Flak Magazine: Eric Wittmershaus' 2003 annotated mix CD, 02.03.03

Music writers are never supposed to admit this, but Pram is probably the closest thing I have to a favorite band, and the first track off of its February album was the first thing this year that made me drop everything I was doing, sit up straight and take notice. "Track of the Cat" opens with rattling percussion playing the role of drumming fingers. For a good nine seconds, the listener is pushed to ask what the hell it is Pram is waiting for. But after a just-right wait, the song throws itself into gear, and Pram's seventh album of deserted-carnival, oddball symphonies is off to the races.

See the main mix.

Scout Niblett's off-key warbling on "Fire Flies" is far from perfect, but the way the vocals mesh with the equally out-of-tune ukulele — the song's only other instrument — make this creepy love song latch onto your consciousness like a tapeworm. The ukulele actually becomes more out-of-tune as the song plays on, lending Niblett plenty of the raw emotional desperation that put PJ Harvey on the map back in the early '90s.

4. "Knives from Bavaria" | Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham | L'Avventura (Flak review) | Jetset | 4:01

Easily the sharpest knife in the proverbial drawer, this slinky Jem outshines everything on Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham's bland husband-and-wife debut.

5. "Valley Winter Song" | Fountains of Wayne | Welcome Interstate Managers (Flak review) | S-Curve/Virgin | 3:35

Everybody fell in love with "Stacey's Mom," but this wintry ballad has got it goin' on.

6. "Sister Savior" | The Rapture | Echoes | DFA/Strummer/Universal | 3:51

The main mix singles out "Olio" for praise, but I can't abide Luke Jenner's godawful Robert Smith impersonation and pretty-boy preening during the band's live shows. The Matt Safer-sung "Sister Savior," however, is everything the rest of Echoes should've been, fusing old-school synth and disco beats with angular, post-punk guitar and such nihilistic lyrics as, "If I drink myself to death, at least I'll know I had a good time."

James Mercer and the Shins took a giant step forward on Chutes Too Narrow. Where Oh, Inverted World was a slice of perfectly crafted pop pie, the band's sophomore effort was a towering layer cake, revealing its tastiest treats to those who plunge the fork in deep. "So Says I," the first single, lacks a true chorus, but crunches a whole short story's worth of lyrics into two-and-a-half minutes. Look at the lyric booklet — this year's Exhibit A in the argument that buying a physical copy of an album tops the act of downloading it. Mercer's knack for jamming five minutes' worth of words into two minutes of song violates fundamental tenets of songwriting science. It's lyrical cold fusion.

8. "No. One" | Ms. John Soda | While Talking EP| Morr Music | 4:49

Munich-based Ms. John Soda swipes back the chugging Krautrock grooves Stereolab popularized in the early '90s and adds a bit of crunchiness. Vocalist Stefanie Böhm speaks rather than sings, and the band rocks out more than it has in the past, creating a track that's probably the closest anyone'll get to a German Sonic Youth.

9. "Elevator Love Letter" | Stars | Heart | Arts & Crafts | 4:04

The two-note guitar drone that opens "Elevator Love Letter" makes it a nice fit after Ms. John Soda. It isn't long, however, before Amy Millan's breathy voice takes over, tethering the song to musical territory staked out by St. Etienne and the Cardigans. Indeed, if the Cardigans' moment in the US Top 40 sun, "Lovefool," has an heir apparent, "Elevator Love Letter" is it. Coming soon to a low-budget romantic comedy near you.

10. "The Very Scary Trees" | Vells | Vells EP | Luckyhorse Industries | 3:33

I seem to have had a thing this year for pop songs with nonsensical lyrics, as this one is at least the third on this mix, after the Shins and Ms. John Soda. But while Tristan McKay Marcum doesn't really have a hell of a lot to say, his poetic lyrics resonate oddly. "Tulips too late enter the light," Marcum sings, and it's like you know exactly what he means. "Steal me an hour and I'll buy the days," he says. I can relate.

11. "My Crew" | Jean Grae | The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP | Babygrande/Orchestral | 3:51

See the main mix.

