Fair Game Sessions 2008

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Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks “Gardenia” / The Mountain Goats “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” / The Long Blondes “Too Clever By Half” / Robyn “Be Mine!” / Goldfrapp “A&E” / Olga Bell “Videotape” / White Hinterland “Dreaming of the Plum Trees” / Yelle “Tristesse/Joie” / Au Revoir Simone “Through the Backyards” / Ted Leo “Bottle of Buckie” / The Slits “Love Und Romance” / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Makin’ Love in the Sunshine” / Dirty Projectors “Rise Above” / James Rabbit “George Gershwin” / Childballads “Stuart Hassle” / The National “Start A War” / Silje Nes “Dizzy Street” / Bob Mould “Hardly Getting Over It” / Dean & Britta “Strange”

This is a collection of songs from live sessions recorded for the public radio show Fair Game back in 2008. I was a writer and producer on the show, and produced the music segments. Don’t let the word “producer” fool you – all the serious recording work was done by the engineer, which was almost always John DeLore. I did the booking though, which I think is pretty obvious if you know anything about my tastes in the mid to late 2000s. There’s a few acts here who rarely if ever got any attention outside of Fluxblog.

A few notes:

• All of these tracks are from sessions that generally included 3-5 songs. (Robyn and Goldfrapp were exceptions, they only did two songs in their sessions.)

• Yes, that Olga Bell track is a cover of Radiohead. That was still a pretty new song at the time, so it was a bold choice for a fairly unknown artist at the time on a national radio broadcast.

• The piano that you here in many of these sessions is a gorgeous old Steinway grand piano. You could always tell that keyboard players were really excited to get to get a chance to play it.

• My favorite moment in any of the sessions we did is in the James Rabbit recording here, when Tyler improvises a funny story in the middle of the song. You could see that the rest of the band weren’t sure where he was going, but they played along really well. There is one moment where he gestured to one of the female members of the band to sing after mentioning Meredith Monk, and after she shook her head, the piano player did it for her. “George Gershwin” is already a joyous song, but this bit just makes it feel even more magical and alive. It’s a shame everyone ignored this band; they were really special.

• Getting the chance to meet Ari Up at The Slits session was a great experience. She was such a larger than life character, but also incredibly generous and kind to everyone around her. I remember getting this “oh my GOD” jolt when they started playing “Love Und Romance,” which is my favorite Slits song. I didn’t expect them to play any oldies at this session.

• The Childballads song has never been officially released, which is a shame. It’s based on “Street Hassle” by Lou Reed, but Stuart Lupton rewrote all the lyrics to be about his own life. It’s a heartbreaker.

• The Robyn and Long Blondes sessions were never actually aired because the show was abruptly canceled.