with the Mary Timony Band

By David Sprankle

Mary Timony is an explorer. Lyrically, she’s traveled to far off lands of fantasy with at most a metaphoric link to reality and vice versa. Musically, she has come from punk, gone through indie and prog rock, and has ended up with a glorious amalgamate of the three. I fortunately knew this going into the Black Cat last Friday for a concert benefiting Ramona’s Way. It was a relaxed night, but the whole club lit up when she and drummer Devin Ocampo arrived on the stage. Her most recent incarnation of a two-piece band evoke memories of the old punk days, but it’s clear that Timony is expressing a weathered understanding of pop, rock, and music as a whole.

In the early 1990s, Mary Timony played in a punk band named Autoclave. The band was highly regarded in their hometown of Washington D.C., but eventually Mary moved on to study English literature at Boston University. From there, she took the lead of the then-little-known band Helium. Helium grew increasingly popular with each release and pushed the borders of indie rock. Timony showed a growing interest in progressive rock, and eventually split off to form her own band back home in Washington.

Her solo career, at first, was berated by critics for being escapist. “I got really sick of that label of me being really into Dungeons and Dragons” (Spin interview, May 2005). Her first two solo albums, “Mountains” and “Golden Dove” embraced a fantasy element both musically and lyrically. Coming from a punk background, critics did not expect this and saw the turn of events as a negative aspect. Her label, Matador records, also seemed to expect a more traditional set of albums.

Eventually this suspicion rang true. "I just got burned out on the really slow, dreamy type of music I'd been playing and felt like kicking ass" (Lazy-I interview, May 2005). Mary Timony and drummer Devin Ocampo set out to create a new album that would be a return-to-form. Even Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, a demigod in the D.C. scene and pioneer of the post-punk genre, produced the album. In 2005, Mary Timony finally released the anticipated “Ex Hex” on Lookout Records, becoming label mates with such indie rockers as Ted Leo & the Pharmacists and others. The album more closely resembled the original works of Helium, with refined guitar work and down-to-earth lyrics.

So now, Mary Timony is onto touring to promote the band. Earlier this summer she went around with Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, and she is about to take off again with Spoon. That being said, her live shows are stunning, especially considering that there are only two members onstage that constantly push each other to their limits. Timony knows how to use the guitar extremely well, which is more than can be said for some indie rockers out there today, and her live elaborations on the chord progressions of her songs lend the sound an infinite amount of depth and beauty.

When Mary Timony hits the stage, the guitar becomes more than a simple instrument. It seems more a like a beast; it’s difficult to tame, but it can roar like nothing else. It’s especially rewarding to see this knowing that her previous solo efforts have featured delicate movements with violins and flutes. The transition to a barebones rock band tempers the sound amazingly well, making it more complex then one could dream of coming from a two-piece band. Truly, Ex Hex rocks your socks off.

It’s clear that Timony knows how to reinvent herself, as she has done this on multiple occasions by changing bands, sounds and the purity of the emotions her songs evoke. And yet, she is irrevocably still herself on every album. That is truly the mark of an excellent musician.