Day Fifty-Three: Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Barsuk/Atlantic Records ■ BARK 75

Released May 12, 2008

Produced by Chris Walla

Recorded by Chris Walla and Will Markwell

Mixed by Chris Walla ("Long Division" by Alex Newport

Mastered by Roger Seibel

Side One:	Side Two:
Bixby Canyon Bridge I Will Possess Your Heart No Sunlight Cath... Talking Bird	You Can Do Better Than Me Grapevine Fires Your New Twin Sized Bed Long Division Pity and Fear The Ice Is Getting Thinner

It has been a long time since I could just drop the titles of tracks in order like this, but that's always an indicator of how much I like an album--that is, when I was typing up the above information, I only glanced at the inner sleeve to be sure of the actual phrasings (eg, the tense of "The Ice Is Getting Thinner", which I thought was past tense, as it is at the end of the song), but otherwise just typed them out. Now, on occasion, this really just reflects a lack of memory as to where a side ends, and sometimes just means I can't put them back in order in my head. But when I can, it means I've listened to an album straight through--a lot.

Day Fifty-Two: Dead Man's Bones - Dead Man's Bones

ANTI-/Werewolf Heart Records ■ ANTI 87047-1

Released October 6, 2009

Produced by Tim Anderson¹

Side One:	Side Two:
Intro Dead Hearts In the Room Where You Sleep	Buried in Water My Body's a Zombie for You Pa Pa Power

Side Three:	Side Four:
Young & Tragic Paper Ships Lose Your Soul	Werewolf Heart Dead Man's Bones Flowers Grow Out of My Grave

It's always a puzzle, how to present this band.

It's difficult to throw out a description of the band itself and get people to stop long enough to listen--two amateur non-musicians write strange, semi-macabre songs that they sing and play with a children's choir. A novelty, maybe, or a curiosity--but more likely, it sounds like something you wouldn't want to listen to.

And there's that other thing.

It's kind of like trying to present Brother Ali and skip over the fact that he's a white albino Muslim rapper. It's a lame pigeonhole, but it gets people's attention, and his skills generally hold him up past those facts. That's the sort of thing that should happen here, as well, but because we aren't talking about simple, concrete facts that we may even deal with ourselves, it becomes different. But, of course, I can't properly discuss an album the way I do and constantly write [redacted] for one of the two "founding" members.

Day Fifty-Two - Needle Scratch: The Two Dollar Pistols with Tift Merritt

Yep Roc Records ■ YEP-2015

Released October 26, 1999

(Vinyl released December 11, 2012)

Produced by Byron Mckay and John Howie, Jr.

Engineered by Byron McKay

Mastered by Tim Harper

Side One:	Side Two:
If Only You Were Mine Just Someone I Used to Know We Had It All Suppose Tonight Could Be Our Last	Counting the Hours (I'm So) Afraid of Losing You Again One Paper Kid

This will mark the second time I've fiddled with the alphabet in writing here, but I think my reasons have been solid in their non-arbitrary nature at both times--last time, I was covering an album on its release, and this time, well, I'd just been hoping to see a Two Dollar Pistols vinyl release to put up here anyway, and within days of stating this "aloud" this appeared before me for order, which I proceeded to place immediately (of course!). In and of itself, that would be a bit of a cheat as there are other albums I've deliberately looked up to keep my end-of-letter lists short, but this one is a release by someone who has been open and supportive of both of my attempts at writing, including this very blog. That, too, wouldn't necessarily dictate shifting the order of writing, but the fact that it's his birthday? That, I can make an exception for.

Day Fifty-One: Darkest Hour - The Eternal Return

Victory Records ■ VR495-1

Released June 23, 2009

Produced and Mixed by Brian McTernan

Side One:	Side Two:
Devolution of the Flesh Death Worship The Tides No God Bitter	Blessed Infection Transcendence A Distorted Utopia Black Sun Into the Grey

NOTE:

After a forced hiatus (stemming from borrowed cars and loaner couches), I am in a position again to write here and take up where I left off. It was fortuitous in many ways that this came when it did, as it gives me a chance to try to put into effect some ideas I had for how to go about this process.

Darkest Hour is one of those bands I found myself listening to more by chance than almost anything else. In the midst of my earliest experiences with metal--wherein I was leaping from the then-popular "nu-metal" acts straight into extreme metal of the "death" variety--I was left somewhat rudderless, but still quite fully powered. I turned this way and that, able to listen purely for enjoyment's sake and nothing else, as I gathered up the sounds that I liked without regard for community reputations, obeisance to or violations of trends or traditions, and without even internal expectations. It was a nice time in this respect--one soured quickly by my first community of musically-oriented folk in the heavier direction. The scattered voices I heard prior were also similarly isolated, and shared that lack of socially inflicted focus.

