Early Destroyer Recordings: Part 3

This is the last in my series of posts about early and out of print Destroyer songs. As I've said in earlier posts, despite their roughness, a lot of these songs are equally as good as anything Dan Bejar has written since. Quite a few are not, but it's still interesting to hear the evolution in Bejar's singing style, voice, and songwriting. I wish I could post them all, but they're not mine so you'll have to make due with the few that have been posted up to now. I haven't been able to find an early 7" that I own, so I'll finish this series by posting two more songs from the Ideas For Songs cassette, which is still one of my favorite Destroyer albums.

Destroyer - You Don't Need To Know
I've talked to quite a few people who were either really annoyed or really excited by Bejar's midi-fuelled Your Blues. Those in the annoyed camp seemed to be longing for the 'classic Destroyer', in particular for the indie-pop, guitar driven songs from Thief or Streethawk. But, as attested to by this song and quite a few others on Ideas and Golden Bridge, Bejar has always had a thing for bad synths. In fact, there is not a guitar to be found on this song but, instead, an array of partially annoying casio keyboard effects that at one point near the end sound as though they're on the verge of decomposition. I'm particularly fond of the lines, "Men hold cabinets/Women, covens" and "Films aren't forgettable/ Songs are".

Destroyer - Child of Styx
I have a feeling that the guitars are not in tune and that the tracks are partially out of sync in this song but, even as such, this is still one my favorites on the album. Much like in a Silver Jews song, it is written almost like a series of disconnected one liners strung together in such a way that they seem to make perfect sense. (I'm especially fond of the first line of the song "Child of styx, false pleasures do abound/Their staff picks have run us underground/There are no schools left to accept you.") This is what I consider to be 'classic destroyer'. The song is built around the rhythm of the lyrics, making the sloppy playing ultimately irrelevant, and it is filled with witty, yet seemingly throwaway lines and a chorus derived from a bad cliche.

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Well, that's it. I wish I could point you towards where you could find these early recordings, but they're long out of print. Maybe with some lobbying, Bejar or Merge would make early albums like Ideas For Songs or We'll Build Them A Golden Bridge available by mailorder or download or something. I kind of doubt it, but you never know.