IFD at Athens Popfest 2006!

Ideal Free Distribution @ 40 Watt in Athens, GA 8.12.2006


More Popfest videos all recorded by Chris Yetter.

Athens Popfest 2006 scrapbook.

Optical Atlas has posted the Athens Popfest 2006 Scrapbook and it's quite delightful. There are quotes from both Tony and I included. The Ideal Free Distribution was lucky enough to play the Popfest (duh.) and there are some pretty pictures and comments about our set included as well. It's like reliving the whole weekend all over again!
Seriously, good work, Jeff. I appreciate all the hard work and love you put into OA.

Put on my worried shoes...

Daniel Smith & Sufjan Stevens - "Worried Shoes" song review


“Worried Shoes” originally appeared on Daniel Johnston’s 1983 album Yip/Jump Music. During the period of this recording, Johnston would sit in his room, hit record on his tape deck and start playing. He recorded every tape live; there was no dubbing and certainly no editing. Obviously, the quality of these recordings is awful; it’s so lo-fi that my spoiled ears can barely make out Johnston’s song and on this track in particular the only accompanying instrument is some sort of primitive chord organ. Yet, the song prevails despite its many disadvantages. The raw emotion of Johnston’s lyrics cuts through all of the fuzz and is truly impressive.
Knowing Johnston’s history and struggles with mental illness, I can only assume he wrote this song from a personal perspective. “Worried Shoes” is a sad and desperate song, which illustrates his helplessness in going down a road he knew was going to be detrimental and unpleasant but simply being unable to stop himself. It wasn’t until Johnston found himself in a hopeless position, with no friends and no one to turn to that he literally sees a ray of hope. “I looked around and I saw the sun shining down and I took off my worried shoes.” The song ultimately ends on a positive note with Johnston declaring, “I've got a lot of walking to do and I don't want to wear my worried shoes.” With the subsequent organ gaining momentum and a round of whistling, you almost believe him.
Daniel Smith and Sufjan Stevens’ cover of “Worried Shoes” is quite beautiful as well but succeeds in a separate manner. The two have added some beautiful and interesting instrumentation (no surprise there) and appropriately understated vocal work; the harmonies on the backing vocals are breathtaking. The uniqueness of Smith’s vocals really mimics Johnston’s in a way. It draws that extra attention to the vocals and makes the song more interesting. With their advancements “Worried Shoes” has really been elevated to a completely different level. They have basically made the song into the best it could have been if performed by someone other than Daniel Johnston. Smith and Stevens could never hope to achieve the emotional greatness of Johnston but have really succeeded in developing the technical aspects of the song.
Smith and Stevens’ cover of “Worried Shoes” is going to be featured on I Killed The Monster, a compilation of 21 artists covering songs of Daniel Johnston. Second Shimmy Records will release the compilation on October 10th, 2006; all proceeds from the disc will go to a fund for the care of Daniel Johnston. Until then, the track can be streamed strictly through Danielson’s myspace page.


Stream "Worried Shoes" at Danielson's myspace page.

New NEW Melody Function demo!

We at The Melody Function and Ideal Free Distribution are doing all that we can to bring the people more sleigh bells. I believe it's what the world needs now.

Melody Function - Something I Know

New Melody Function demo.

A new Melody Function demo, "Simple Sounds", was completed just last night. It's possible there will be a few slight changes to come but it is basically finished for all intensive purposes. This song is one in the series of Tony's Mexican rock opera. All of the rock opera songs were written in Am and are very dark and booming. Lots of droney feedback with psychedelic guitar riffing but, as always, they still contain that bit of pop to pull you out of the psychedelic k-hole, the flute in this case.
It's funny, when I listen to this song I hear explosions going off in my head (mostly during the in-between verse riffing) yet the lead line is a flute. Now THAT'S a good song!
Tony and Joe have been working on a new Zombies-esque organ based song that is going to be delightful. I'm excited.

Melody Function - Simple Sounds