracks on this disc range between driving rockers, and hook-laden, noodling, epics; and give a fair look at Pajo’s prolific output.

Pajo - Slint, Tortoise, Palace – plays songs that are comfortable one minute, catchy the next, and overall resemble your moody sister a lot of the time, and has been a part of some fine projects, but most of these songs were solo outputs. Pajo played all the instruments - or computers … whatever – on 7 of these tracks, and he gives a brief account of each song in the liner notes. He calls “Mountains Have Ears” “an electric brain massage,” he says “Wedding Song No. 3” is the first and last time he ever recorded a live band on his own, and talks about the way the song titles, and artwork, on the original singles for “M is…” and “October” were supposed to fit together “Mad Libs” style.

One of the most interesting/amusing/glamorous/destructive insights in the liner notes is the note with the song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Pajo’s and friends play a 16-minute version of the song – sans vocals - which came about, Pajo says, after “I stayed up all night partying with locals and doing Mexican speed. At 8 am I woke everyone up so we could record Turnx3. The only rule was, play until the tape runs out.”

Hole of Burning Alms is a pretty typical, solid, slightly melodramatic, album from Pajo – well, not an album, a “collection.” The most surprising parts of the album are the techno jam beat that appears in “Travels in Constants” – only for the first part of the song, before it shifts into Jimi Hendrix “National Anthem” at Woodstock mode – and the slow, sultry and ethereal cover of Danzig’s “Last Caress” on which Pajo sings- for the only time on the CD – and birds sing in the background.

As a nice collection of mostly out-of-print singles, Hole of Burning Alms is worth $7, and the liner notes are worth $3, but hearing Pajo sing “I raped your mother today,” priceless.