Summer Singles
A slacker anthem, a new Hoboken song, and a cowboy ballad
YAWN MOWER - “Geothermal Springs” (Mint 400 Records)
This is the second single from Yawn Mower’s upcoming album I Just Can’t Wait to Die
and it’s another winner. Like its predecessor, “Rascal,” it’s a slacker anthem with a desultory vocal and noisy ‘90’s guitars, this time about killing lazy Sunday afternoons and daydreaming about things to do. Whether mundane (“reading classifieds on the bathroom wall”) to the fantastic (“take a break real soon, later on I’ll ride an oversized balloon,”) those dreams get punctured by the adult responsibilities that always hang over our heads.
If the chorus doesn’t have you singing along - “Geothermal springs are going off / Wish that I was with you for the foss” - you need to question your priorities. It’s catchy as hell and that “ba da bada ba ba” backing vocal is like a kiss of genius (even if you’re not sure what a “foss” is.) (I think it means waterfall.) I Just Can’t To Die will be released on August 15. The singles are streaming now and available on Yawn Mower’s Bandcamp.
RIO THE MESSENGER - “Down by the River” (streaming)
Recently, I wrote a column on songs about Hoboken. Now, here’s a new one from Rio The Messenger, a native Hobokenite who felt disconnected from what her hometown had become until attending an artist salon hosted by the Inheritance Theater Project. During that event, Rio explained, “people shared deeply held sentiments relating to the Mile Square City - disdain for gentrification, abiding love for the river, and fear of flooding.” Those thoughts inspired this song, which uses a lovely soft jazz accompaniment to a reflection on Rio’s (and Hoboken’s) relationship with the Hudson River, whose beauty offers succor and peace but also an omnipresent threat (as we learned during Hurricane Sandy.) The track unspools languorously, a meditative ballad with gently plinking synths and drums, allowing Rio’s rich and evocative vocal to contemplate these conflicting thoughts.
SHANE COOLEY & COLT WAYNE KEENEY - “In Waiting” (Bandcamp)
I met Shane Cooley, a talented singer-songwriter from Virginia, years ago at WE Fest in Wilmington, NC. For his latest single, he’s collaborated with Texan Colt Wayne Keeney for “In Waiting,” and the duo will be touring together this summer. “I co-wrote this song with Colt inspired by the history and culture of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay region,” Shane reports. The song’s got a twangy country feel, although happily eschews the usual tableau of pickup trucks, beer joints, and hot chicks in Daisy Dukes. Instead, Cooley and Keeney trade off verses and sing together on the chorus, lamenting changing times in the Chesapeake Bay. “Five generations of self-made curse, every single season only seems to get worse, the old man’s quitting, the fish ain’t hitting, this way of life’s almost gone.” Keeney’s got more of deep cowboy voice, Cooley still sounds boyish, and they commiserate together about being alone: “If Virginia is for lovers, she must be undercover, or somewhere undiscovered… or in waiting.” I hope she shows up, for both of you guys.
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