The tow truck driver was a salty old cuss. He’d obviously not been having a great day when he pulled The Dead Trees Van Damage into the driveway at my parents’ farmstead June 7 th, the day following the band’s session. In another story entirely, it had been as rough of a last two days for the big white cargo van. It spent the night abandoned and cold in front of a dead bank, presumably scared out of its mind and not able to feel its legs. Its heartbeat – now that you mention it – was kind of faint as well. It didn’t know what was going on. Its masters were weary and off, miles away at a La Quinta Inn or something splashing around in the pool and cashing in on central air and free wireless Internet service, no doubt. On the morning of the 7th, the guys come back, empty nearly everything out of it and – as John Lithgow so emotionally did with the yeti in Harry and the Hendersons – sent their dear travel companion off to a better life. The van is now parked 10 feet from a thriving crop of corn, dead for the time being. It’s a really pretty view though. It enjoys its leisure time, the golden years, clinging to these memories its kept with it: a copy of Life of Pi by Yann Martel, one pair of blueish gray boxer briefs, a couple sleeping bags and blankets, a Grateful Dead CD, a Phil Spector Christmas CD, lots of fuses, a cigarette lighter, a piece of duct tape stuck to the steering wheel reading, “Matt, pull over, I need to buy cigarettes. Noah” for who knows how long, a bunch of Furvis stickers, some homemade buttons featuring the band members, a Dappled Cities CD, a copy of Rogue Wave’s Descended Like Vultures, the front page of a Kansas City Star, a poster on the side wall of David Cross canoodling with Andrew W.K. and making it look natural, a working crew pass for a 2006 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers show and stickers that say Willie, Willie, Willie, Willie all down a row. Oh and there’s vegetable oil. Expect this van to occupy a prominent place in Daytrotter lore years and years from now – the first van collected. We’re told there’s not much more than a couple hundred dollars of repairs that need to be done. We suspect otherwise, but we’re just waiting on the title to dig under the hood. – Sean Moeller

First song
Television (Dead Trees) [2.70MB] [1665 downloads]


– original version appears on Fort Music
Inspired by self-help tapes, which I still deny I use …

Second song
My Funny Footnote (Dead Trees) [3.28MB] [1544 downloads]


– original version appears on Fort Music
I use my fingers on this one. When I wrote this I was listening to a lot of Jim O’Rourke. I always loved his ability to write a completely melancholy and somewhat depressing songs that makes you taste butterflies. I guess I was going for that sort of thing on some level…you know, butterfly things.

Third song
Let Me Sleep (Dead Trees) [1.91MB] [1569 downloads]


– unreleased
The title pretty much sums it up. Like most Dead Trees songs, this one was written sometime in the middle of the night. It was just a phase I was going through where I wasn’t sleeping much.

Fourth
Me Too (Dead Trees) [3.11MB] [1611 downloads]


– unreleased
By this point, I must really sound like a downer. Sorry. “Me Too” is about agreeing with someone. They will say one thing, and you might say, “Oh yeah, me too.” Sounded better than, “Not me.”