Archer Prewitt - Southern Wall 7'' (Motorcoat, 1998)

Archer Prewitt
Southern Wall 7''
Motorcoat
1998


Rating: 6.5 dairy deer out of 10


A perfectly cromulent (though probably unessential) release from Archer Prewitt, best known for his excellent guitar work with the Sea & Cake and the Coctails.  Both tracks are in the jazz / lounge rock family as you expect from Archer, but the title track has a bit of a psychedelic twist to the production.  Oh, and there's a flute on it!  The song has vocals but they're rather minimal...but there really is a shitload of flute though.  The other side, "Coleman," is an instrumental offering that is fine.  Just fine, nothing special.  Probably should have put some flute on it. 

The Sea And Cake - Any Day (Thrill Jockey, 2018)

The Sea And Cake
Any Day
Thrill Jockey
2018

Rating: 8.5 expired boxes of fried chicken out of 10

In the least surprising news ever department, all of my favorite records so far in 2018 are by bands I’ve been listening to for two decades or more.  Is it because the new music sucks?  Maybe a little bit, but I’m sure that’s mostly just the crusty old dude inside of me talking.  Is it because all these groups I’ve loved forever are still going strong, putting out some of the best music of their careers?  This seems like the biggest reason for me…most of these groups used to break up after a short run of a few records, never to be heard from again.  Now they either stay together forever, or get back together for shits and giggles (and money) and remember how fun it was to play together in the first place. 

The Sea And Cake are one of those bands that have been going strong since the mid-nineties, though they’ve always worked (and toured) at their own pace.  It’s been six years since their previous album “Runner,” their longest break, but multiple years between releases is not unusual.  With “Any Day,” it seems like that long break might have reset the group back to their early years stylistically – the electronic/synth elements that had been infiltrating their songs over the past 10-15 years is almost totally gone, giving us an album that sounds like it could be the companion of 1995’s “The Biz,” my all-time favorite release (amid a large catalog of very strong output).  Between Sam Prekop’s breathy vocals and Archer Prewitt’s jazzy guitar lines, the group’s music is some of the most easily identifiable in the business…it rests like a warm blanket on an old nostalgic jackass like me.  “Cover The Mountain,” “Day Moon,” and “Circle” are as strong as anything they’ve written since the mid-nineties, and there isn’t a weak spot to be found anywhere on “Any Day.” 

I’m pretty jacked I get to see these old dudes live in a few days when they pass through town on tour – it’s not often you say this about a band with a catalog this long that you’ve been listening to for two decades, but I’m really excited to hear the Sea And Cake perform these new songs live.  If that’s not a testimony to the quality of the new material, I don’t know what is.    

The Sea and Cake - Runner (Thrill Jockey, 2012)

The Sea and Cake
Runner
Thrill Jockey
2012

Rating: 7.5 jump shots out of 10

The Sea and Cake!  They might keep sorta releasing the same record over and over and over, but fuck if they don't have that indie-jazz-pop sound of theirs dialed down to a science.  A really awesome sounding science. The album kicks off with the upbeat "On and On" and it only gets better from there.  According to the label website the band took a different approach to recording this record - Sam Prekop wrote the songs on a synth, then sent the tracks out to the rest of the band to be fleshed out... and while this may sound neat, to my ears it just sounds like another in a long line of very enjoyable Sea and Cake records.  For long-time fans picking this up should be a no-brainer.  Looking for a place to start with this iconic Chicago group?  "The Biz" would be my first choice, but not a damn thing wrong with starting right here.

The Sea and Cake - The Moonlight Butterfly (Thrill Jockey, 2011)

The Sea and Cake
The Moonlight Butterfly
Thrill Jockey
2011

Rating: 7.5 red velvet cake slices out of 10

The Sea and Cake are that old friend from high school that you don't talk to all that often, but on the odd occasion you do get back together it's like you've never lost a beat. I've been listening to this band for over 15 years, and they still give me that same warm feeling they did back when I had more hair and less gut. Moreover, they sound pretty much exactly the same. And that is just how it should be. Some bands have to change or they start to sound dated - but S&C sound timeless all the time, like a good jazz record.

"Moonlight Butterfly" is a little long for an EP and a little short for a full length record, but those are exactly the sort of semantics that this band would never concern themselves with (and exactly the sort of thing my stupid ass would get worked up over). Outside of the title song which sorta veers into Kraftwerk territory, every other one of these songs could have been on their debut record. Beautiful, perfect, space-age jazzy leisure pop that still sounds so so so good to these ears.