by Nathan Springer (@drownloading)
Old Table is one of the Tri-State Area’s best kept musical secrets. The passion project of pop songwriter extraordinaire William Moloney, Old Table released 10+ albums/EPs/singles between 2005-2016 before going on hiatus (until recently), although the “hiatus” found William releasing new Old Table-y sounding music with members of The Cradle and Palberta as Climax Landers. Old Table can sometimes be reminiscent of the music of Daniel Johnston or Guided by Voices in that the pop brilliance seems completely uncalculated- Will’s craft could better be described as song-channeling than songwriting. Where Old Table differs from the aforementioned acts, though, is the lyrical content. I rarely focus on lyrics when listening to new music, but, like Bill Callahan or Mark Kozelek, Will has the ability to immediately draw the listener into his world, a world filled with deadpan humor, lonely nights spent playing video games, radical socialism, dogs and pelicans on benches, capitalist detritus, and immense emotional depth. Old Table is equal parts pop and poetry.
Initially released in 2008, Sexual Reproduction, has just been reissued by ZAG Records as a limited run of 500 vinyl records. At five songs averaging three minutes in length, the album’s brevity belies its impact. The music is sparse, mostly just wildly strummed acoustic guitar and William’s voice, sometimes accompanied by tasteful cello from No One and the Somebodies’ Steve Yankou. “High School” sets the mood for the album, detailing the ennui and confusion of being thrown into the social game, punctuated by the thought, “I don’t know anything about girls/I don’t know anything about men/I don’t know anything about myself/I wish I was young again”. “Sad Little Man” finds the narrator shamefully watching internet porn until “[he] couldn’t see no more/[his] blood retreated”. The frank ugliness of the lyrics juxtaposed with the bare emotion of the vocal delivery creates a truly bizarre, but beautiful, mixture. “No Words Exchanged,” the climax of the album, is truly heartbreaking, but even in the depths of sadness there is a joke to be cracked: as the song fades out Steve deadpans, “I played one wrong note,” to which Will responds with a playful “Fuck you!” Following this comes “The Rounds,” my favorite song on the album. A beautiful mixture of feel-good nostalgia and hopeful optimism, it brings the album to the close with an image of old friends and a dog eating and sighing wistfully under an apple tree.
Sexual Reproduction is an excellent set of songs from an underappreciated band. I think what comes across most in this record is the sincerity, the single-minded pursuit of writing the perfect song, the struggle to push onward through the sadness of unilateral time. Hopefully this re-release signals new music to come from Old Table.