Those Bastard Souls -- Debt and Departure
7/10
I heard it in my car in an abandoned Wendy's parking lot in the summer of 1999. A few minutes before, the KLSU DJ announced Pavement's "Major Leagues," one of my favorite new songs, and I'd pulled over in the overgrown, pot-holed, empty parking lot to relax and listen. I had the day off from Winn Dixie and time to kill. After "Major Leagues," I put my car into drive, then, as another song began, immediately back to park. This next song was just as good as "Major Leagues." I didn't have the KLSU phone number memorized yet (because I wasn't yet announcing it to listeners over the air), so I didn't know who to call to ask what song was playing. A later Webcrawler check (what was google?) turned up no answers. Still, one line from the song stuck in my head: "Am I expecting something?/You bet my life I am/Telegram." It stuck in my head until 2011, while I was working on a mix CD of my favorite songs from 1999. Hmm, I thought. What if I searched the lyric on the Internet of 2011? The Internet of 2011 brought me success (thanks, Google). The song was called "Telegram," by a band called Those Bastard Souls. I could purchase a CD copy of their 1999 album, Debt and Departure, used on Amazon for $1.99. Thanks, Internet! You're magic!
Apparently, Those Bastard Souls is a side-band started by The Grifters' David Shouse. I won't pretend to be very familiar with The Grifters or Shouse, but I do know that Shouse was close to Jeff Buckley, who died tragically, two years before Debt and Departure's release. It looks like Shouse decided to take what was apparently a solo project, and add additional members who all knew Buckley in some capacity, including violinist/vocalist, Joan Wasser, who had been in a three-year relationship with Buckley at the time of his death. Before this point, for live shows, Shouse had once employed Trenchmouth's Fred Armisen on drums (you may know him from...things other than his music career), as well as The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd. Shouse, it would seem, is well-connected and respected. Debt and Departure hints as to why.
Here's the review that's way smaller than the intro: "Telegram" is an absolutely phenomenal song, without a doubt one of the best of 1999. From the opening bassline and drum beat, that focused acoustic guitar strumming, Shouse's wistful, yet determined lyrics and distinctively 90's alternative voice, as Wasser chimes in to harmonize, her violin creating a vaster sense of space, and that piano playing that repeating circular line, and holding the whole song together. It's just a beauty, and even better, it's got some surprisingly distorted electric guitar punctuations, and an absolutely hypnotic, beautiful, and atmospheric bridge that both comes out of nowhere, yet feels inevitable. I could sum up my whole summer, the one before my senior year of high school, with just this song.
The rest of the album never comes close to "Telegram"'s level of quality, and really, fews things could. However, Debt and Departure rewards repeat listens, as songs seem to endlessly unspool the more they're heard. Parts that felt simple reveal piano or violin lines that certainly couldn't have been there the last time, or a verse reveals a lyric that surely has only begun to exist. The album does have its weak spots, though. At moments, Shouse pushes his voice too hard, or he and the band play a part into the ground, like the ending of the overlong "Up to You." However, as 1999 fades further and further into the rearview, I find myself appreciating Debt and Departure more and more, especially as a marker for what remains my favorite year. The cosmic closer "Spaced Out" might as well be playing out the entire decade, century, and millennium.
1999 V2
1. The Last Thing I Ever Wanted Was to Show Up and Blow Your Mind 4:31
2. Telegram 4:37
3. Has Anybody Seen Her 3:36
4. Train from Terminal Boredom 3:38
5. Debt & Departure 5:29
6. Up to You 4:55
7. Curious State 3:42
8. The Wake of Your Flood 4:54
9. Remembering Sophie Rhodes 4:46
10. Dirty Looks 4:07
11. Spaced Out 5:46
The rest of the album never comes close to "Telegram"'s level of quality, and really, fews things could. However, Debt and Departure rewards repeat listens, as songs seem to endlessly unspool the more they're heard. Parts that felt simple reveal piano or violin lines that certainly couldn't have been there the last time, or a verse reveals a lyric that surely has only begun to exist. The album does have its weak spots, though. At moments, Shouse pushes his voice too hard, or he and the band play a part into the ground, like the ending of the overlong "Up to You." However, as 1999 fades further and further into the rearview, I find myself appreciating Debt and Departure more and more, especially as a marker for what remains my favorite year. The cosmic closer "Spaced Out" might as well be playing out the entire decade, century, and millennium.
1999 V2
1. The Last Thing I Ever Wanted Was to Show Up and Blow Your Mind 4:31
2. Telegram 4:37
3. Has Anybody Seen Her 3:36
4. Train from Terminal Boredom 3:38
5. Debt & Departure 5:29
6. Up to You 4:55
7. Curious State 3:42
8. The Wake of Your Flood 4:54
9. Remembering Sophie Rhodes 4:46
10. Dirty Looks 4:07
11. Spaced Out 5:46
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