COME PICK ME UP (Merge, 1999)

The disc was recorded at a little studio called Electrical Audio in a little town called Chicago in March of '99. The man behind the board was Mr. Jim O'Rourke. Jim made his name working with the likes of Gastr Del Sol, Sonic Youth, Stereolab and some other kids whose names I can't recall. Here's a little track by track info:

1. So Convinced- My main memory of recording this number is coming back into the control room after completing the first take and coming face to face with the Frogs. The guys were in town and stopped by to visit Jim O and hung around just long enough to make things a little weird-in a good way (I think). Probably one of our shortest songs to date and would not be at all out of place on Let's Active's Afoot EP. Laura and Mac doin' the "heys". O'Rourke's running of the drums through a gadget he called "the Ettenower 2001" accounts for the craziness of the first 20 seconds.

2. Hello Hawk- Suzanne Roberts (violin) and Fred Lonberg (cello) on the strings. There has been a rumor floating around that this song is a tip of the hat to Mr. Bruce Willis' performance in the mega-blockbuster Hudson Hawk. Not true. But be on the lookout for our song "Bruno's Back", coming soon on the A Tribute To The Other Bruce CD on Planet Hollywood Records.

3. Cursed Mirror- Jim likes to introduce this song "in concert" by saying that it was written by me. This is not actually true. My original demo of the song (which had been lying around since '92) is essentially the same backing track (rhythm guitar, bass, drums, and keys) that is heard on the CD. But Mac took that stuff and turned it into a song by adding lyrics and the guitar melody. Vaguely inspired by Cheap Trick's "Come On, Come On" (the drum intro was lifted from "Dream Police"). In a strange twist of fate, CT were actually scheduled to record @ Electrical during our stay. They cancelled when they found out that I was the guy that's been stalking Bun E. for the last 13 years. FYI: it's pronounced "cur-sed".

4. 1,000 Pounds- This is one that some of you may remember us playing live on our Feb '99 trip. Possibly the strummiest song since "Big Mouth Strikes Again".

5.Good Dreams-There is a 3-second part of this song that put me in mind of GBV's "I Am A Tree". We didn't think this was that noticeable at all until Gillard asked for a cut after he heard us play it in Berkeley last month. Mac is adamant that the song's title was in no way inspired by the Ramones '81 album Pleasant Dreams. I find this hard to believe having seen his original draft of the lyrics which included the line: "I gotta go now Dee Dee/Tell Johnny and Mark I said 'hi'".

6. Low Branches-The first song recorded for CPMU. The Ettenower 2001 makes another appearance.

7. Pink Clouds- The running joke regarding this number was that people were going to say that we were trying to sound like the E-Street band. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Chi-town horn section: Ken Vandermark on sax, Jeb Bishop on trombone and Bob Weston on trumpet. Jeb and Ken do battle @ the end of this rollicking number. Who won? Why, you, the listener, of course!

8. Smarter Hearts-Another road-tested tune. We were hoping this would've been rush released as a single in mid-May in order for it to become a prom anthem. That idea was nixed after Tricia at Merge played the song for some of her high school-aged neighbors who complained that the song was hard to make out to and needed at least one reference to "nookie".

9. Honey Bee- A tough one to record. We struggled with the tempo for quite some time. We knew we had a good one when O'Rourke broke into a spontaneous (and quite soulful) Cabbage Patch.

10. June Showers-Not an ode to the star of the porn classic Honey, I Blew Everybody as reported in the "Rock and Porn Connection" article in the current issue of Rolling Stone.

11. Pulled Muscle-Kind of a companion piece to "Cursed Mirror" in the same way "Animated Airplanes" was to "Hyper Enough". What?

12. Tiny Bombs- Briefly referred to as "Miss You" before it had a title because of Laura's bass homage to Bill Wyman. That's Mac, O'Rourke, Laura and me on the barbershop explosion at the end. Seam drummer Chris Manfrin and Touch and Go's Chad Nelson help us out with the hand clappin'.

13. You Can Always Count On Me (In The Worst Way)-The last song written for the record. Kinda just laid there until we decided to pick up the pace at the end. The only non-two word titled song on the album, for those of you not paying attention.