#granary

(Granary/BMG)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

With October's announcement of the long-awaited Sugar reunion and last month's unearthed Hüsker Dü live performances, it's easy to forget that back in March, frontperson Bob Mould released his first solo album in 5 years, Here We Go Crazy. Mould's been on a now-six-album heater since he started recording with the core trio of bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster, also his venerable live band that helps him bang out Hüsker Dü, Sugar, and solo classics night after night. It was actually his plugged-in solo sets (like I saw open for Courtney Barnett last year), stripped away but not stripped down, that motivated him to return to basics on Here We Go Crazy: 11 tracks and just over 30 minutes of mostly forward, cacophonous punk. From there, though, Mould expanded, in both album structure (he envisions it as three acts of a play, from chaos to darkness to light) and, at times, orchestral and dynamic instrumentation. The resulting variety of sounds is an appropriate canvas for Mould, in his early sixties, to deflect the crumbling world around him and decide what's truly important.

Most albums and songs by Bob Mould, especially with the rhythm section of Narducy and Wurster, begin with a turbo charge. Here We Go Crazy, on the other hand, opens with keyboards, distorted guitars, and languorous drums. Don't blame Mould; he's simply reading the news. "Airplanes in formation, there's a conflict in the sky / Modern constellation choosing who can live and die," he barks, evergreen. His observations cause him to look back at his own childhood on the next song, "Neanderthal", distilling himself to survivalist impulses in the face of violence. "Look at me weave like a leopard off my leash / The devil you thought you knew has broken free / Amber and ochre mixed with sweat and cum / You won't share your paint with everyone," he sings, his rawest lyrics in years. "Breathing Room", meanwhile, is his "In The Garage", Mould referring to the titular subject like it's a physical space where he could be alone and safe. "Sharp Little Pieces" tackles the erosion of trust and generational trauma, Mould's initial vocals concealed only to explode along with the band as he jumps back into the present day, imparting realist wisdom onto contemporary idealists. "I tried smoothing edges with my stone / I beat myself up, now I'm left alone," he cries.

As much as Narducy and Wurster shine more than ever on Here We Go Crazy (the meaty, yet limber bass and dexterous, ascending, crashing drum fills of "Fur Mink Augurs" could make your prog rock friends blush), it's the two songs that majorly feature Mould's vocals and playing that are the most affecting. "Lost Or Stolen" was purportedly inspired by people being glued to their phones, but before you roll your eyes and fire up an "Old Man Yells At Cloud" meme, know that Mould doesn't even use the word "phone" on the entire song. In fact, it's about the pipeline of one addiction to another, Mould's unobscured singing and acoustic strumming communicating acute feelings of paranoia and isolation that simultaneously are independent of era and hit hardest in today's brain-rotted landscape. On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum is album closer "Your Side", Mould singing to a loved one. "Here's a little swimming pool / You can do your laps all day / I'll be over in the shade / I'm turning grey by your side," he coos. Narducy and Wurster and Mould's electric axe enter for the song and album's triumphant finish, wherein a "we both go down together" sentiment not only transcends cliche but becomes inexorably uplifting. For his decades spent angry and lovelorn, Mould's finally found companionship within the burning flames.

Granary Road Rumors, bootleggers, and the sharp scent of danger lingering from Prohibition’s darkest nights. The granary sits at the end of the muddy road. The sheet-metal sides are now gray and rusted, but in the Prohibition years, they were newer, and the nights were louder. People don’t forget that kind of noise. They say the place wasn’t just for grain then. Not really. Men hauled sacks in…

By No machine-readable author provided. BishkekRocks assumed (based on copyright claims). CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=478968

Storage of grains has been important to humans as long as they've been collecting and cultivating them. With grain being dry and able to last for a long time made it almost ideal for storage. Storage facilities that were purpose built for grain go back at least 11,500 years ago, to before the development of pottery in the archaeological record. There are two main types of grain storage, Granaries, which were predominately above ground, and silos, which were predominately below ground with the name coming from the Greek σιρός (sirós) meaning 'pit for holding grain' with tower silos being a more modern construction.

Source: https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2014/01/24/large-grain-storage-revealed-at-catalhoyuk/

While evidence of humans using grains goes back far into our history, much of that was seasonal, or using those things that were in season. About 15,000 years ago, people began living in settlements for much of the year, living off of seasonally available foods, though that they remained in these settlements for much of the year also indicates that people were able to smooth over the seasonal variance of food, reducing the risks of going hungry. These early settlements don't show evidence of food storage even though we've found evidence of food processing, such as sickles and mortars and pestles.

By Offthemapz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46728398

With the Younger Dryas making the climate cooler and drier around 12,800 years ago, people abandoned these settlements, likely due to the area around them being less bountiful, and don't seem to have built other settlements during this time. At the end of the Younger Dryas, around 11,700 years ago, the climate warmed and became a bit wetter again, allowing people to put energy into more permanent settlements again, these becoming larger than they were prior to the Younger Dryas. The increases in population made storing food much more important.

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2700141/

At a site now known as Dhra' near the Dead Sea in Jordan, archaeologists found the earliest evidence of plant storage inside houses. By about 11,500 years ago, there were at least two types of storage systems, small bins and larger storage silos. Researchers found 'the remains of at least 4 granaries that are interspersed between ova/circular food processing/residential buildings. All of the granaries were circular structures ≈3 × 3 m on the outside and were built with suspended floors for air circulation and protection from rodents and insects'. They also appeared to have had wattle type supports for the mud roofs with apparent lack of central support suggests that these roofs were flat. These also show signs that they were rebuilt, with granaries were built over previous granaries.

By Sharon Mollerus - originally posted to Flickr as Chest and Lid with Model Granaries, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7146437

The ancient Egyptians were able to store grain for long periods due to their dry climate. As the pharaoh owned all the land, all the grain produced belonged to the pharaoh. Grain was stored in silo pits and then rationed out to people, giving the Egyptians a buffer against drought or 'low Nile' years, when the flooding was lower than expected, resulting in less yield than expected. Pit silos were also used in ancient Greece and through Asia.

By Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China - Eastern Han Pottery Granary, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101965773

Old Granary, Palouse, WA

Elevated granary in Telemarken, Norway