Friday, February 6, 2009

Traditon II


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

5 comments:

  1. 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

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  2. Your ex's "plus one" wearing YOUR Doughboys shirt?!? I'm surprised you didn't beat him to death with a "Crush" cassette!

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  3. JC

    Yeah,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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. As a vinyl junkie I distinctly remember being bitter that the cassette had the lyrics but not the LP.

    Glad you enjoyed!

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