Day [Null] - Prior Hiatus

Due to the interruptions of regular life, rendering access to a turntable and free-time (and especially the two together) extremely difficult, I have been unable to proceed with the letter "D". I appreciate your patience as I work to get past this little interruption, and I am eager to get back to this, and perhaps re-design the exact approach I take to the process. I think it will all be for the best, and hope you keep an eye out, as it should not be long.

My sincere apologies for not keeping up!

Intermission III [End of "C" Part 1]

We're at the end of another letter--however belatedly--and with it at a nice, round fifty different artists touched on. Left behind are handfuls of alternate albums, a scattering of singles, and, in this case, nothing but more singles and albums from the artists touched on. It's likely not a surprise that Coheed and Cambria compose a reasonably large amount of the remaining items. The Clash were the only band that matters (are the only band that mattered? How do we deal with that now? Is it still in the present, even though they are not? With, of course,  Requisite requiescat in pace for Joe). In fact, beyond them, there's a bit more of Elvis Costello, Cursive, and The Church, no one left much to linger.

If I had my druthers--some of which I'm working on for future letters intentionally, sometimes just as coincidence of normal purchase, sometimes deliberately  to see them here in the future. Of course, my friends ask me about artists here and there--no, sadly, I don't have any Can on vinyl (I did get into them through vinyl, interestingly--while I was not big on John's copy of Tago Mago in college, I grew into it after appreciating my dad's copy of Ege Bamyasi on LP), Carcass would continue to run a bit counter to the tastes of, well, almost everyone I know of reading this but I'd welcome appearing (and looked into, but Earache doesn't do heavy pressings, and there are some albums I'd be less pursuant of), I'm sure a few friends would appreciate a bit of Wendy Carlos's work appearing (and my friend Kyle who passed me Wheels of Fire does have some himself), and a copy of Cocteau Twins' Garlands would not go unloved in my hands either. CCR is a long-time love, but, like a lot of '60s artists I grew up appreciating, I've never run after their material on vinyl. It probably wouldn't be too much trouble to run into The Crucifucks (it's self-titled, if you're wondering), which I guess proves it doesn't quite hop into the "needs" pile for my records.

It would be nice to have the self-titled Clash or In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3--but at least those two bands did get to have a chance under the needle.

A mess of real life is intruding on my ability to do this--devoting the 30-90 minutes to listen, the handful of hours to write is not always easy, though some days a few could be worked in, I'd prefer not to rush through or half-ass any of them, as I own records I like, and I don't want to disrespect those works in comparative effort to those I give the time they deserve. Certainly, there are  releases and bands I like more and less, and albums I like more and less, but I've never had much truck with trying to run extreme comparisons between largely unrelated works, so that doesn't much factor into it for me.

So, bear with me if you're in for this--I am still on it, and working out the timing kinks as best I can. I do get recommendations on occasion, but haven't always got the funds to throw at them (or even the ones I'd like myself!), though I'm not as opposed to them as I may come off. Thank you kindly to anyone sticking around here--and, most importantly--to anyone who has given one of these records a chance upon reading. I love a nice affirmation like anyone else, but I write this for the music, not for my writing.

We've got 23 letters to go, and I imagine a good number of both expected delights and surprises.

Day Fifty: Cursive - Burst and Bloom

Saddle Creek ■ LBJ-35

Released July 24, 2001

Produced by Mike Mogis and Cursive

Recorded by Mike Mogis

Mastered by Doug Van Sloun

Side One:	Side Two:
Sink to the Beat The Great Decay Tall Tales, Telltales	Mothership, Mothership, Do You Hear Me? Fairy Tales Tell Tales

If one checks back, one finds that I actually stated my next item on the block would be Cursive's Happy Hollow. However, as I sat for a moment and considered that I had a Record Store Day exclusive on coloured vinyl (marbled yellow) and that release was one that was singled out by a friend (the words "so good" in a few incarnations came up, occasionally with profane emphases) as quality in the career of the band...I considered that perhaps I could once again write about an EP released by a band from whom I also own a full-length LP. Most pertinently, I guess, my good friend Brian--one of my most reliable folks for discussing music, which can be difficult for many in light of my erratic listening habits--is the person I most strongly associated the band with.