Song(s) of the Day # 3,603 Chester Jonson

 

Do you need to know anytthing at all about the artist you're listening to in order to appreciate the record they've made that you're listening to. I don't really think so, though if of course if you're planning to tell others about them and recommend their product  it obviously helps to have some basic biographical detail.' Joe Bloggs comes fom blah blah, blah  and this is his third album. I think it's his best yet.  It's out now on the Tutti Frutti label out of Squattsydip Vermont..'

I don't think even that much background detail is required really. Particularly when the record you're focusing on and appreciating is as damned good as today's record of the day. Namely Chester Jonson's Lake Erie, the latest must listen for depressive Indie types that don't feel like playing their pile of Elliott Smith and Beck records today.

For that seems essentially seems to be where Lake Erie comes from. I was also reminded of East River Pipe. A rather obscure indie loner I latched onto for a while in the late Nineties. J.Mascis, Lou Barlow. That's the gene pool and sensibility we're talking here. Slacker American types in nowhere towns. Staring at the holes in their jeans and their battered sneakers.Wishing they had a girlfriend.  Deciding whether to do a hit, sniff some glue, clean the porch or just generally feel sorry for themselves on an overcast Saturday afternoon in October.

Perhaps I'm not doing Lake Erie justice because this a really fine record considering the slightly bleak premise and departure and arrival points it's decided upon for itself. In fact I think it's a quite brilliantly realised record. More grog for First Mate Starbuck / Darren Jones who brought this to the Captain's Table lads. Steady on your feet Starbuck. You've had so much grog already this week you might come to regret it.