If I Chipped in For the Ink

Say Hi to Your Mom - Dimensions and Verticals

My favorite part about the 2000s is that we still have lots and lots of people making music in their bedrooms, but the quality of the recordings is so much higher. I mean, it's not just shouting into a tape recorder, Mountain Goats style. It's all different levels of slickness and instrumentation. Say Hi to Your Mom is up towards the top of this game, making some wonderfully crafted indie pop that sounds like it was made in an actual factual studio, and not his apartment in Brooklyn. I get tired of all the dudes with acoustic guitars who expect me to listen to their stories over and over again. Some folks are good at that, but not most. This fellow uses everything at his disposal to make dense pop music that's dark and sad and poppy. It's sort of like Casiotone for the Painfully Alone but not as distorted or anti-social.

All of his albums are decent, and while none of them especially blow me away, they're all exceedingly listenable, with plenty of heart, wit and melody. I respect what he's doing, and dearly hope he keeps it up. He's the type of artist that you can spend loads of time digging through his catalog, weaving together all the stories and piecing it all together.

You can buy all of his albums directly from his site. I think they cost $12, postage paid, which is a fair price.