music moots: Fion aka sadstab
Ah, another edition of Music Moots, where I ask someone I know (either from IRL or URL) to recommend me a song they've been listening to lately, and then I listen to it and I write about it.
Fion, aka sadstab, is an artist, tattoo artist, record store employee, and all-around music enthusiast who you can usually find wearing an artistic black-and-white clothing ensemble. I first talked to them when I interviewed them for The Alternative about tattooing touring bands who come through Toronto— sadstab's IG tagline is, of course, "ur fav band’s fav tattoo artist” — and it was an amazing conversation, with too many good bits to even fit in the final video. We covered everything from the nerve-wracking emotion involved in having someone trust you enough to ink your art on their skin, to how good the song "The Finest" by S.O.S. Band is. I knew sadstab would have a good music recommendation! They suggested "We Share The Same Skies" by The Cribs, a song from 2009:
"Mmm nice," I thought after one playthrough. "Love that 1980s Cure-y Smiths-y austere yet sentimental rock vibe." For these Music Moots, I give songs a full listen before I dig into their backstories and narratives (which I can't help, because I'm a music blogger) and once the song ended, I fired up the search engine and found out freakin' Johnny Marr had joined the Cribs for this very song and album cycle. Smiths-y indeed. They say that when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras — but sometimes it IS a zebra, and the zebra is Johnny Marr and not his legion of respectful guitar copyists.
This song is interesting to me, because it seems to give off an aura of consolation, of trying to make someone feel better: "This town has got you down and I know / I was helping you out." But the consolation isn't current: the moment is gone, and the singer might be just as down as their object of affection. "I'm still thinking of old lies as northwest skies grow cold / No point in denying anxiety was my favorite feeling after jealousy," Gary Jarman sings. "We Share The Same Skies" to me feels like a smoke wisp of a past relationship, when the hot part of autumn turns into the chilly part of autumn and you watch a dead leaf blow by and go damn I should not have done that thing that one time...
But honestly, with a riff like Johnny Marr's on this song, how sad can you really get? Stoicly, the band plays on, and call me Nicole Kidman at the movies, because heartbreak actually does feel good in a song like this. This tune sounds like you should put it on a mixtape for a friend who's going through a hard time — the perfect combination of regret and perserverance, tied with a neat guitar bow. Thank u sadstab!!
