Oceans Never Listen To Us Anyway: Muxtape Numero Tres

Kids hip to the Twitter feed got the early word Thursday, but now the rest of you can spend an hour or so listening to and generally pondering our third Muxtape. The same caveat applies; that is, we were surprised and disappointed at how much of our music is encoded in the AAC format and therefore not eligible for uploading to Muxtape. That said, it has become another facet to the game of creating the mix. Looking over this one a couple days later, we're not sure of the order in a couple spots, and the Cherubino track might rock a little too much for this mix. But it is what it is. Here is a link to the Muxtape, and below are remarks for each track:

1. Galaxie 500 -- "Ceremony (Live)" -- Copenhagen
(Listened to this live record incessantly around the time we started dating the missus. Dean Wareham really takes things higher when he finishes out the lyric and goes to the solo to bring the song home. But isn't there a second guitar here all of a sudden, backing him up during the solo? Did Kramer step up on stage to fill out the sound there? Dunno. We'll have to go back to the liner notes. Incidentally, the interview segment Wareham did last month on WMBR to promote his recently issued memoire "Black Postcars: A Rock And Roll Romance" was very enjoyable, insightful, and we look forward to reading the book.)

2. Lilys -- "Salad Bar" -- The Station Tapes demos
(Rare, unreleased Lilys demo recorded in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1991 in a basement studio. Really sublime stuff, sounds Ride-influenced. It is a shame the song didn't get a proper re-recording in Lancaster, PA where and when the sessions for In The Presence Of Nothing were done. It seems like Lilys-leader Kurt Heasley has been doing some cleaning out of the proverbial closets of late, what with the offer for sale of virgin copies of Eccsame The Photon Band recently. Perhaps he'll get together some odds and sods sets -- we're sure there's got to be acres of demos and outtakes.)

3. The Mendoza Line -- "Now Or Never Or Later" -- 30 Year Low
(Heart-stopping, slow burning demo version of a track that was featured on the Slow Dazzle record, which featured the now dissolved partnership of Mendoza Line fronters Tim Bracy and Shannon McArdle.)

4. David J. -- "I'll Be Your Chauffeur (Original Version)" -- Songs From Another Season
(No rhythm section on this version. Another classic mixtape track from a gentleman who know lives in parts unknown and who had ripped out the only working bathroom in his house around the last time we spoke. The other version of the track will always signal autumn for us, but this more subdued take seems more dreamy and optimistic. Very tasteful saxophone here.)

5. Girlfriend 2000 -- "Ladybug"
(Unreleased track from a former combo of our once and current bandmate Jeff Stern, whose songwriting prowess should be supported by copious grant funding so he can just do it full time. Although he'd probably use the grant money to make a movie. Even so, this track continually reveals itself in different shades of emotion every time we listen to it. Very tasteful organ here.)

6. Gravel -- "Yesterday" -- International Hipswing comp
(This song is pretty flat as far as structure and production goes, but it captures a cat-gray, flannel-shirted mood of isolated desperation common among indie boys of the age at the time.)

7. Cherubino -- Car Wreck -- Bird
(This record was treated poorly by Pitchfork when it was released about six years ago, and we think it deserved better based on the two very strong songs on the set. "Car Wreck" is one of these. The band featured Haywood drummer (and, truly, one of only two people you should ever call if you need a drummer, since he's tops) Rob V playing bass and hitting the backup vocals. Keep talkin' 'bout it, keep talkin' 'bout it.)

8. Destroyer -- "I Want This Cyclops" -- City Of Daughters
(We made this muxtape the day this very good Catbird Seat item was posted about Destroyer's large, but mostly new fanbase. The only reason we were cool enough to know about Destroyer early was because we know a guy who knows a guy, and that second guy was/is a partner in Misra Records, and that first guy one day gave us a handful of Misra CDs for free out of the trunk of his car. One of those records was Streethawk: A Seduction, which is a splendid recording and features some very compelling and Bowie-tastic tunes. "I Want This Cyclops" we got from some blog, perhaps the late, lamented Mystical Beast.)

9. Ambulance Ltd. -- "Stay Where You Are" -- Ambulance Ltd. EP
(This songs seems to be singular in the Ambulance Ltd. catalog, as if they wrote it, realized it was awesome, and then decided they didn't want to be pigeonholed by it. Which is a shame, because if Ambulance Ltd, which has undergone some lineup changes in recent years, created entire records of subdued pop gems such as this, they would be our favorite band. Sadly, the long introduction is excised for the video, which is otherwise a pretty nice piece. As it stands, "Stay Where You Are" is at the top or very near the top of the list of most-played songs in our ITunes. More recently the band issued a set that included a cover of Pink Floyd's "Fearless," if memory serves.)

