I lost my Doughboys T-shirt (bottom left corner of the catalogue), the one I'd bought from the band on their Home Again Tour. It later showed up draped, like a spoil of victory, over the wiry frame of my ex's new fiance.
1989's Home Again is one of those "the road will never end" albums, a musical tour diary that confesses, "I can't wait to get back home again, then leave". For an album likely cobbled together on buses and in basements; it's completely cohesive. It's cohesion is all the more impressive for it also being a true group album, with Kastner and Pytel each contributing four songs while Bondhead and new guitarist Jon Cummins each pitch in a tune. While the sonic blueprint of the Doughboys, the melding of stun-volume guitars to folk-rock melodies, is Kastner's, it is Pytel's developing prowess as a songwriter that dominates the record.
Listen to those mesmerizing vocal arrangements on Pytel's (admittedly lyrically muddled) "White Sister" or the big whoa-oh chorus on "I Won't Write You a Letter (Home Again)", likely the best, most dynamic song the band ever recorded.
A career peak, alas, though John Kastner continued wearing the Doughboys name long after Brock Pytel quit and went to India.
Still want my damn shirt back.
Download Home Again
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Thanks for the Doughboys! very cool. i hate to admit that it's been so long since i've listened to this stuff that i almost forgot about this band. thanks for bringing the memories back, and it's great how good the doughboys still sound
ReplyDeleteYour ex's "plus one" wearing YOUR Doughboys shirt?!? I'm surprised you didn't beat him to death with a "Crush" cassette!
ReplyDeleteJC
ReplyDeleteYeah,posting all this ancient shit makes me all nostalgic - but I enjoy really digging into albums I've left lie fallow.
cpb
It was at a restaurant named Pure Lard so my sole weapon would've been a plastic utensil and possibly a plate of chili fries.
oh man, thanks for posting this. I have my "Home Again" cassette sitting on a shelf waiting to get ripped. Now I don't have to.
ReplyDeleteAs a vinyl junkie I distinctly remember being bitter that the cassette had the lyrics but not the LP.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed!