Maybe we’ve got some explaining to do, maybe we don’t. For those who have been raptly with our weekly updates in the hardly infamous Daytrotter Insider, you will point out that we’ve been sitting on this Koufax recording since last May. Some have asked about it, curious and anxious to the point that they would go some far to compose us e-mails regarding the subject and offer us monies under the table for this session if we didn’t plan on posting it. There was never any intention of not posting this session even if that thought exists somewhere out there, but holding onto it for a good nine months — this is unheard of, one might think. There are few reasons for this that satisfy as an answer more than it just wasn’t ever the right time, whatever that means. This was a group that I always found it hard to believe wasn’t pulling down the same kind of dough that those labelmate Get Up Kids were pulling down. The music was just as engaging and it was always such a slice of life that – looking back now – should be preserved by all future archaeologists of the world as THE late 90s/early 00s. This was the split decade where boys were allowed to be emos, flaunting their mushy hearts and singing about how bad certain things hurt inside. Where Koufax went one further and were actually made into one of the only important bands from this era when Vagrant Records were the cat’s pajamas and raking in money hand-over-fist from this new form of punk who will always be found living on the right side of the tracks. Robert Suchan’s lyrics were the grown up version of where some of those emo kids probably were heading – cynically and perhaps a little sarcastically. These songs were about hitting the night scene in big ass cities and questioning some of the grown up decisions that friends around them were starting to make – marriage and children, growing older in a society where that’s not always the best thing to do. Their records are fascinating capsules of young men dealing with real issues, not just making sure they’ve got a doe-eyed girl to pine over and miss so stinkin’ much that they just had to write about it to perpetuate the cycle all over again. Suchan can’t be given enough credit for his cleverness and the three songs in this session are good examples of it. There are only three because they would have been late for their show here in Davenport if they’d done four. Since Paleo delivered nine songs this week (we’re back to the start now) we thought, “This is the week for that short and sweet Koufax session.”) And so it is. Better late than never. – Sean Moeller

First song
Trouble Will Find You (Koufax) [2.99MB] [1843 downloads]


– original version appears on Hard Times Are In Fashion
Mr. Robert Suchan, the leader of this sect of rockers was guarded with his descriptions. He’s not cryptic, he’s our Koufax. He did give us the band lineup at the time that these songs were recorded with us last spring. Here it is: He on the vox, lyrics, guitars, Ben Joliff playing the world famous bass guitar, Matthew Casebeer wielding the Fender Rhodes piano and Cody Smith beating on his drum kit.
This song was recorded in Eudora, Kan., and Pasadena, Calif.

Second song
Colour Us Canadian (Koufax) [2.34MB] [1788 downloads]


– original version appears on Hard Times Are In Fashion
This song was recorded in the two places listed above.

Third song
Let Us Know (Koufax) [3.15MB] [1803 downloads]


– original version appears on Social Life
It was lovingly recording in Los Angeles, Calif., in 2002.