it's too much for a young heart to take

Or even a no-longer-young one. But let me start at the beginning:

I knew something was up tonight when I saw my screen door ajar. A bundle of something was propped up inside, gently swaddled by rubber bands and a concealing blanket of magazines and a Cushman's citrus catalog, left on the front porch like an offering to some neglectful god. Its secret lay deep inside, in the exact center of the pile, white and gleaming with a boldface injunction against uncaring fate:

"VERY FRAGILE. **vinyl record enclosed** PLEASE don't bend or stuff."

Yes! My Caulfield Sisters split 7-inch from American Laundromat had arrived.

It was a great pre-Christmas gift and is a beautiful artifact. The vinyl is blue and translucent, as advertised, with a whimsical cover illustration to accompany the title Divine Candy. It does seem indeed to be from a limited edition of 500 (it's numbered and everything), so definitely rush to order this if you haven't already. Sell your body if necessary.

The true treat is the music, of course. This is the performance of the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Some Candy Talking" that was streamed live on KEXP on April 5, 2005 (a date I have thenceforth celebrated as Caulfields Day, incidentally). But for any of you jumping to ask "Wait a goldarn second, hoss! Isn't that the same performance I've already listened to a higgledy-jillion times on my iPod-like thingie and/or my computer?", the only valid response is: Nope. Not like this.

Really, listening to this performance on vinyl in front of real speakers is a revelation, almost an entirely different experience. Cindy's voice is so much stronger. You can hear all of Mary's backup vocals (even the parts that didn't seem so obvious before). Kristin's drums sound like they're in the room with you. That accordion feedback seems to rumble when Cindy hits the lower registers with it. Wow!

This is instantly my favorite Caulfield Sisters recording of all time, if only because this feels like the closest thing to seeing them perform live. Which, speaking wistfully, I hope to actually do someday. Plus, they do such a damn brilliant version of this song.

The flip side, Julie Peel's cover of the Breeders' "Divine Hammer," is mighty fine as well, sort of a jump-up-and-dance counterpoint to the Sisters' delightful walk down melancholia lane. Julie's apparently French, so it looks like we have the Brooklyn Breeders meeting the Bordeaux Breeders ... um, meeting the Breeders. Could anyone possibly resist this?

And it gets better! It seems the label has "had so much fun pressing this one" that it's now starting a split-7" series. The next one is called So Long City Skies and features John P. Strohm and some band called Dylan In the Movies. It comes out in January and will be on black vinyl.

Where else will the series head? No idea, but it's off to a great start. Thanks, all!

P.S. Back to the Sisters: You can still listen to the whole KEXP performance on the station's website (linked above), or download it as an mp3 from the Sisters' site (though that version seems to have some gaps in a couple of places, including the middle of "Dumbfound You"). The bonus is the interview, including that "broke wind" joke, John's enthused "Way to hooooooooooo!" exclamation and the discussion of traffic in Midtown. You'll find yourself exclaiming: I wanna get more of that stuff ... of that stuff ...

all the way to china, and i dug

Wow. Whatever happened to summer?

No matter, and don't mind me while I dust some of these cobwebs off. Once again I find myself apologizing for all these months of blog silence, but this time I have an excuse: I had sworn upon the altar of God that I would not post again until A) Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House; B) Thomas Pynchon came out with a new novel (admittedly Salinger would have been a more appropriate choice, but like that was ever going to happen, so I went with the reclusive author behind Door Number 2); and C) the Caulfied Sisters finally got some of the respect they deserve from the Alaska news media.

If you think about it, it's sort of miraculous that it all came together this quickly.

Anyhoo, to sum up what's happened in the interim:

• American Laudromat's website got blowed up, sadly (server woes, they said). For now they're operating from a MySpace page, and it looks like they just set up a blog.


• Kristin's come out with her first solo album, Ports of Call, a lovely work and a marvel of subtlety. "Domesticity Song" might be the saddest song ever.


• As promised, Say It With Fire is now available on iTunes, and includes as a bonus track a shiny new version of "First Bridge of Summer." Well, I'm not sure if anything about it is really new or if it just sounds brighter in that AAC format that Apple uses instead of the previous mp3 encoding. The drums might seem a little more prominent (did Kristin redo Billy's parts?), or maybe that's just my imaginings. No matter what, it's a treat nonetheless.


• Cindy's been engaging in an experimental-ish song/sound/poetry side project called Musical Typing with Suzanne Thorpe of Mercury Rev. Cindy describes it thusly: "When your bass player has a baby, this is what happens." In contrast to the Sisters' more straight-ahead tendencies, these songs bury Cindy's voice under waves of sound, so that they end up feeling like one of those dreams where you know you're saying or writing something incredibly important, something that will change your life forever if only you can seize those words and drag them out into your waking world, but then you awake and all you're left with is: "The lawn chairs of death? You're going to need these for later?" I mean that in a good way.


• Speaking of absent players, the Sisters themselves have issued a long-awaited message to their fans, announcing a forthcoming split 7-inch with their cover of "Some Candy Talking." The flip side is Julie Peel covering the Breeders' "Divine Hammer." Anyway, it's on blue vinyl and is a limited edition of 500. Can you say extra-special Christmas stocking stuffer? I thought you could.


• The Sisters also announced a show with Hopewell for Nov. 10 at Matchless (it was supposed to be a "Beacon's Closet-palooza," Hopewell's website said), but it didn't happen for some reason. I hope everyone's OK.

All right, I think that takes care of most of the major cobwebs. Everyone go have a safe Caulfield Sisters holiday season. I hear that "Box of Glass" is the new choice for Christmas caroling.