SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-Castaways and Cutouts (2002) & Her Majesty (2003) & Picaresque (2005) & 5 Songs (2003) & Billy Liar [single] (2004) & The Tain (2004).
The Decemberists were, in fact, the soundtrack for this book. The last 250 pages were accompanied by the entire Decemberists catalog [excepting The Crane Wife, which was out in the car]. Whether or not it was a good choice, I feel that it certainly set a mood for the book.
I feel that the Decemberists have been part of my cultural landscape for many years. Their name seemed to pop up from time to time in a way that said I should check them out. And yet I resisted. No real reason why; I just did. And then when Picaresque came out and was so widely applauded, I thought I would need to hear for myself what this band was about. I was immediately smitten: by the tunes, by his voice, by the subject matter. Everything. Such an odd band, yet so smart, so literate, so edifying. They are truly one of the great storytelling bands.
SOUNDTRACK: STEELY DAN-Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) & Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) & Pretzel Logic (1974) & Katy Lied (1975) & The Royal Scam (1976) & Aja (1977) & Gaucho (1980).
My theory about Steely Dan is that they are the definition of Adult music. No one under the age of 25 should listen to them. I hated Steely Dan all through high school and college, and then sometime around the age of 30, I suddenly liked them. So, it’s something about the style, and the sound, and Donald Fagan’s voice, and Walter Becker’s whatever, that should be utterly anathema to anyone under 25. 
SOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-Lost and Gone Forever (1999) & Keep It Together (2003).
Lost and Gone Forever: Guster’s third album is an unreasonably good one. The songs are all tight and catchy, the production is really warm and inviting, and the choruses just make you want to sing along to every one. Major highlights include: “Barrel of a Gun,” “Fa Fa,” “All the Way Up to Heaven,” and “Two Points for Honesty.” And the rest of the record is just as strong. 
SOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-Parachute (1995) & Goldfly (1997).
Parachute: A really great debut, that, in retrospect, sounds almost nothing like the Guster we know and love. This sounds a bit more like the Indigo Boys. Solid harmonies over a very acoustic sounding record. Over the years, Guster have written fantastic melodies and lyrics. And this album is no exception. It’s really the production that sounds so unusual here. Very sparse and almost cool, as opposed to the warmth that they bring to their later albums. The songs are top notch, though.
Goldfly: “Airport Song” is such a fantastic single, and such a great precursor of what’s to come from Guster, that it tends to overshadow the rest of the album. Goldfly starts Guster down the road of what we’ve come to 
SOUNDTRACK: THE ATARIS-So Long, Astoria (2003) & THE STARTING LINE-Say It Like You Mean It (2002).
THE ATARIS-So Long, Astoria. I am only reviewing this CD because of the circumstances in which I acquired it. Driving out of my driveway this morning, I was surprised by a shiny thing in my lawn. It turned out to be a CD. This one. Indeed, someone had thrown this CD out of their car (I assume) onto my lawn. [Later inspection uncovered two more CDs, one by a band I didn’t recognize and the other a burned CD with no writing on it… I can’t WAIT to see what it is!] So, anyhow, I had not heard the Ataris before, but had heard of them. And the record is okay. It’s sort of generic pop punk, meaning it is really catchy and fairly fast and I probably would have loved it if I were 18. Or maybe 16. This also features the cover of “Boys of Summer” that I remember hearing on the radio oh so many years ago. The only distinguishing feature of the song is they change the lyrics to a “Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac.” Otherwise, not much else of note.
SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-High/Low (1996) & The Proximity Effect (1998).
High/Low. This CD features the “novelty” hit “Popular” from some years back, you remember, the spoken word bit about trying to impress your high school sweetheart by washing your hair “every two weeks, once, every two weeks.” The song is pretty great, even after the novelty factor has worn off. However, you may feel that you got screwned (see What I Learned… (5)) if you thought the rest of the record would sound like that. For the most part High/Low is kind of forgettable, and a surprising lead off point to what are some really fine follow-up albums. Overall the sound is, not quite murky, but very samey. So that even the catchy parts sort of blend together. It was not until their next album that they start to show some great songwriting.
The Proximity Effect. As I understand it, when Nada Surf didn’t produce a hit like “Popular” for their second album, the label dropped them. Which is typically short-sighted because The Proximity Effect is a much better album. In fact, it contains a song akin to “Popular” called “Mother’s Day” but it is so much darker–almost the anti-“Popular.” It too has a spoken word type vocal, and yet the song is an anti-rape song. A dark subject to be sure, but the guitar riff is so great it stays in your head, and you wind up thinking even more about the song. The first four songs really break Nada Surf out of the sameyness of High/Low by introducing high notes! It really cracks through the grungy sound by including some contrast. However, it’s the next album, Let Go, that really shows Nada Surf taking off.
SOUNDTRACK: SQUEEZE-Singles 45s and Under (1982).
This record came out in 1982. When I was in college in the late 80s, we used to joke that every freshman was issued a copy of Steve Miller’s Greatest Hits, because it was played virtually every day by someone. It seemed that Squeeze’s Greatest Hits may have been issued as an alternate. I never really thought much of this record back then. I enjoyed it, especially “Pulling Mussels From a Shell,” but I never really considered the quality of the record. Since then I learned that Difford and Tilbrook are up there with Lennon and McCartney and Jagger and Richards, or, if not that grand, at least with Forster and McLennon of the Go Betweens. So I grabbed this CD to play at a party and gave it some scrutiny, and I have to say it is a terrific album. I know for a Greatest Hits, it should be, but man, they can write songs that are stories, or observational or even funny and yet not sound twee or noveltyish. 
SOUNDTRACK: KT TUNSTALL-The Eye to the Telescope (2006).
Such a pleasant album. I’m not entirely sure what possessed me to get this, aside from the fact that it was on virtually every respectable (in my opinion) critics’s 2006 Top Ten list. I don’t think I’d heard any of the songs before (somehow so many of them sounded familiar, and evidently she was everywhere, and yet, I wasn’t sure what she even sounded like). So, I did research, and decided it was worth the purchase. And I was right.
