We don’t discover anyone. You don’t discover anyone either, let’s make that clear, before anyone gets smug and hard to live with. We hang our feathers on the things and people and musics that we find while out rummaging, but no matter whom you are, the things and people you’re hung on are tokens of and to lucksmithing. It’s arbitrary and fortuitous that we find what we’re looking for and if it’s anything truly worthwhile, other flags have already been jammed into the turf, the trees have all been sprayed with the urine of the guys who came before. There is still that gleam in our eyes, that chest thumping pride we feel when there’s even the slight indication that your footprints are among the first few, when you might still be new to the party. The Dodos, a San Franciscan duo that has played the part of Red Hunter’s backing band as Peter and the Wolf in the past and has operated in relative obscurity since Meric Long and Logan Kroeber began playing together (that’s all relative, sure), were on our slate in March, when we were hunkered down in Austin for the South By Southwest festival and the sheer gluttony of the blessed thing forced upon us a clumping together of bands and time slots that made it so we had to jettison some sessions caught in the middle. The Dodos were a casualty of our eyes being bigger than our stomach, but we made that sad, tail between our legs call to Long to let him know we goofed and we’d have to try to reschedule. We made sure not to mess up a second time when they were here in the north at the end of May. There is a lingering pang of regret that we weren’t able to get The Dodos and Hunter in the room at the same time down in Austin, but this session was well worth the wait and such a pleasant demonstration of the amount of casual beauty two men can create in their own off-kilter way. We liked them so much, we’ve already scheduled a second session – coming up in two weeks. – Sean Moeller

First song
Horny Hippies (The Dodos) [3.21MB] [2613 downloads]


– original version appears on Beware of the Maniacs
It’s an older tune I wrote as an ode to the stoner roomates I lived with in San Francisco.

Second song
Red and Purple (The Dodos) [4.66MB] [2652 downloads]


– unreleased
It’s newer and will be on our next record. I wrote it in Chicago
while we were on our first tour of the U.S., it’s about traveling and knowing or at least thinking and believing there’s someone back home who’s thinking of you or waiting for you. It’s got a lot of references to a girl who sent me all these wonderful packages while I was away. It was originally this sort of tribal thing, but Logan put a great breakbeat sort of thing to it that makes me wanna dance.

Third song
Eyelids (The Dodos) [1.03MB] [2527 downloads]


– unreleased
This song is sort of an addendum to “Red and Purple” to make it less personal after that girl decided she didn’t like me, it uses the same really weird tuning.

Fourth song
The Ball (The Dodos) [6.02MB] [2561 downloads]


– original version appears on Beware of the Maniacs
This is a more mellow version of the song, which is usually a bit
more stomping. First time ever attempted.

Fifth song
Men (The Dodos) [3.24MB] [2538 downloads]


– original version appears on Beware of the Maniacs
This is an older tune. This version has the alternate secret, surprise ending.