Xiu Xiu

Long running experimental band Xiu Xiu have been making interesting music for years and years now, and in the mix of all that have been numerous cover versions of songs that the band really make their own.  January sees the release of new album "Xiu Mutha Fuckin' Xiu: Vol. 1," a collection of covers from the band spanning everyone from The Talking Heads to The Runaways.  Check out their absolutely gutting version of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time" below and pre-order the LP here from Polyvinyl Records.

Daily Jam - True Love Will Find You in the End

Here's Spectrum covering Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You in the End."  Happy Thanksgiving everybody.  Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - True Love Will Find You in the End

If ever you find yourself doubting your own artistic endeavors, procrastinating, keeping yourself from creating because you feel you don’t have the adequate equipment or instruments with which to do so, listen to Daniel Johnston. Listen to the hell out of Daniel Johnston. Throughout the 1980’s he wrote and recorded 10 albums of raw and fractured pop using a cheap guitar and a tape recorder. He also drew his own cover art, made copies of his own cassettes for stores to sell, and in the process influenced a bevy of future artists and performers.

It doesn’t matter how you play it…just that you do.

As crackly and lo-fi as his recordings are, there is an innate beauty within all of them, vulnerable and tragic lyrics laid atop honest and real melodies. Closing out 1984’s Retired Boxer cassette, the simple and unembellished “True Love Will Find You in the End” somehow manages to be both encouraging and devastating, a big bleeding heart laid bare on a sleeve for the whole world to see. Johnston’s crudely crafted little pop nugget manages to sound enormous despite its rudimentary creation. It makes my heart swell. It makes my soul soar.

It doesn’t matter how you record it…just that you do.

I will be welcoming my second son into the world sometime in the next couple of weeks*, and there’s so much I need to write and record and draw and sing about. Time is not something I’m going to have an overflowing amount of, but you just make it work, you just make your art when you can, when you have a free five minutes in the middle of the night. You use a cheap guitar and tape recorder if that’s what it takes. And then you play it for your children…or your wife…or your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, mom, dad, brother, sister, best friend…or whoever. It’s extraordinary to me that I’ve been able to grow my little family over these last few years, and it’s surreal and wonderful. I want to sing about it.

It doesn’t matter what you love…just that you do.

*This column was originally posted way back in January of 2016.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - The Sun Shines Down on Me

I still consider myself very fortunate to have been able to see Daniel Johnston perform before he passed away.  Here's one of my favorites.  Listen to "The Sun Shines Down on Me," below, our Daily Jam.

Sharon Van Etten Covers Daniel Johnston

Back in the fall, the lovely Sharon Van Etten released a new jam, "Let Go," for the documentary film "Feels Good Man."  A 7" single of the track is coming out soon and features a cover of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time" on the B-side.  We're big fans of both Van Etten and Johnston around these parts, and her gothy, sprawling take on the tune brings out all the right kind of melancholy.  Check it out below, download both songs here via Jagjaguwar and pre-order the record here from Mondo.

Built to Spill

Long running indie rock band Built to Spill have a new record heading our way in May, a tribute album to the late, great Daniel Johnston.  Listen to album opener "Bloody Rainbow" below and pre-order the record here from Ernest Jenning Record Co.

RIP Daniel Johnston

Before leaving work today i got a couple of texts with the terrible news that Austin icon Daniel Johnston had passed away today from a heart attack at the age of 58.  I've long been a fan of the artist, which i guess is kind of expected when you live in Austin, and was fortunate enough to get to see him perform 10 years ago.  And i remember when i moved here in 1997, you could still get his old handmade cassettes at Sound Exchange, a now defunct record store by the UT campus and home of the Jeremiah The Innocent graffiti art.  He will definitely be missed.  In picking out a Johnston track to play, i decided against my favorite song of his, "True Love Will Find You in the End," and against "Story of an Artist," a track that can move me to tears when in the right mood, and instead chose something that's maybe a little more uplifting but still melancholy.  Listen to "The Sun Shines Down on Me" below and check out any and all of Johnston's music.

Oh, and definitely watch Jeff Feuerzeig's 2006 documentary, "The Devil and Daniel Johnston," if you've never seen it.  It's heartbreaking and wonderful.

RIP Daniel Johnston

Marissa Nadler - True Love Will Find You in The End

Folk singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler just put up a new album of various covers she's recorded over the years.  On "covers 2" she touches on everything from The Cure to Leonard Cohen to The Beegees.  Listen to her take on Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You in The End" below, then get the album here.  Oh, and it's probably worth your time to check out the first installment as well, featuring the artist's stripped and haunted versions of songs by Radiohead, Duran Duran, The Magnetic Fields, and a whole lot more.