There’s no rule as to what’s supposed to go in this space, at least it hasn’t been formally developed yet. It changes from week-to-week. Sometimes it attempts to take on the life of the songs, but most often it’s the little nook where we detail the meeting, what stood out most in our brief interaction with these new buddies of ours, how they got here and what we’ll probably always remember about their flyby. What I’m trying to remember right now is what alcohol The Subjects prided themselves in being able to knock back better than most others. It seems like it was whiskey…maybe scotch, butthose aresuch obvious guesses that it couldn’t be either one. You’ll know it when you see them, is how this one will have to be confirmed.What I’m remembering is that lead singer Dave Sheinkopf turned 28 the morning after the session and in the early morning heat of another summer day, we went to the Starbucks down the street, where coffee-type things and pastries were on me. The night before, they’d spent the night on my floor and they’d been the final band in a huge Lollapalooza-fueled blowout weekend in which Cold War Kids, Sound Team and P.O.S. also came into our proverbial kitchen. Everyone was tired. I was driving back from Chicago that night and they’d just finished this session around 11 p.m. before heading out to the casino boats, trying those games of chance to pass the time. They pulled up to the house at 12:30 a.m., unloaded and were asleep almost immediately. As Sheinkopf tells it, they had good reason:

“We played the night before in Louisville, where we stayed late partying with a bunch of southern-type folks.Joe hadn’t been drinking so we decided to leave that night and take care of some of the drive out to the Quad-Cities.After driving for a while, we decided to take a motel room so we could get some rest since we had been camping and crashing on couches most of the tour.We were dismayed, however to find that there were virtually no rooms along the way due to a number of hot rod conventions and rodeos.We drove on and were lucky to find a motel owner nice enough to let us camp in the strip of grass between her hotel and the next.We slept there from about 5 a.m. until we were woken by the light and heat of sunrise at about 6:30.We had made it far enough along that we expected to get to Daytrotter early and perhaps take a nap there or at least sleep in the car for a bit.We were on the road for about an hour when traffic came to a sudden halt. After about 10 minutes, people beganto turn their cars off and sit outside.We heard that there had been and accident and that it had been really bad. The radio was playing a screaming preacher and a helicopter showed up to the scene of the accident.We waited in and on the car in the intense August heat for over three hours among families, rubberneckers, and hot rods until the highway department had cleared the roads.We went on our way only to calculate that we would just barely make it to the session, with only peanut butter-filled pretzels and Jell-o cups (courtesy of Joe’s Aunt Diane) to make our meal.We arrived at Daytrotter late, hungry, and sweaty.We had only about an hour and a half before the news was to start taping, so there was no time for a rest.”—Sean Moeller

First song
The Hounds of War (The Subjects) [3.50MB] [1380 downloads]


—original version appears on the forthcoming release With The Ease, Grace, Precision and Cleverness of Human Beings
According to Joe: This is our unofficial anthem to our first rock tour.Dave came up with the bones right before we went to Michigan to play some coffee shops and dive bars along the drive back to New York.We threw it around on e-mail for a week or so before we met up in Michigan to practice for a few days before our big gigs.In Flint, we practiced in a classroom at a school where Matt’s dad worked.The rest was hashed out there and we played it like 200 times that week.The people who worked at the school probably know all the words to the song from how much we played it there.
According to Dave: It has probably been developing for the longest of the songs that we now play.What I like about it is that it has a nice friendly melody over music that has really sad undertones—for lack of a better way to describe it.
Daytrotter’s favorite line: “When our feeble stack of books lays claim to honesty.”

Second song
Caught Between (The Subjects) [3.12MB] [1261 downloads]


—original version appears on the forthcoming release With The Ease, Grace Precision and Cleverness of Human Beings
According to Joe: Don’t remember how this one started up.Maybe I was gone or something when it was conceived. It took a long time for the pieces to settle in this one. There is a lot going on rhythmically with all the instruments, so it took a while to hear everything going on. At first, I think I played guitar chords straight through the entire song, then it turned into solid quarter notes and then eventually it became more sparse, opening up room for Matt to put drum fills in. The stuff Jimmy is playing stands out so much that with too much music going on around it there is nothing to really focus on.One day I was taking a pee break at the rehearsal space and heard those guys working out the solo part downstairs and it sounded really good without the chords banging away the whole time—that was when the sound really opened up.
According to Dave: It’s one of our most dynamic songs.The point where Jimmy’s guitar solo starts is always exciting because I think we are all trying to play as loud as possible there after coming out of a real quiet section.

Third song
The Ballad of Davy Crockett (The Subjects) [3.03MB] [1307 downloads]


—unreleased
According to Joe: I met up with Dave and some friends late one night and nobody could agree on where to go.After much discussion and a few drinks we decided to call it and go home. I stayed up for a while playing video games.The next day I saw Dave and he was like, “Check this out. I did it last night.” I was like, “WTF?When the hell did you do this? I saw you like 12 hours ago.”That was it.We figured out things here and there but for the most part we had the pieces.
According to Dave: “Davy Crockett” is the product of a lot of worrying.

Fourth song
Time (The Subjects) [3.68MB] [1256 downloads]


—unreleased
According to Joe: This song started slowly, but quickly. By that I mean it sort of came from nowhere, at least I think. Maybe those guys will have cited references, but I think we sort of started coming up with some melody with everybody playing all the instruments.The chords developed from banging on the piano while playing the melody. I thought of the first part with the guitar while listening to AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” during my ritualistic listening to Back in Black. That was the first CD I ever bought (along with Pearl Jam’s Ten and Nirvana’s Nevermind). I have probably listened to it thousands of times.I guess the idea behind the song was brewing for a long time.At least for me.It is a lot of fun to play and is my nod to Angus and the gang. This is one of those songs that has elements from a bunch of songs we tried to write and scrapped but had things in there that worked.This is what happens when those random parts come back to life without you knowing it.
According to Dave: “Time” is our newest song and we were developing it on the road when we recorded at Daytrotter.It was the first time it was ever recorded.It is one of our most restrained songs, and has an old-time feel to it.

The Subjects