Erik Moe Art & Design

Everyone I’ve talked to about the mix CD group Soundmonger has been very excited and impressed. There are about 20 of us in the group. Each month, one person is responsible for sending a mix CD to the rest of the group. March 2004 is my month, and the disc is in the mail. Here are the liner notes if you aren’t in our exclusive club and you’d like to attempt to reassemble the mix in iTunes. Soundmonger 15 was created as though it is a two-sided record with an upbeat danceable A side and an introspective B side that ruminates on the concept of sincerity in music. I’ve refrained from fixing my typos because they show how sincere I was when I typed this, late at night, anxious to get these sounds into the ears of my fellow Soundmongers.

THESE ARE THE LINER NOTES FOR SOUNDMONGER 15
BY ERIK MOE

SIDE A: JORGE’S COMEUPPANCE…  As soon as I heard {1} LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge” I knew that it absolutely had to be the opening track of Soundmonger 15.  Because on some level we all have anxieties about not quite being cool enough. Especially when making a mix CD that needs to keep up to the high standards of Soundmongerism.  LCD Soundsystem is part of the überhipster DFA (death from above) scene outta NYC… {2} “Status” by Mr. Lif is another portrait of the artist as a down and out scenester.  I love his little sonic background scenes.  Much of Mr. Lif’s work is more political than this track. He might take advice from {3} Ugly Duckling if he wants to get more airplay. “Dumb it Down” comes from UD’s Meat Shake album, which parodies fast-food culture (and takes a few pot shots at vegetarians). And satire is great, but sometimes you just need to have the truth layed down straight.  The radical socialist hip-hop crew {4} the Coup do it for you on “Everythang.” Now get out there and rally against injustice!  (after you listen to the rest of the disc, of course)… As long as I’m advocating revolution, we might as well engage in a bit of civil disobedience with regard to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Is the next track good because it is illegal or illegal because it is good?  Either way, {5} “Encore” from DJ Danger Mouse’s Grey Album at least deserves to be heard. Danger Mouse took the vocals from Jay-Z’s Black Album and digitally assembled a new sonic landscape for them entirely from the Beatles White Album. Illegal conceptual art that you can dance to: what else could you want?…  Maybe a trip to {6} “Rio de Janiero” with Ugly Duckling? I’ll take it… And then… That’s right, {7}the Stanley Brothers’“How Mountain Girls Can Love” is here on the dance-y upbeat side of this record.  It’s all part of my radical socialist platform: The Universal Brotherhood of Just Keep Dancing.  Soon enough you’ll find yourself moving to the beats of {8} the Juan Maclean,another DFA project that NYC hipster kids (reportedly) were dancing to all year.  If you didn’t rot your brain playing Metroid on Nintendo when you were 13, this song will get you caught up quick.  Whew!… {9} Otis Redding singing “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is the cool-off track. The bartender has turned on the lights. It is 2AM. Time for the kids to scatter to wherever it is they scatter. It’s a nice night out though, and the bike ride home will be refreshing. There is just enough room left here to squeeze in a short outro courtesy of Scott Herren’s {10} Savath & Savalas who remind you what vinyl sounds like. Really you deserve to hear so much more of this abstract acoustic-electronica, but the ‘Monger is a brutal mistress and she says that there ain’t no room for this experimental jingle jangle. We’ve got important ground to cover here… OK, now stand up and stretch while you walk across the room and pretend to flip the record over…

SIDE B: THE ARTIST IN HIS MUSEUM (CHARLES WILLSON PEALE)

