Katie Darby Recommends

Those of you who follow me on Twitter probably have picked up that I’m writing for a local magazine now, and I love it there. They’ve been kind enough to let me have a little bit of space to write an abridged Katie Darby Recommends column once a month. It is cool as hell to see some of this blog in print– but it’s also been challenging to learn how to balance writing I get paid for with writing for the blog, haha. So for my first month of writing a column about new, emerging artists I love, I chose to write about KDR favorite Tony Memmel.

I’ve been listening to Tony’s Here We Go regularly since I got the CD, and I often find myself humming the songs under my breath– especially “Helicopters and the Riot Squad”. I was thrilled to see both that Tony’s recording at a new home studio (which hopefully means more and more frequent music from him) and that there was a new EP, Yours and Mine, out now.

STREAM AND PURCHASE  YOURS AND MINE HERE

A pretty logical continuation from Here We Go, Yours and Mine deals largely with intimate relationships between people; Memmel’s long suit is putting complicated relationships in plain language. The first song, “Yours and Mine,” is about a relationship that’s been failing almost from the outset. It’s got a different sound and feel than his last record; there’s a high harmony part in the background, and there are strange droning effects that make it feel a little out-of-place. Which is effective in a song with lyrics like–

Whenever I’m anywhere we were that summer
the thought of it still makes me gasp
for breath, and for air, for a needle-nose prayer
that might fix all the wrongs in our past.
I clung to my innocence, firmly I grasped,
I hid it somewhere you’ll never find
You’ve taken your fists and you dug us a ditch
This is the last song of yours and mine

Remarkable internal rhyme of that first lyric notwithstanding, these lyrics are so tightly written it’s ridiculous. It manages to be both hyper-specific (probably aided by the use of the word “gasp”) and general enough that this could be anyone’s last song. This is a remarkably written song, underscored perfectly by the discomfort present in the music. Memmel’s vocals, as always, are excellent.

STREAM FULL EP HERE

My favorite track, at least at the outset, is “Our First Vacation,” which is the sweet story of a couple’s first vacation. There’s such a genuine warmth for the woman in the song– and the places in the song– that it’s impossible not to feel that same affinity. There are few songs this sweet that don’t slide into saccharine territory, but as usual, Memmel avoids it by being direct–

And I never once got tired, the caffeine did the trick
and I didn’t sleep a wink last night, still feel like I did.
But the hotel wasn’t ready so we napped inside the car.
We checked in after 4pm and shared a pizza in a bar…

Part of the trick to Memmel’s music– here and otherwise– is that he acknowledges suffering and misfortune without being too swept up by it. The little inconveniences here– the hotel not being ready, the long road trip– all seem like another part of the journey here. And Memmel’s journey is a captivating one, both in the sweet love songs and the more knowing observations of the sad songs. In “Burnt Bridges,” Memmel says,

These lies were built on sand
When we made our last stand
You flicked me like a cigarette
blind-sided by the light
ash in my eyes
It pays to have foresight
I’m on my guard all the time.

All of the lyrics on this record are wonderful– and even better, the music is good enough that it’s easy to forget how good the lyrics are. It’s a really balanced EP, and one that I’m happy to recommend here.