December, 2008

Mix Across the Nation - December
Bob Dickson - Seattle, WA

1) Governor's Daughter - The Rosebuds - Raleigh, NC
2) A Song for Ellie Greenwich - Parenthetical Girls - Portland, OR
3) Ship Made of Stone - The Dutchess and the Duke - Seattle, WA
4) Lolita - Throw Me the Statue - Seattle, WA
5) Black and Brown Shoes - The Silver Jews - Nashville, TN
6) Torn Blue Foam Couch - Grand Archives - Seattle, WA
7) Last Time - Sera Cahoone - Seattle, WA
8) White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes - Seattle, WA
9) Johnny - Bombadil - Durham, NC
10) Oh Christine - Cave Singers - Seattle, WA
11) Farewell My Lovely - Possum Dixon - Los Angeles, CA
12) Cold Beer and Cigarettes - David Bazan - Seattle, WA
13) If By "Gay" You Mean "Totally Freaking Awesome," Then, Yeah, I Guess It's Pretty Gay - Des Ark - Durham, NC
14) Ex-Girl Collection - The Wrens - Seacaucus, NJ
15) Cubs in Five - The Mountain Goats - Durham, NC
16) Abegail Anne - Jeremy Enigk - Seattle, WA
17) Have You Forgotten? - Darryl Worley - Nashville, TN

Footnotes
1) I keep coming back to the Rosebuds. I like how the surf-rock strum and laid-back crooning play against the manic drums and building energy of the ba-da-da-hey-hey call and response. If you like this, try "Birds Make Good Neighbors." If you don't mind a little disco, try "Night of the Furies."
2) If not the best record of 2008, "Entanglements" has to be the most ambitious. It's a concept album that's sprawling and gorgeous and thick with sound. The 'concept' happens to be pederasty, but when has that ever stopped you.
3) "She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke" is solid all the way through. It sounds like your favorite Dylan and Stones songs infused with a bunch of punk energy. It's retro but somehow not cliched or derivative.
4) Throw Me the Statue haven't made a great album yet, but they will. The first verse of this song is killer, and they know how to layer sound. The end is sloppy, but still.
5) David Berman met Steven Malkmus in college and formed the Silver Jews. He's been under Pavement's long shadow ever since. When I was in college, my friends and I overtook the graduation committee and selected Berman to give our commencement address. He shared his entire honorarium with us during one very long night at our favorite bar. We brought him back, high and drunk, to the college president's house at 4AM. The next morning, he delivered a beautiful speech that could have been out of Actual Air. Then came the crack years, and the suicide attempt, and the religious conversion. He's touring now, and sort of sucks live, but "The Natural Bridge" and "American Water" are timeless.
6 and 7) Seattle's Carissa's Wierd [sic] broke up in 2003, and you now know three descendants. Ben Bridwell went on to form Band of Horses, who are all up in your Ford commercial. Mat Brooke formed Grand Archives, who made an amazingly good Beach-Boys-pop record that keeps on giving. Just amazingly infectious melodies with beautiful production. Sera Cahoone went solo and is now a talented quasi-country songstress. Not bad at all for a drummer.
8) Hardly local anymore, Fleet Foxes just won Pitchfork's Album of the Year. Really, what can you say about this.
9) We'd watch these guys, dressed up in marching band uniforms and making utter asses of themselves, while they played surprisingly good pop. Their voices would crack and their zits would pop when you talked to them. I'm pretty sure they're all virgins. This song is a primer on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, for Carl and Jenny. Makes up a "Bleeding Child Diad" with #8.
10) The Cave Singers are another Seattle folk-punk group going national. This song feels like it's building towards a payoff that never comes. I like describing someone as "stoned as a kite." There is no corner of Blanchard and Bell - they run parallel to each other.
11) Back in the early-mid 90's, I picked up a Possum Dixon record solely because we had the same last name. The internet was relatively young, and even national bands didn't necessarily have websites. I emailed them and volunteered to design some lyrics and tour pages for them. They were grateful, and paid me in t-shirts at their shows. I stayed penpals with their keyboardist, Robert O'Sullivan, up until they broke up. Their singer, Rob Zabrecky, went off and became a magician. As in, rabbit-in-a-hat, G.O.B. Bluth magician. I like the mariachi horns and flamenco guitar against the California highway loneliness. It's now very dated 90's indie pop, but it still does something for me a decade and a half later. Note the regional "the 101" - they never say "the 95" back east.
12) You should buy David Bazan's Fewer Moving Parts. It's the kind of EP that makes you realize how much more can be done with a guitar, a keyboard and vocals than you'd assumed. He's got such a knack for melody and vivid lyrics. I love the "Right On" bridge - it sounds like a chorus of a dozen Game Boys.
13) Aimee Argote can't be more than five feet tall. She made these raucous punk songs for years, then turned quieter and symphonic and somehow more raw. This song is a beast. I like how she pronounces words.
14) No real local connection, I just think everyone should love The Wrens as much as I do. "The Meadowlands" is my favorite album of the 00's, and when they finally release their next one it'll be my favorite of the 10's.
15) For some reason, John Darnielle moved from California to Durham when we were there, so we were spoiled with semi-regular shows at our dinky little venues. Since this song was written, Tampa Bay has won a Super Bowl. The Cubs have still not made the World Series.
16) Jeremy Enigk was the singer in Sunny Day Real Estate. Now he plays the occasional solo show in Seattle. This is a lovely crescendoing waltz.
17) This is the worst song in the world, probably ever. Everyone should know about it. They should teach it in our grade schools. Its awfulness transcends its shitty composition and Whorley's whiny twang. It's politically, morally and historically awful. It incorporates everything wrong with early 2003 and the national madness of our buildup to Iraq. In order: a) the bullshit idea that toppling Hussein was protecting our freedom and our 'homeland'; b) the conflation of al Qaeda with Iraq; c) bald, dumb strawmannery ("You say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden!"); d) the arrogance, presumption and emotional manipulation of speaking for the troops (atop a hilarious militaristic drum cadence). "They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in." Fucking right. Darryl Whorley has blood on his hands.