The Longest Month: An Ode to February
01 Songs: Ohia: "Lioness" fr. Ghost Tropic
As much as I like the carefully casual misogyny and pretty guitar lines, the real attraction here is Molina's voice. It is a startlingly good performance; his vocals soar and falter at exactly the right moments and, depending on what stage you're in in your relationship, it will have you reaching for the whiskey bottle faster than Raymond Carver. I like to pretend the lioness is actually spring, since it's true: "You couldn't get here fast enough".
Alternative: The slightly more grandiose "Farwell Transimission" (same artist) also works well.
02 Bob Dylan: "Buckets of Rain" fr. Blood on the Tracks
Favoured only so slightly over the Bette Midler version. I think here Dylan sounds like the voice of Febraury, bitter and put-out to still be hanging around, the instruments stay in the back while Dylan nearly sighs into the speakers. You might as well stay in tonight, kids.
03 Bright Eyes: "If Winter Ends" fr. Letting Off The Happiness
Sure, all the worst of Oberst's ticks are on display - the pointless noise experimentation, the whiny lyrics, the facile and overwrought breakdown at the end - it's still incredible. Perhaps Oberst has to pump up the melodrama so high in order to compete with the howls of the Arctic wind that's blowing through whatever exurban prarietown this song's narrator calls home.
04 Cat Power - "He War" fr. You Are Free
Marshell herself doesn't seem to know how to feel about this track, by turns aplogetic and defiant, her voice has never sounded better. Maybe. The first half is an ideal soundtrack to a slush-filled morning commute and the second half to an icy rush home. And, Jesus, thanks for that piano.
05 Lois: "The Trouble With Me" fr. Strumpet
D-D-Damn that's cold, yo. Lois gets into an argument with her id, has a falling out with her ego and comes to blows with her superego all while you sit in front of the fire and nod your head at every goddam line. Sure, I'm a slave to that K Records sound, but damn, damn, damn doesn't this make me want six more weeks.
06 Acorn: "Do You Not Yearn? At All?!" fr. The Pink Ghosts
There are any number of interesting and compelling things going on here beneath the surface but I can't be bothered to pay attention. This song just sounds too damn good. This is the sound of being trapped in an avalanche on Mt. Memory with a chamber orchestra and your high school sweetheart. It's an icy melodrama, a snowy Sunday and something better left forgotten.
Alternative: I originally had Slint's "Nosfertau Man" on here.
07 Fennesz: "A Year In A Minute" fr. Endless Summer
Long before that White Noise movie came out I told someone that this song sounds like the dead trying to communicate through the stereo. Or, like the ghosts of a dozen dead composers conducting half-forgotten symphonies through the static on a radio tuned to a 50s pop station. This is the sound of robots dedicating future operas to snowstorms.
08 Four Tet: "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth" fr. Rounds
All piano, heartbeats and a failing respirator, this song is perhaps the longest hospital visit I've ever lived through. This is the dying breath of winter, and it almost makes you miss the bastard.
09 Icebreaker: "Cheating, Lying, Stealing" fr. Rouge's Gallery
Or: string section agita in D minor. This was composed to accompany a ballet of the same name, and you can tell that this is music that is meant to move you. My ideal activity during this song is downhill skiing, or perhaps a championship tobaggon race down Springfield gorge.
10 Dälek: "Classical Homicide" fr. From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots
One unfortunate winter semester I had three night lectures. During the short walk uptown to my apartment I would play this song on repeat and watch the snow re-freeze. In the back an Eskimo Bomb Squad forgets to turn on the bright lights while in the foreground Dälek mutters slogans that sound like death threats.
11 Portishead: "Wandering Star" fr. Dummy
Is there anywhere colder than outer space? Perhaps this city in February. Portishead and I debate the question about this time every year, and I still have yet to discover the decisive lowdown. The scratchastic breakdown at the end lets this song off the "classic" hook, but I don't know of any sane person willing to test Beth's patience here.
12 Knapsack: "Diamond Mine" fr: Day Three of My New Life
When Blair Shehan sings "you're too busy reeling from the fall" all I can think of is the number of times I've near-broken my hip on the ice that mysteriously accumulates under my door every winter. I'm not sure what's really going on here, either someone was unhappy with Camus or their ex-girlfriend or maybe they're just sick of that failing feeling. Any and either way, we need the sun more than you can imagine.
Alternative: Shudder to Think's "X-French Tee Shirt"
13 Wrens: "Boys, You Won't" fr. The Meadowlands
Bitter defeat, guitars, regret and distortion. Do you need to ask more?
14 Rolling Stones: "Moonlight Mile" fr. Sticky Fingers
I like that this a slow ramble of a song. I'm not that much a Stones fan but everything about them I like coalesces here into a long winter night of a song that you can feel in your bones. As you should.
15 Saturday Looks Good to Me: "Car Crash" fr. Cruel August Moon
Oddly enough, this was released on a 200 copies only CDR and yet it remains amongst the easiest of SLGtM releases to find on-line. I always remaim mostly indifferent to this song right up until the last forty seconds when Fred Thomas starts getting louder about the blood on the streets and the deceit of small towns. Then, then it's the best thing ever.
16 Spinanes: "Den Trawler" fr. Arches and Aisles
Okay, alright, fine. I know this is a song about Christmas (not to be confused with a Christmas song) but the weary, cynical feeling the narrator has about Christmas is the same one I have by the end of February. With the laconic vocalist chastising sentimental fools, stockbrokers and herself the song is driven by a K records swoon and a nifty drumline, right towards the bar.
17 Neutral Milk Hotel: "My Dream Girl Don't Exist" (Live)
A bootleg live version my a song from NMH's earliest demo cassette, this is one of favourite songs of all time. It has a heavy, deep rhythm and a simple arrangement that lets Magnum's voice just fucking kill the listener. This song would have fit perfectly on Aeroplane, considering its Anne Frank mentions and keening desperation, but the fuller sound of that album is missing from this performance.
Alternative: I also really like NMH's "Three Peaches" for this spot.
18 Pedro the Lion: "The Longest Winter" fr. It's Hard to Find A Friend
A relic from an older version of this mix, this song has Pedro anxious and unhappy all on your account. A warning directed at his listeners not to let life pass them by played out with a gentle acoustic drawl and some spare hum, this song even manages to diss cat lovers. In summation: play this song but once and you'll find yourself out of the house despite the cold.
19 Mogwai: "Hunted By A Freak" Fr. Happy Songs For Happy People
This song has, perhaps, the saddest video outside of "Boys of Summer" but the song isn't nearly as dangerous and cruel as all that. Until the processed bits start in about thirty seconds into the song it sounds a little like '80s radio, after which it sounds like '90s Radiohead, in the best sort of way. A digital dirge sung by analog synths and space guitars letting us know that the telephone pole has seen his shadow: six more weeks of winter, kids.
