A day after the Academy Awards ceremonies, The Impossible Shapes snuck into the Futureappletree Studio to record its Daytrotter session and as luck would befall us all, they had enough time to put their lo-fi shine to five tracks, not just the suggested four. Ruminating about the performance and the surprise win of the Three Six Mafia before a stunned Jon Stewart and Jack Nicholson – the one part of the show that they were able to catch back at the Gabe’s bar before their set – Chris Barth, Aaron Deer and Mark Rice were laidback as they performed three songs off of their new record “Tum” and two unreleased songs, one of which is still without a suitable final name. Listen for when Barth goes up the ladder in “Pixie Pride,” singing, “With a flash and finite flesh is ours,” or when, in “Florida Silver Springs,” he sings, “She carved them in stone.” Those little discrepancies are reasons to be enamored with live music and what really fires up our boats, gets them bumping over tides and sends us happily skimming over a body of water — metaphorically speaking. The ambitious bass work of Deer and the unshakably robust knocking of Rice, combined with Barth’s mystical wordings make me delirious, offering a sense that no matter what we think we understand, we’re just such tiny pieces in all of this. – Sean Moeller

Tuesday’s song
Florida Silver Springs (Impossible Shapes) [2.87MB] [3354 downloads]



original version found on the recently released “Tum” on Secretly Canadian
Barth is unsure of exactly what this song’s all about. It came to him like a flash, out of nowhere, when he was visiting a friend who had a collection of really weird, old postcards of Florida from the 60s. The first one he picked up was for a place called Florida Silver Springs. You will get addicted to this.

Wednesday’s song
High To Low (Impossible Shapes) [2.78MB] [2981 downloads]



unreleased song
“There’s not really much to this one. It’s just oscillating back and forth from highs and lows. It’s about being up and being down. Being sad to being happy. It reminds me of how they taught us about drugs. I remember this one guy who said, ‘You don’t want to do drugs because you’ll be high and then you’ll come down and you’ll be really low.’”

Thursday’s song
Pan-ther (Impossible Shapes) [2.26MB] [2837 downloads]



original version found on the recently released “Tum”
“It’s interesting now thinking about the songs that we chose to play for this session and how they’re all kind of related. This one’s a little like ‘Daughters’ It was me maybe thinking about a specific relationship I was in and thinking about how many times I’ll go through this birth and death thing.”

Friday’s song
Pixie Pride (Impossible Shapes) [2.16MB] [2797 downloads]



original version found on the recently released “Tum”
“I don’t even think I can talk about that song. I don’t think I can give a normal description for it,” said Barth. Features some incredibly charming Rhoades piano courtesy of Aaron Deer, who plays with the strength of Mars, though he needn’t brag.

Saturday’s song
Daughters (Impossible Shapes) [2.03MB] [2818 downloads]



unreleased song
“It’s a funny one, actually. It’s a bit of a tongue-in-cheek song to me. It’s kind of like the singer is thanking what I would like to refer to as the Great Mother, for her sending such beautiful people to know and love. I’d just been thinking about relationships I’d been going through.”