I recently got an e-mail from Owen Ashworth in which the pillar of the Casiotone For The Painfully Alone universe posed a very good question. He asked, “When are those Donkeys songs going up on the site. I thought that shit was hot.” He was right to ask and he was right to remember the three scorching numbers that his buddies from San Diego recorded immediately after they’d just joined him as the backing band on four of the CFTPA songs that still rank as some of the coolest moments in Daytrotter’s short life. Ashworth had never sounded like that before and might never sound the exact same way again. They all made a full afternoon of hanging around before hightailing it to Chicago for that night’s gig. They broke out the Busch Lights early, chasing the cardboard cups of the mid-morning coffee. Soon thereafter, they were pouring the whiskey between songs. Sam Sprague’s down home lyrics about lost jobs, commonplace hardships and girl problems seem perfectly born from this kind of Saturday morning cocktail – coffee, beer, whiskey, a coldness in the air and an overcastting of the gray sky. Not much else can seem more perfect. But the springy and earthy music that surrounds these dour (but playful) lyrics lends itself more to a sunset escaping from a watching eye, slinking off over the edge of existence. There is real warmth to these three songs (all that time would allow for on this particular day), not just the slangy, figurative warmth to them that the e-mailing Ashworth suggested that dung gives off. We believe these donkeys have some real punch. – Sean Moeller

A starter blurb from bassist Timothy DeNardo:
“Well, ‘C’mon Virginia’ is the second song on our album. The other two were more or less brand new when we left for tour. We plan on both of the being on the next album. Actually, we made a stop in San Francisco on our way home from tour and laid down a couple of songs. One of those being ‘Living on the Other Side.’ When we wrote ‘Walk Through A Cloud’ it sounded a lot heavier. I think the quiet vibe of your studio totally changed the dynamic of the song for the better. We’ve played it like that ever since.”

First song
Living on the Other Side (The Donkeys) [4.05MB] [3020 downloads]


—unreleased
The Daytrotter honorary line of the song: “I’ve got nothin’ but these gold teeth/And my cigarettes.” You don’t have to be a rapper or a smoker to appreciate this ditty of waving nonchalance. The other side sounds positively splendid and carefree. Who needs complications or greener grass? Who needs things? Not the fucking Donkeys, no how.

Second song
Walk Through A Cloud (The Donkeys) [2.34MB] [2798 downloads]


—unreleased
What’s it gonna take to turn this up a little louder in your car? It’s a mistake to ignore the impulse. If we’re talking about you listening to this cut between the months of June-through-October (that’s now) turn that thing clockwise and just roll down the windows as far as you can tolerate. It’s a great slice of Eagles-ish liveliness and jangle.

Third song
C'mon Virginia (The Donkeys) [3.22MB] [2925 downloads]


– original version appears on the Antenna Farm Records album “The Donkeys”
The Daytrotter honorary line(s) of the song: “You’ve got a pick-up…TRUCK/And I lost my job” and “I know I’m handsome/But I get lonely too.” Listen for singer/drummer Sprague pulling out the spontaneous blurts of laughter, “whoos” and “yeas” in the second chorus (after singing “You got those eyes/Seems you can throw a penny in ‘em”) and you really feel the moment that these songs were recorded in – an early spring day when the sun still wasn’t warm enough. If you were dared not to love this song, you would lose.

Purchase The Donkeys music at: Insound