The Kerosene Hours and the imploding toxic duality of "Imperfect You" (Official Video)

 

"this family is a joke, did your mother get the flowers I sent?"

The Kerosene Hours is the flip side of normalcy or maybe normalcy itself shown through a hyper realistic lens. One that is scuffed and hazy, the rose colored tint rubbed off by OCD gnarled fingers. L.A. based multi-media artist, singer-songwriter Aaron Silverstein is the author and the open blisters that are cared for in his work are ones that might be informed by or set against the idyllic imagery of 50's white Americana when individual lives where encircled with straight white picket fences (at least the image cast on static tinged televisions) and when polite society might have dreams where they are not so polite, where horrible slurs like kike, chink, nigger or faggot might fall from pearly white teethed mouths and women were kept on "an appropriate" economic leash. I must add now that these are my words and the sense I get listening to The Kerosene Hours after covering this project for a while, not Silverstein's and, in the end, whatever is informing his work (overall) results in utterly engaging darkly cast reflections in bent mirrors, a human night gallery with truth behind fictional dramatic dioramas.

His latest, "Imperfect You" might be his most 'go for the throat' passion play. Cast against a dark framework of spooky synths, stalking guitar strikes and a choir of ghostly backing vox like white robed cultists, Silverstein characterizes an abusive relationship fueled against the duality of our lives. The Jekyll and Hyde in all of us which somehow feels ramped up in today's age of social media, the cult of public persona, the "importance of appearances" and ultimately, maybe, the power of appearances. Silverstein's hyper dark vocal performance art is on point (again) and his lyrics that feel maybe forged from ID improvisation (partially) are both dark and darkly comedic as he rattles off derisive barbs in an imploding relationship, "Why are you scared, love? I actually like your new haircut but i don’t like your mother, I don’t like your mother ,I don’t like your mother. And i don't like the the light that I see you in when you first walk in from the grocery store and I don’t like your mother, I don’t like your mother, I don’t like your mother, I don’t like your mother. And now our bed’s on fire. your ugly tie and pumpkin pie just don't excite me anymore...but you're the best, you're the best at work".  The scouringly truthful invectives are (maybe) reflective of similar things we have all felt under our breath but swallow with our drink of choice, only to come to find that some things just break under the weight, the collective corrosive weight. If this song was translated into a Netflix 10 part dramatic series I would certainly binge watch it. 

Silverstein describes The Kerosene Hours project as "the hours between midnight and 4 a.m." and when I listen to his songs I know what keeps him up at night.

-Robb Donker Curtius

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The Kerosene Hours · Imperfect You

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The Kerosene Hours are the hours between midnight and 4 a.m. A project by Aaron Silverstein primarily concerned with Los Angeles, dark and scary nights, bad dreams, cigarettes, mistakes, good intentions, fantasies, the road to Hell and apologies.

The Kerosene Hours, avant garde rock, alternative rock, experimental rock, art pop, anti-pop, "Imperfect You", singer songwriter, filmmaker, creative, Aaron Silverstein, Los Angeles