Mishka ShubalyDecember 12, 2007 by j. poet  Mishka Shubaly
How To Make A Bad Situation Worse
(TSM, 2007)
The most famous pull-quote on Mishka Shubaly’s extensive résumé is a priceless blurb from Robert Christgau who said: “Mishka, you really can’t sing. At all.” This is the same put down that was once applied to Dylan, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and dozens of other artists without traditionally pretty voices. Thankfully, most reviewers see past his vocal failings keenly aware of the fact that the alleged limitations of Shubaly’s singing voice lend veracity to his tales of boozing, depression, and disillusionment. Shubaly’s vision is grim, but like the best sad country songs and the most horrifying folk songs about broken souls and hard times, there’s a trace of self-effacing humor in his tunes that can make you laugh out loud, even as he flirts with suicide and misery. So while Shubaly may wander off-key on occasion, his cracked delivery adds an eccentric power to his rambling, hallucinogenic rants.
Shubaly’s music fits loosely into the folk/rock pigeonhole, but it’s a bit too noisy for folk and a bit too self-reflective and erudite for rock. Whatever you call it, Shubaly will grab you by the throat and bang your head against the wall before planting a sloppy kiss on your cheek. Most of the songs are all downers, but there’s enough variety to the arrangements to keep you on the edge of your seat. “Kick Off Yr Halo” is a song about a dead girlfriend, or maybe a dead relationship, delivered with bare-bones acoustic guitar and an echoing vocal that sounds like it was left on an answering machine at the bottom of a waterless well. “You blacked out twice and only woke back up once,” he intones over simple strumming accented by bent blue notes that put your teeth on edge. Then he excoriates himself for still being alive with a litany of images that pull you down into his black hole of grief. You don’t often hear songs with this much raw, emotional power and honesty, and it’s a jarring experience. “The Only One Drinking Tonight” is another desperate plea, this time delivered with quiet electric guitar, pedal steel, and minimal drums. The atmosphere here is nominally lighter, full of deadpan humor, although the hopeless mood will be familiar to anyone that can’t remember what they’re drinking to forget. “Fourth of July” is a full-band freak out with pounding drums, shrieking organ, clanging guitar, and Shubaly’s desperate vocals. “Gideon’s Bible” is a tale of life on the road, that strips all the rock ‘n’ roll romance out of touring with images of eating in vans, listening to bad radio, and watching unwatchable television shows while dreaming of home. “Kansas City Misery” actually has Beatle-esque strings on it, and sounds almost like a pop song, but again the tone is despondent with the backing female vocals adding dissonant harmonies to the tale of a girl falling for a ne’er-do-well who’s going to “peel you like an artichoke and eat your heart out with a spoon.”
How To Make A Bad Situation Worse is unremittingly dark, full of bodily functions and boozy bluster, but its brilliant use of language, sparse arrangements, flashes of crazed humor, and Shubaly’s distinctive vocals make it the kind of record you’ll want to play for all your despondent friends.
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
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