I'm a Tide

PLEASE BE CAREFUL YOU MIGHT REALLY EXCITED AND BITE YOUR OWN HEAD OFF

I've been agonizing about which songs to put up from the Broken Strings cd I received in the mail a couple of weeks ago and last night got the green light to put up the entire thing.

A lot of you from around the Bay Area know Adam Croce (guitartwangerdrumthwacker from Tommy Lasorda/Missing Pages/International Postmen/Magic Bridges/Los Rabbis/Lugosi/etc.etc.etc.) He recently retired to his blue bedazzled shelter shack in San Mateo (rugged older-brother to my own Foster City hometown)where we once saw Weird Al at the county fair, and where he recorded this brilliant 16 track opus all on his lonesome. At first listen I said he's been listening to a lot of TREX PAVEMENT GRUNGE EHHH??? It sounds good good, but ok good alright. but no! Not so simple. When we used to play music together I always used to feel some chagrin that he couldn't just play all of the instruments. For Broken Strings, he uses an old 4-track and some dusty mikes and does just that. While I feel like the home studio is an easy and comfortable base for totally unaccesptable wankery, Broken Strings just sounds like a really incredible and personal band- just the right beats, tones, speeds and a million little melodies to hang a noose off of.

The themes range from fantasy surf quest, life pathology dissections, pharmacy/library work, loneliness, literally losing it etc. Adam uses a bunch of cast-off and dismissed equipment to imbue each theme, from the minutest little dream ditty to the larger epic freak-out question with a sinserity that is killing me. With each listen I get wrapped up in his micro-constructions, feeling increasingly joyous, nostalgic, and full of admiration. Some of the songs don't hit me but I still can't pick just a few of the jams because I feel like they work together and create a voltron document. Also, you can't get this anywhere else so a "teaser" just isn't fair. I wish I could do this with all of my favorite albums, but such an opportunity is a rare privilage so I'm reveling in it.

I wasn't going to editorialize and just transcribe the little note Adam sent but oh well. Please dismiss my emotional ramblings and read this...
"Here's the Broken Strings stuff. Inspect/Select/Dissect. From the bedroom that wrought the Hormones. Beating on the Big Guy's bass drum, come, Broken Strings.
Psychotic tunesmith records self and none others on 1980's machine aquired by the sale of one soul. Then she broke it. Rock n'roll Faustian bargain proves true as fruitful asynchrony amounts in innumerable pop hits, but wait, there's blood on the four track.

Influences include: Feynman's bongos, Sagan's sportscoat, lithium, 10,000 year clocks, scarabs, Laird Hamilton, Post Intelligence, Olympia's Homeless, the King of the Goddamn world, Knowledge Gods everywhere."

Adam's moving to Olympia this weekend and will not rest until he has Calvin Johnson's shoes around his neck. Contact him by writing HERE

WHOLE ALBUM Broken Strings-Greetings from Mateo
Broken Strings- 1. My Baby Bites My Head Off
Broken Strings- 2.Stolen Car
Broken Strings- 3. Eyes of the World
Broken Strings- 4. On the Cow
Broken Strings- 5. Aloha Sweet Monster
Broken Strings- 6. The loneliest girl in the last ten billion yrs.
Broken Strings- 7. Surfing Everyday
Broken Strings- 8. Which Witch
Broken Strings- 9. I Sing Along
Broken Strings- 10. Straight on the crooked flats
Broken Strings- 11. Jackets of Leather
Broken Strings- 12. Jewels was a man
Broken Strings- 13. Feel Free
Broken Strings- 14. I'm a tide
Broken Strings- 15. Mars
Broken Strings- 16. Geezer Knights

ENJOY!

10/11/06 Sorry everybody, you had your chance! Not only do we need this room to put up more awesome music, but it turns out that True Panther Sounds and Big Raccoon records are going to end up putting this album out. Look for it by the end of the year.