On peach vinyl.
Once again, after a gap of years, Papa M just rolls up andshows us how it’s done. This time, with a fresh, fine set ofsongs. And just six of them, so you know they’re somegroovers.
After Slint’s disbandment, David Pajo whiled away the 1990splaying with literally everybody who asked, pausing long enoughhere and there to start his own band, called M. One awesomesingle later, he tells the Drag City label, “I have an album, butnow I’m gonna call the band Aerial M.” One insanely greatalbum and an (also amazing) remix album later, he’s like,“Thenext record is gonna be credited to Papa M.” And there thelabel were with a thousand promotional Aerial M beer matsready to go.
Two epic / classic albums and a forbiddingly large, outstretchedpalm of singles (eventually collected into another epic fulllength) later, David was looking a bit green around the gills. It’dbeen five years of Papa-ing off; time to do something / anythingelse for a while. Twelve long years go by before he sends in‘Highway Songs’. Then ‘A Broke Moon Rises’ in 2018. Seemedlike things were looking up, and then nothing, until now, whenwe get ‘Ballads of Harry Houdini’.
Following the path of M records from Aerial to Papa, Davidrecorded ‘Ballads of Harry Houdini’ on his own, receding deepinside himself and taking the time for ideas new and old, fromsoup to nuts, et al. Having his fun before spitting it all out ontothe world – setting down some tracks, getting lit, grabbing aguitar, getting a sound going, and soloing over them. With a bitof singing here and there too. Everything that’s meant to be inthe picture is in there.
Frankly, the amount of hip-shaking sleaze oozing out of thesepieces blows the idea that these are simple ad-hoc assembliesright the funk out of the water. As ever, it’s mixed extra-crispy,with earworms and easter eggs and lots of other surprises (like Sweet Peach vinyl).
A1 Thank You For Talking To Me (When I Was Fat)
A2 Ode To Mark White
A3 People's Free Food Program
B1 Barfighter
B2 Rainbow Of Gloom
B3 Devil Tongue