Are we back already?  The nice thing about two sided media like tapes and rekkids is that you can break things up a bit.  You might be really engrossed with the latest Atlantic and completely forget about the music. It happens.  You might not listen to side B until tomorrow.  Two sides really give you a chance to work up a second wind for your attention span.  And you really might need a second wind for Side B here, so if you accidentally just let this thing play right through to track 15 before you noticed that you weren’t paying attention, this might be a good time to walk the dog or buy some groceries.  Maybe you are driving a car and reading this at a red light, in which case you should stop and buy some cigarettes.  What’s that? You don’t smoke? Good! Neither do I. But you might want to start by the time you get through the rest of this record.  You never know… Now lets see, where are we. Ah, yes I was going to try to explain what’s going on with {11} Bobby Birdman’s “Perfect For Light.” This guy is part of that the emerging (emerged?) Portland-centric anti-rock scene (I’m not sure I know what that means either, but stay tuned; more of it is coming).  He has a golden voice and styles himself after 1960’s-era crooners.  Still, he is a conundrum – he is practically whispering in your ear – and then there are those electronica tidbits. What is going on? Really, I’m not sure any of us are ready for too much of this. Let’s move on…  Next up are {12} the Thrills and “Big Sur.”  You are thinking Beach Boys.  I’m here to tell you that they are Irish.  Furthermore I’m going to concede to you that I can’t stop listening to them.  Baby, baby please don’t go. But baby always goes, and {13} Willie Nelson knows it.  He also knew a thing or two about putting together a two-sided record.  “Bloody Mary Morning” comes from Phases and Stages, an amazing concept album on which he sings about a break-up from the woman’s perspective on Side A and the male perspective on Side B.  How crazy is that?  How amazing is it to hear the cowboy outlaw talking about mixed drinks and the Los Angeles airport? Willie is so sincere! Nothing about this song makes any sense, except that it makes perfect sense… Maybe that’s what Side B is all about: sincerity. Maybe?  Let’s see if that thread gets us through a few tracks, anyway…  {14} Songs:Ohia is Jason Molina. Jason Molina somehow trapped an actual ghost in “I’ve Been Riding With the Ghost.” I don’t mean the figurative ghost of, say, Out of Time-era R.E.M., I mean that there is an actual haunted soul trapped among the digitally encoded sounds that make up this track.  Can’t you hear it? You can also tell that Molina is sincere about this business of “looking door to door to see if there was someone who’d hold [him].” After buying the Magnolia Electric Co. record at an all-ages Songs:Ohia show in a Philly church basement, I could not stop listening to it for… well, I still haven’t stopped listening to it… It is completely haunted I tell you!… And then there is {15} Devendra Banhart, who you should not look directly at if you see him in person.  His sincerity and weird bearded blue-eyed neo-hippie persona might turn you to stone. Or mush. Or something. I don’t want to think about it. The song is called “Michigan State” it was recorded on a low-low-fi tape in a hostel somewhere with lentils cooking in the next room. People I love have attempted to make the case that this is among the sexiest songs ever.  I’m not going that far, but I will admit to you that I have a weakness for Geography and non-sequiter… Moving on… If anyone is sincere, it is {16} The Thermals on “No Culture Icons.” Not only do they seem to be very sincere, but they are also Portland anti-rock even while they rock out. How cool is that?… Originally, this whole Side B concept you are listening to was going to revolve around {17}the Decemberists, who I have also been obsessed with of late.  Like Willie Nelson, the Decemberists are good storytellers. They aren’t quite as sincere as some of the other folks on this side.  The character that singer Colin Meloy takes on in this story of “The Soldiering Life”does have the kind of sincerity I’m talking about in his love for his brethren in the trenches.  Is Meloy making fun of sincerity here? Or is he pining for a more sincere time and place? Is he saying that true sincerity only comes in these kinds of extreme situations?  Type your answers in 5-7 double-spaced pages and be prepared to discuss them on Wednesday… Those Decemberists? They are also part of that whole Portland anti-rock thing. Go figure… Remember when I started out this side and I said I that maybe {18} Bobby Birdman wasn’t something you and I should be listening to? Let’s give him another try. I have to go back to him. I’m sorry.  Maybe it’s the sincerity… And did I mention that I can’t stop listening to {19} Jason Molina? The song “Spectral Alphabet”comes from the solo-project Pyramid Electric Co. (recorded at the same time as Magnolia Electric Co., above).  Only the most sincere singer-songwriters can get away with the kind of lyrics Molina uses here.  Again, note the actual specters hovering above your speakers (you might need to turn out the lights to see them)… The Death Cab for Cutie side project The Postal Service has somehow escaped Soundmongerism thus far. I suspect that we’ve all been secretly listening to the Give Up album nonstop without telling each other.  Maybe? If so, you might actually start to cry when you hear how sincere {20} “Such Great Heights” sounds in the hands of Iron and Wine,which is the pseudonym of a Miami film-school teacher named Sam Beam. He just plain gets it… And here, once again, I have for you a conundrum:  Are {21} the Polyphonic Spree sincere or over-the-top ironically insincere?  I heard an interview with Tim DeLaughter (ex-Tripping Daisy), the founder of this 26-member white-robed indie-pop choir on NPR and was convinced that he was sincere (search the Fresh Air archives, it is worth it)…  Maybe this is more of a visual thing…  I’m a very visual person… And finally, I can personally vouch for the sincerity of Amy Carrigan of Philly-to-Brooklyn transplants {22} Ducarriganigan. She sings it straight and means every note on “Picassos of You” And… really… finally… Serving as a theosophical outro are 53 seconds from {23} Low, the only anti-rock band you really need. “Dark” pretty much sums it all up… And know that I am perfectly sincere when I say that I am truly sorry if your origami record sleeve wasn’t perfectly creased and symmetrical.  Also, it might not fit in your Ikea record shelf. It doesn’t fit in mine. Some things are just like that.

Right on,

-Erik