With five days left before the main event, here is the final song on the record.

First Song – The Timid Owls

This song speaks for itself. Or sings for itself (I’ve been meaning to make use of more bad puns). Some time ago, Tim posted his “best last songs of an album” list. There’s certain songs that for both stylistic and conceptual reasons fit as the last song on an album. There’s a certain feeling a song has, a certain sound that lends itself to a farewell/ending. The best ones do this while also encouraging you to go back and listen to the album through rather than listening to only certain songs; it ties up loose ends or something. This song is suited to its position. And of course, this song is very clearly the emotional center of the album. Let’s do this.

- B

Side B, song 8. After this, only one more song. Here’s the build-up to the finale:

Car (Built to Spill) – Richard Burly Wallace

This song is its own build-up. Rick starts with some simple guitar strumming behind some of Doug Martsch’s best lyrics, but bits and pieces start layering on top each of other. By the time “I want to see movies of my dreams” comes along, the song is full and beautiful with just a tinge of RBW wryness thrown in for good measure. Actually I think it’s rye-ness. That pun doesn’t even make sense.

Last song gets posted on Monday. I’ll be in Portland, OR. You can contact me there.

- B

Side B, song 7. I realize now that it should have been side A and side T (for Ali and Tim). Or wait, maybe that’s pretty cheesy.

Pocketful of Money (Jens Lekman) – The Greatest American Sport (Feat. B)

As has been mentioned in these parts before, The Greatest American Sport is Josh P. Kaffer of Josh Kaffer fame, and he brings you a song from the dapper Swede, Jens Lekman. This time, Josh actually DID record a track with the Rhodes, and doesn’t that Rhodes sound awesome? This is also Josh’s natural vocal register, I would say, and he definitely sounds good. The doubled, reverbed-out vocals give the song a sort-of mysterious air. Mysterious is not quite the word. I don’t know what the word is. It sounds great, though.

- B

Flip the record over, and after the pops and hiss comes the shimmer and the harmony:

Grace Cathedral Hill (The Decemberists) – Jenna Frye (Update: Feat. Micah Frye)

This is one of my favorite tracks off of their first album – still my favorite – and as usual, Jenna totally totally nails the vocals. Counterpoint to the vocals is the shimmery guitar track, which I think adds some kind of ironic kick to Colin Meloy’s wandering lyrics. Really, it just really sounds really good. When I first received it, I knew essentially immediately that it would perfectly fill the Side B/Track 1 spot, where you need something mid-tempo, not too quiet and not too rocking, but still semi-upbeat. I think very carefully about these things.

- B

Here’s the last song on side A, which goes out with a bang and a whimper.

The Book of Love (The Magnetic Fields) – Latoya and T-Gas

I laid down the very simple guitar tracks and sent them off to Josh, who ran away with the song. It’s GORGEOUS. The keys and the feedback and all that reverb. I don’t know, man; it’s killer. How you do that, Josh?

- B

Here we are at the beginning of the second (or so) week of the InfiniteRegress Collective Mix Tape Wedding Edition. We have nine songs total, so the last song to appear on the LP will go up exactly one week from today. We are now in the wind-down phase of the first half of the album, and this next song is a nice segue from the rollicking Islands in the Stream to the subdued and gorgeous [\title deleted] that will appear tomorrow.

My Little Brother is Accustomed to Failure – The Life and Times of You

Here is a quote from the The Life and Times of You front-man:

This took ten years or so to write. The two guitar parts were written separately during 1999 at 610 E. Maple St. in Bellingham, WA, and later it was apparent that they belonged together. The walking piano and stand-up bass lines were conceived of randomly at the end of 2007 during and after recording/sequencing/mixing songs for the IRCMT 2007. The words were written on Sunday, August 1, 2009, in preparation for a wedding. Other bits to the song have come and gone over the years, and they come back still. This song is unfinished, I think, but since I don’t know where to go from here, it’s probably hands off forever.

Good job, B.

- B

Here is the third song on side A, coming at you from a two-piece called The Enchanted Forests.

Islands in the Stream (Gibb Brothers) – The Enchanted Forests

The Enchanted Forests is Brian Long and Paula Rebsom. Here’s an excerpt from a brl email sent to me during the arranging/recording process:

yes. i finally figured out last night that the stupid thing changes keys in the middle of the song- but in such a way that the harmonizing part in the first half sounds like the melody in the second half. or some such shit. it’s a pretty slick move, actually. those Gibb brothers really knew what they were doing.

