June ’04 Mix

June 30, 2004

1) Caroline Avenue – I Guess I Was Hoping For Something More – Tarkio

I finally found some more from Tarkio, Colin Meloy’s original band. This one’s got some little banjo work that runs underneath the main melodies. There aren’t any particularly brilliant couplets in this track, and The Decemberists seem far far away.

2) The Town Halo – The Slow Wonder – A.C. Newman

The cello hook riffs like Jaws, and the verse flips from menace to joy and back again.

3) I Summon You – 2004 Demo – Spoon

This little Spoon demo is essentially just Britt Daniel chopping away with his guitar, a sickeningly subtle piece of work where the verse and chorus barely shift into one another and four minutes of your life disappear before you can sing “mmbahmmbahmmbah.”

4) Naked As We Came – Our Endless Numbered Days – Iron and Wine

Sam Beam is Iron and Wine, the dude version of Cat Power or a more grounded Sufjan Stevens, if you prefer. Straight forward folk fingerpicking leads me to wonder how Beam falls into indie rock circles at all.

5) The Weakest Shade of Blue – Yours, Mine and Ours – The Pernice Brothers

This popped up on my Ipod and I had no idea which lush, layered Beach Boys influenced pop band it was. My Ipod lives in the shadow of Brian Wilson, now and forever.

6) Don’t Get Your Hopes Up – Me First – The Elected

I’m not a big fan of the rest of the album, but I get a huge kick of this song intro, which is almost identical to New York, New York.

7) Brand New Colony – Give Up – The Postal Service

The Postal Service is old news, but I felt the need for some love songs that sounded like they came from the Nintendo. “We’ll cut our bodies free / from the tethers of the sea / start a brand new colony” is such a beautiful hippie dream.

8) I’ve Got The Password To Your Shell Account – Zero One Infinity – Barcelona

This is the catchiest song about hacking password accounts ever. I stumbled across it a year or so ago and I still listen to it about once a month.

9) If We Can Land A Man On The Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart – When Your Heartstrings Break – Beulah

With Beulah on the verge of ending, I figured it’d be nice to put my favorite Beulah song from my favorite Beulah album with my absolute favoritest Beulah title on the list for this month.

10) Beyond Belief – Imperial Bedroom – Elvis Costello

This song doesn’t really have a chorus… you can just see Costello working overtime to sing the melodies just a bit differently with each line as well as pushing the lyrics far and wide.

11) The Letter – Uh Huh Her – PJ Harvey

Sadly, this is the only song on the new PJ Harvey album that I can even stomach.

12) Cinnamon – When I Pretend to Fall – The Long Winters

When I saw the Long Winters, I really wished they were better. I feel the same way about this song, which has a great pop hook but doesn’t have enough ideas to sustain the full four minutes of fun.

13) Bastards of Young – Tim – The Replacements

I could quote this song until the end of time. For the sake of space, just one bit “The ones who love us best / are the ones we’ll lay to rest / And visit their graves on holidays at best / The ones who love us least / are the ones we’ll die to please” I’m surprised their aren’t 20 punk bands named Bastards of Young.

14) Jolene – B-Sides – The White Stripes

This Dolly Parton cover is still one of the Stripes’ best performances. Couple this with White’s Loretta Lynn thing, and it’s pretty clear he’s got a creepy thing for old country broads. Barbara Mandrell, watch out.

15) We Both Go Down Together – Live in Toronto – The Decemberists

Oooooh new song. There are actually about four new Decemberists songs now, but this tale of starcrossed lovers opposing worlds that throw themselves off the Cliffs of Dover is high drama. “I come from wealth and beauty, untouched by work or duty” is something I wish I could sing about myself over and over again.

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