12. "Güero Canelo" | Calexico | Feast of Wire | Quarterstick | 2:57

Calexico has been doing this whole Southwest/spaghetti Western thing for an eternity, and while its albums never quite capture the thrill of seeing the band live, "Güero Canelo" comes close. Do they have square dances in Mexico? Because if they do, the south-of-the-border guitar work and Joey Burns' random called-out phrases could be adapted just nicely.

13. "Happy" | The Wrens | The Meadowlands | Absolutely Kosher | 5:33

The first album in seven years for the overhyped Wrens is a mixed effort. The band sounds like a Sugar clone on "She Sends Kisses" and "This Boy is Exhausted," and the boys from New Jersey are in full self-pitying, indie-rock boy form on "Happy." All the clichés come together — heartache, mournful guitar, no-frills rhythm section and sung-through-the-nose vocals. Yet somehow the Wrens transcend all this and create something magical. It's probably the slowly-building guitar, pulling the song ever higher until it hits the 4:10 mark. Where most whiny kiss-off songs would end, the Wrens show you what happens after the song's boy has gotten all better. The "all rights" that herald the shift are a tonic for what ails the Wrens' genre.

For better or worse, this song was the sound of America going to war for me. I pretty much said everything I have to say about this song in my review of the album, though.

15. "Stars and Sons" | Broken Social Scene | You Forgot It in People (Flak review)| Arts & Crafts/Paper Bag/Outside | 5:09

Like Lavina, I am a slave to the handclap. The bass line that drives this song vibrates so much it honestly has me thinking I could pluck it out on a Kleenex box. This song's brilliance first hit me as I headed over the Golden Gate Bridge on a perfectly clear day, the blue sky hanging above me suggesting a world of endless possibilities and the mumbled vocals suggesting, well, something.

16. "All My Days" | The Gossip | Movement | Kill Rock Stars | 2:41

Another one with handclaps. This actually isn't my favorite song in the world. It's a decent, dirty bass-guitar-propelled piece of blues rock that'd fit right before the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army." It really earns its stripes, however, over its final 50 seconds, when the instrumentation drops out and leaves Beth's singing, accompanied only by handclaps in what's surely a nod to the musical heritage of the Gossip's native South.

17. "Palmcorder Yajna" | The Mountain Goats | Palmcorder Yajna EP | 4AD | 4:09

This single, a teaser to this month's We Shall All Be Healed, probably belongs on the 2004 mix CD, but 4AD squeezed it out at the end of the year, so it's fair game. Since signing to 4AD for Tallahassee, John Darnielle has discovered a whole new bag of tricks, shearing his sound of the proverbial tape hiss and adding layers of instrumentation. But mostly, people still come for the lyrics. Well, Wayne pretty much gave you the lowdown on what this song is all about, so I don't have to.

See the main mix.

19. "Kosinski" | The Angels of Light | Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home | Young God | 3:53

Worst concert experience of 2003: Angels of Light. April 11. Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco. Michael Gira and Co. took about an hour-and-a-half to set up, despite their instruments already having been on stage at the end of the previous act's set. Not only that, but they took little five-minute breaks between each songs, carefully selecting, unselecting and reselecting which instruments they would play for the next song and discussing it all terribly intently. There were hecklers. People walked out. I lingered for five or six songs, hoping to hear "Kosinski," but the band never played it, and I gave up, making the Angels the only show I walked out on. To be honest, their failure to play "Kosinski" probably prevented them from ruining it for me, ensuring its inclusion on this disc.

20. "Such Great Heights" | Iron & Wine | The Postal Service's Such Great Heights EP (Flak review)| Sub Pop | 4:11

Sub Pop tried a fun new thing earlier this year when it released a four-song Postal Service EP on which the Shins and Iron & Wine performed Postal Service tunes. Surprisingly, Iron & Wine turned in a better "Such Great Heights" than Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello's original. Whereas the Postal Service version sounds, as Wayne noted, like a knockoff of Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle," Iron & Wine's Sam Beam turns the song into a lullaby, replacing the original fadeout's closing guitar line with a steel guitar that sounds like a music box. What a glorious way to end a disc. Here's hoping Sub Pop delivers more instant covers.

E-mail Eric Wittmershaus at ericw at flakmag dot com.