This is the part where the two mellow opening tracks crescendo into the first climax of the album, with Brian and Paula and their kick-ass harmonies channeling Kenny and Dolly in this rockingest of the rockingest of songs. Listen for the air-organ(?)/glockenspiel(?) breakdown on the later choruses.

- B

I figure these posts will go up after lunch each day. For now. This is a song by the illustrious Andrew Kaffer, of brother-of-Josh-Kaffer fame – or, perhaps, Kissing Book fame.

Blue Moon (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart) – Andrew Kaffer

This is a song well-suited to Andrew’s style, and I really like the bare-bones, single-take, guitar-and-vocals simplicity of the recording. Josh can tell us more about where/when this song was recorded. In the meantime, we can enjoy Andrew’s excellent vocals in this take of a classic. It’s interesting to track the evolution of Andrew’s voice from the pre-Lines&Color indie-pop-voice days to the current croon he’s got going on.

In other news, my softball team, Team Altmeyer, fell last night to Rebecca’s Team, 11-9. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, I stepped up to the plate with two on and our team down by 2 runs. I struck out. In slow-pitch, beer-league softball. It’s a good thing there’s no such thing as “clutch”. In contrast, last night Junior singled in the winning run in the bottom of the 14th in a 1-0 win over the White Sox. There’s a reason he and I are in the positions we are.

- B

This is Day One of the mid-season InfiniteRegress Collective Mix Tape project, entitled IRCMT:WE. WE stands for wedding edition, and this project is a tribute to Ali and Tim, who are getting married at the end of this month.

Pay attention! Side A, song 1.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters (Paul Simon) – Amie Smith

Amie is the sister of Ali, and she here brings us the opening track of the InfiniteRegress Collective Mix Tape Wedding Edition. The song is a classic Paul Simon track, and Amie tackles it with ease. The piano nestles against her sometimes-whispery, sometimes-unrestrained voice. I think this is the perfect opening track for the IRCMT:WE.

- B

Ed. – ‘Twas the right one, continue to enjoy, natch.

This is an interesting artifact.

I (heart) Dolores Very Very Much – My Little Brother

Taken from the very first MASA Records release, this is a live recording of the very first My Little Brother show which was also the very first show at B’s old Bellingham house at 610 East Maple. B’s drums are sloppy and busy, Tim on a rocking backing guitar has yet to gain his pop sensibilities, Josh’s vocals are nothing like they would end up being, and Rick’s bass is notably absent – as he had not been added to the band yet – giving the song a sprawling, error-prone disjointedness. It’s raw but really, really fun, and the quick build-up to the final rock-out session is pretty great, punctuated by someone from the audience yelling, “Yeah!” This recording kicks ass.

Also appearing on MASA Records number 1 (MR001) were Dan Shafer, Chesters Bubbles (a band that was a week old featuring Matt Fu), and Jackie Fiegel, later Jackie Bang, who was a last minute addition (literally last minute: after My Little Brother left the “stage”, we were asked if she could play a few songs).

-B

The record is off to the presses. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it gets to Washington on time. There’s still some minor things to take care of, but United Record Pressing LLC should be be able to start the process now. Everyone who submitted is on the record, as I received essentially exactly the amount of music that can fit on the 12″.

I won’t reveal the track-list right now, but here is the list of contributors:

• Amie Smith
• Andrew Kaffer
• The Enchanted Forests (Brian R. Long and Paula Deer)
• The Life and Times of You (Brandon M. Peden)
• Latoya and T-Gas (Brandon M. Peden and Joshua P. Kaffer)
• Jenna Frye
• The Greatest American Sport (Joshua P. Kaffer)
• Richard B. Wallace
• The Timid Owls (N. Timothy Salazar and Alison Smith)

Thanks for contributing, you guys.

For the rest of you! – there’s still time – say, roughly three and a half weeks – to submit a song for the extended digital/CDR version of the InfiniteRegress Collective Mix Tape: Wedding Edition. I STRONGLY encourage you to submit, ’cause, why not? – especially those of you who were going to but didn’t.

- B