Bird Of Youth has no business being this good. Really. If writing and recording a really beautiful album was as easy as Beth Wawerna and her crew made it look, wouldn’t everyone do it? That’s sort of the story here. For most of her decade in New York, Wawerna was, in the words of her pal Timothy Bracy, “the consummate green-room insider.” Her background in journalism and her unerring taste had led to a number of indie-rock acquaintances who eventually became friends. It sounds like a pretty good time, hanging out in Brooklyn with the Mendoza Line’s Bracy and Pete Hoffman, Will Sheff of Okkervil River, Carl Newman, Charles Bissell of the Wrens, Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws and others. But it turned out Wawerna had a secret stash of her own songs, which she’d worked on and demo’d and never, ever let anyone hear. Eventually, she decided it was time to set those songs free. Her pals not only liked them, they helped her form a crack band—guitarist par excellence Clint Newman, drummer Ray Ketchem, bassist Johnny North, keyboardist Eli Thomas and accordion player Elizabeth Bracy Nelson—and recorded them. Sheff and Phil Palazzolo (New Pornographers, Ted Leo) produced. Bissell contributed a terrific guitar lead on one song. Caws sang. Members of Okkervil River and the National played. The finished album, Defender, was released in May, just in time to give your summer a worthy soundtrack. Wawerna and Clint Newman will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week, and once a day, Wawerna is having one of her famous friends guest blog. Read our brand new Q&A with her.
Kathryn Calder is a member of the New Pornographers and also recently released the solo Are You My Mother? (File Under: Music). Catch her on her current East Coast tour.
Calder: We’ve been touring down the West Coast of the U.S. in our new van, Baby Ray, and blasting music over top of the highway noise with our tape adaptor that plugs into our iPods/music gadgets. We’ve listened to so much great music, but here are my top-five personal highlights of the soundtrack to our tour down to San Diego and back.
The Magnetic Fields
This got played on day two of our tour. The first show was done, everyone was in good spirits, we put on the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs (disc three) for an upbeat drive through Washington. A great record for driving, FYI. Possibly because I know all the words to all the songs.
Wax Mannequin
Driving through Portland while listening to The Price reminded me of all the touring I did with my old band Immaculate Machine when we would tour while listening to this album. And singing along. It’s impossible not to sing along. This is an amazing record, and if you haven’t heard it, you should definitely hear it. Catchy as hell and funny, too.
Kurt Vile
We listened to Smoke Ring For My Halo in the alternating downpour of rain and bursts of sun and rainbows (just single rainbows) as we traveled through the dramatic mountains, hills and rivers of Oregon. We put this record on when we drove down to California and on the way back. It’s that good.
Kate Bush
We spent a night in Crescent City, with the plan to drive down through the Redwoods in the morning. As we approached the Redwoods, we had a Kate Bush sing-along (“Wuthering Heights” and “Hounds Of Love” in particular) heading into Ewok territory (it’s where they filmed Star Wars). Mazzy Star was there after Kate Bush to provide the perfect mood to contemplate just how old those trees are and how tiny we are in comparison. There was some tree hugging.
Smog
On the way back north after playing San Diego and L.A., we spent the night in Coalinga, a truck stop of a town somewhere in the central valley of California. In the morning, we headed to Big Sur (which was amazing and you have to go if you haven’t been), and on the way, we went through the most incredible and dramatic foothills. Bill Callahan’s Smog record A River Ain’t Too Much To Love was perfect.
