You Were Always On My Mind

I'd like to second Jay's love for Daytrotter and have, therefore, finally added it to our links. An impressively ambitious web-zine, Daytrotter has opted for a less immediately accessible but often more thoughtful approach to music writing and criticism than many of the more-Pitchfork-esque sites out there. Instead of daily reviews or news tidbits, they spend entire weeks reviewing single albums, create beautiful artwork accompanying their articles and, most impressively, manage to convince some of my favourite artists to record studio sessions that are published for free on the Daytrotter site.

Bonnie Prince Billy - New Partner (Daytrotter Session)

After suggesting (I think only half seriously) that the song "takes parts of Nirvana’s 'Heart-Shaped Box,' the Rolling Stones’ 'Get Off of My Cloud,' both Willie’s and Elvis’s versions of 'You Were Always On My Mind,' and the song 'Tony' by D.C. Powers, as performed by Johnny Cash", Will Oldham goes on to make the frustrating observation that this song is "somewhat disturbingly, about not not loving someone who you are not with.” In a way, this statement actually makes a bit of sense. The premise of the Willie and Elvis song, which always struck me as kind of absurd, is that despite being a total fuckup the singer should be given a second chance because at least they were thinking about the person they were cheating on and neglecting all those years. In Oldham's song, though, the fact that the subject of the song was "always on his mind" has much less clear implications. The lyrics are still loaded with suggestions of infidelity and sexual tension but the song is sufficiently vague to take on whatever meaning that the listener wants to attach to it. The more that I think about it, this is probably what makes 'New Partner' one of the my favourite songs by Oldham (or anyone else for that matter). I should also add that this particular recording is perfect, in its own way, sounding almost like you're sitting in the room with Oldham while he's playing.

Frog Eyes - Caravan Breakers (Daytrotter Session)

How do you possibly capture the genius of the Frog Eyes live show, the sweat flying from Carey Mercer's face as he shakes out these mad, beautiful songs in such a way as give the impression that the very act of performing them may just kill him in the process? Well, frankly, you don't. But the Daytrotter Frog Eyes session comes as close as you can hope to putting at least a tiny bit of that energy on tape. For those of you who aren't yet Frog Eyes converts, this song may just be the culmination of everything that's great about the band captured within an epic song structure: the manic, frantic energy of Carey Mercer, punctuated by dramatic shifts in tempo and direction, opening with an ethereal keyboard line that's unexpectedly interrupted by a small scream and ending on a hypnotic melody played over a wordless lament composed entirely of la's and da's.