B-Side Worship: Wilco - "Cars Can't Escape"

Wilco – “Cars Can’t Escape”

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Engineer’s Demos, 2002

Yesterday afternoon I gave Jeff Tweedy’s new solo album (Sukierae, under the moniker Tweedy) a listen and it put Wilco on the brain. My relationship with Wilco is a long and storied one that I’ve chronicled here every time I task myself with writing about one of the band’s albums. At first I hated them, didn’t understand what all the fuss about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was about (this was 2003, when I was 17 and pretty stupid). Then at some point in college (circa 2005, when I was 19 and still pretty stupid) it clicked and I became obsessed. In terms of a piece of American music, I think it stands right up there with Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited or the Ramones eponymous debut or NWA's Straight Outta Compton in terms of being a record that is quintessentially American. Though recorded before 9/11 (which, fittingly, was the album’s original release date) if you listen to the lyrics of “Ashes of American Flags” or “Jesus Etc,” it seems as if YHF ushered in the post-9/11 age we are currently a part of. After 2007’s Sky Blue Sky my rabid Wilco fandom petered out, but I still worship Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Once I’d thoroughly devoured the album, I sought out the demos, and then the engineer’s demos, which is where I found this little nugget: “Cars Can’t Escape.” It’s a beautiful, mournful tune that is out of sync with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot but stands on its own tremendously well. The sweetness the melody coupled with Jeff Tweedy’s dejected vocals make this song like the song they play on the jukebox right after the bouncer yells “Last call!” Our poor schmuck stares into the heady swirl at the bottom of his pint glass and mutters, “So I tap my glass and nod my chin and wonder who you’ve been in rhythm with.” The wonky sonic elements that give YHF its unique texture and landscape make an appearance at the track’s end, watermarking the track to its very specific time and place in a Chicago loft at the beginning of a brand new century. Like the album it didn’t turn up on, “Cars Can’t Escape” is timeless. I have this fantasy about future explorers a thousand years from now discovering a time capsule I have left them. Inside is Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and I like to think if they listened to it they would see a portrait of this bygone era. I might try to slip this one in there too, you know, just in case they were hungry for more introspective bearded dad rock from the early 00s.

B-Side Worship: Brand New - "Moshi Moshi"

Brand New – “Moshi Moshi”

Brand New/Safety in Numbers Split/ Triple Crown/ 2002

For a band built on sweeping, well penned songs about hyper-dramatic relationship issues, “Moshi Moshi” feels entirely out of place. The earwormy pop of this track out of step with the emo-dripping pop-punk of Your Favorite Weapon and the theatrical emotional epics on Deja Entendu. And yet, it still feels like a Brand New track and features the sort of melodramatic lyrics that make Jesse Lacey’s songs such a delicious pleasure (“If I kissed your neck/ Would you slit my throat?”) while also intentionally trying to be a little goofy (“The more I hang around you/ The more hang-ups I get”) to up the sense of playfulness. Even though this song lives outside of Brand New’s wheelhouse, it’s a perfect example of a great b-side: a track that doesn’t quite fit on a band’s album, but excels on its own as an example of the band’s versatility. Not all b-sides have to do this to be great, but considering there really isn’t a place for this on either of Brand New’s early albums, it’s nice that they thought to release it anyway.

B-Side Worship: The Mountain Goats - "New Chevrolet in Flames"

The Mountain Goats – “New Chevrolet in Flames”
"See America Right" Single, 4AD, 2002

Like clockwork, every new Mountain Goats record produces at least 2-6 b-sides, most of which any other band would use as a lead single on their latest album. John Darnielle is no mere mortal. Or wait, yes he is, that is part of his appeal. He’s the everyman who apparently never stops writing. Just a normal guy with a prolific streak that gives Bob Pollard a run for his money. I’ll be covering a lot of Mountain Goats tracks hroughout this feature promoting great B-Sides, but “New Chevrolet in Flames” from the Tallahassee sessions is not only my favorite MTN GTS B-Side, but my favorite B-Side of all time. It helps that Tallahassee is my favorite album and that the Mountain Goats are one of my favorite bands. It also has one of my favorite lyrics: “Oh would that you would kiss me/ With the kisses of your mouth/ Because your mouth is sweeter than wine and has a more complicated history than the American South.” AND THIS TRACK WAS BURIED IN THE “SEE AMERICA RIGHT” SINGLE! This lovely tale of getting drunk on Colorado Bulldogs (effectively a White Russian with Coca-Cola added. After falling hard for this song, I spent a period of three months asking bartenders if they knew how to make one. Most didn’t, except one guy in Austin, who made me one of the most delicious cocktails I’ve ever had) and setting a car on fire is a masterpiece.