10. Boys Life -- "Two Wheeled Train" -- Boys Life/Christie Front Drive split 10"
(Another song with a long introduction, and a song with a huge payoff. This one cataclysmic in scope. At the climax, about two minutes in, hair on our arms stands up. Every time. And then this song has a weird outro, as if the storm has passed and the clouds are breaking up.)

11. Sunset Rubdown -- "Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings" -- Shut Up I Am Dreaming
(We used to see the word "restraint" bandied about a lot in relation to one of our favorite bands back in the day. This is not that band, but even so this song epitomizes restraint. Which is why "Shut Up..." has such a huge payoff when it finally gets to the second go-round of "oceans never listen to us anyway." It's a musical journey, and when you get there, it is immensely enjoyable.)

12. Adrian Crowley -- Trilogy -- A Strange Kind
(If not the perfect mixtape beginner, then certainly the perfect mixtape ender. Ambient washes. Sad/creepy piano.)

Review: The Mendoza Line | 30 Year Low [MP3s]

It turns out what seemed like it would be the biggest feel-bad record of the year actually feels pretty good in places. Certainly there are down-in-the-mouth tunes on the final album of new material from long-running indie rock concern The Mendoza Line, the shambling project started by Tim Bracy and Peter Hoffman in Athens, Georgia more than a decade ago. With the dissolution of the marriage that has bound the band's remaining principal songwriters together in The Mendoza Line, the flatly glum tone of Shannon McArdle's album opener "Since I Came" is unsurprising. Even so, as we asserted above, there are cuts on 30 Year Low and its companion set Final Reflections Of The Legendary Malcontent that are absolutely jaunty, particularly Mr. Bracy's imperturbable, Replacements-esque title track. "The unraveling of a grand design..."

So there is a balance -- albeit a slightly uneasy one -- that holds aloft these two records across a fulcrum that wavers between tragicomedy ("Go Shopping") and tragedy ("Withered And Died"). And with some of the songs only the context of the startling announcement of the end of Ms. McArdle and Bracy's marriage lets us know that the two discs contain the sounds of the wheels coming off. The over-driven "31 Candles" or the unabashedly carefree interpretation of the standard "Anything Goes" don't feel weighted down by concerns greater than rocking out and the next drink, respectively. "Now you're rolling down the stairs in a barrel..."

Perhaps the most, ahem, bracing aspect to 30 Year Low etc. is the return of a lackadaisical mania, present in the dysphoric, vertiginous guitars slashing across the stereo field in the final minutes of the pulsing piece of perfection that is the Bracy-sung "I Lost My Taste." As The Mendoza Line's profile grew earlier in this decade the band assumed a traditional formalism. This won, or at least coincided with the arrival of, more than a little acclaim, but in our opinion it came at the cost of the exciting sonic experimentalism of catalogue highlights including the massively under-rated set We're All In This Alone from 2000. There's more of that sort of experimentalism in the howling guitar chords that feed back in the bridge of the aforementioned, sublime ballad "Go Shopping," which is situated in the middle of the second disc next to the stunning original demo for the Slow Dazzle track "Now Or Later Or Never." The latter song was a highlight of the Mendoza Line live set we saw in May [review]. "Now everybody's laughing about the size of your IPO..."

The breadth and depth of material on 30 Year Low and Final Remarks Of The Legendary Malcontent provides a questionably tidy but self-contained (like fraternal twin Capra-esque scenes in snowglobes; like jars full of fireflies) summary of a great, and greatly under-appreciated, American rock band. We expect we'll be hearing more from McArdle and Bracy before too long. Incidentally, the Mendoza Line web site (it seems the MySpace page is no longer) was updated recently with the news that "upcoming Mendoza Line shows will be performed by Timothy Bracy with band." So despite the cancellations we noted here, it would seem Mr. Bracy intends to get out to support 30 Year Low with live dates at some point. For now, enjoy these MP3s. "You were blue chip once, you were quite a ride..."

The Mendoza Line -- "Since I Came" -- 30 Year Low
The Mendoza Line -- "Thirty Year Low" -- 30 Year Low
The Mendoza Line -- "Aspect Of An Old Maid (Alt. Take)" -- 30 Year Low
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[pre-order 30 Year Low from Newbury Comics here; check out Glurp's e-card with album stream here]

The Mendoza Line: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr