Kid Dakota has apparently just signed to Tiny Telephone, but I think that happened after we received this CD. No mention of a label appears on my copy; it's just a CD-R with a cover photo showing a guy with a bloody face. I wasn't exactly excited by its prospects. However, now that I've finally put the disc in my player, it's made me lonesome for the days when I could sit back and listen to a single CD for a month straight. Darren Jackson's vocals and guitar work are more accomplished than all the early work by indie icons like Doug Martsch and Steve Malkmus, and his songs convey an astounding range. Rather than one great song repeated five times over, we get a stunning, lyrically beautiful ballad ("Spring is finally coming on, the geese are pairin' off") and rockers blending classic sixties pop with Archer of Loaf. There's "Coalminer", a song that conveys the same dirt and sweat with which Joe Grushecky stuffs his songs, but still makes me think of The Kinks, and you also get a "Summer Cold" that sweeps you, like So Pretty, "up into the atmosphere, where the sky is blue and clear". This is a must-have EP, and one which gives the fabulous Tiny Telephone catalog yet another gold star.

--Theodore Defosse