Mirah - "Cold Cold Water" 7"

Mirah – “Cold Cold Water” 7”

K Records, 2002

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2010

Price: $3

 

The sweetness in Mirah’s voice has always made her lush indie-pop all the more compelling. On “Cold Cold Water,” the lead-off and stand-out track from her second album Advisory Committee, she makes you fall in love and then immediately breaks your heart. Phil Elverum lends his trademark atmospheric production as he did for a number of K Records bands during a sweet spot in the 00s. The gorgeous sonics do the world building around Mirah’s aching break-up songs. The b-side on this 7” is a sadly ho-hum, demo-sounding version of “Cold Cold Water” that pales in comparison to the studio cut.

"Cold Cold Water"

The Aislers Set - "Mission Bells" 12"

The Aislers Set – “Mission Bells” 12”

Suicide Squeeze, 2002

Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2013

Price: $.25

 

The Aislers Set were part of the soundtrack to my freshman year of college, which was an insanely exciting time full of new friends, new music, and coming out of my shell like so many introverted kids before me. My freshman year girlfriend hipped me to San Francisco quintet the Aislers Set, who in a way paved the way for my full-steam-ahead indie-pop/twee obsession a few years down the line. There’s just something about the subdued pleasure of the Aislers Sets laid back yet vibrantly delightful songs that is impossible to resist. There’s a little Belle & Sebastian in the overall tone, but the group also incorporates traces of girl groups, surf, punk, and, at least on this “Mission Bells” single and its two b-sides, elements of Spanish folk music (notably the Spanish-sung version of the single, “Campanas de Mision,” which features full Mariachi guitar and horns). “Mission Bells” was the last single from the bands last album, How I Learned to Write Backwards, and while it appears The Aislers Set never officially broke up, it’s still sad that the band peaked with their most impressive album.  This single is a real treat, and it almost got tossed in the dumpster! When I took over LPs at the St. Louis Park Half Price Books, I cleaned out all of the old clearance records that had been taking up valuable space for six months and carted them out to the dumpster. I took armloads and chucked them in, and luckily, this one revealed itself at the top of one of my armloads.

"Mission Bells"
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Hair Police - "Mortuary Servants" 7"

Hair Police – Mortuary Servants 7”

Gods of Tundra/Freedom From, 2002

Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2013

Price: $1

 

Despite the awesome black metal font and design of this 7”s cover, Hair Police are a noise band. I was just curious. One of my favorite things about 7”s is that you can just drop a buck or two on something that looks cool. It’s not a financial investment or something that’ll leave you kicking yourself at the end of the day. This particular band of skronky miscreants hails from Lexington, KY. Their music sounds like Wolf Eyes. Pretty much all noise bands sound like Wolf Eyes in my head. This band features a former member of Wolf Eyes, so there you go. It also features members of Burning Star Core, which is the other noise band I know. I haven’t the finely tuned sense of musical adventurism it takes to appreciate this stuff. I recognize it’s function and its boundary pushing form, but I would never go out of my way to listen to this stuff. I think this is at least partially due to the fact that the big noise music advocate at KJHK was a colossal jerk and I was severely annoyed that he would push dissonant noise records into spotlight rotation. It struck me as extremely misguided. While one of KJHK’s functions is to broaden the horizons of its listeners and expose them to music they wouldn’t hear elsewhere, if I played the title track of this 7” on the radio I guarantee 99% of listeners would tune out. There is a place for noise music in the world, but that place is in some adventurous music nerd’s headphones or a venue where people know what they are getting into. On the radio it feels like being alienating for the sake of alienation. It feels weird espousing such conservative views about art, and I’m sure there’s a counterargument to the necessity of noise on the radio. For instance, there’s plenty of music that has noise-based elements or veers toward the more pleasant-sounding ambient spectrum that would be radio friendly, it’s just this extreme shit I’ve gotta beef with. That said, I don’t hate this 7”. “Mortuary Servants” is a violent electronic mash and I appreciate the band’s attempt to push their sound to the outer rings of the musical spectrum. The b-side “Rare Animals” is either designed to fuck with you via infinite locked grooves or my copy of the record is messed up. It’s probably the latter, although in this wild, weird world of noise music I wouldn’t put it past a band to fuck with me in such a way.