I used to be in this local power-pop band called Lake Holiday. We wrote some songs, played some gigs, went through a lot of personnel and generally had a good time. We also made a record called This Is How We Say Goodbye and it was supposed to come out at various points in the past year, year and a half but never did for a variety of reasons – I think at one point the masters got as far as the CD pressing plant and they subsequently lost them. As the delays mounted, the enthusiasm in releasing something that no longer reflected the state of the band which had since dissolved and resolved with an almost completely different lineup and batch of songs. The final nail was when the guy who runs the label that was going to release it spent the money earmarked for it instead paid for his girlfriend to get a kidney transplant… so yeah, even thinking about feeling bitter would have meant that I was going straight to hell. Consigning it to the dustbins of history was pretty much the only logical course of action.

For my part, I only got a copy of the finished, mixed and mastered record a couple months ago – probably a full year and a half since I tracked my last guitar part – and even then resisted listening to the record until just a couple days ago. Realistically, this is the pinnacle of my musical achievement in this lifetime – my recorded legacy, if you will – and I was reluctant to open up the box and discover if the cat was alive or dead. But I’ve been in a certain mood lately, so I finally gave in and listening with fresh, reasonably objective ears (I haven’t heard some of these songs in well over a year), I think I can honestly say the cat is quite well, if maybe a bit undernourished.

The record is a little rough around the edges – I couldn’t tell you how, when, where or who recorded most of the parts on it including my own – but the energy, songcraft and even the performances are pretty dang good if I do say so myself, and I’m not as biased as you might think. In fact, I’m probably more critical of my own music than I am of anything else that shows up in my mailbox. But for a compact, creative and toothy indie-pop record, I’d happily submit this record against most anything else out there. Listening to this record makes me happy, sad, nostalgic, wistful but most of all, proud. And it seems perfectly fitting that no one will ever hear it.

As for now, Lake Holiday is relocating to the American midwest as Brad Davis moves back to his native US of A. It will surely continue on in a new incarnation but the timing seemed right for a look back from my perspective. My musical activites have dipped to their lowest ebb in probably the past five years – I am actually going later this morning to clear my gear out of my last band’s rehearsal space and bring it home for the first time in half a decade – and I’m not sure what, if anything, I’ll do about it. I mean, those who can, do – those who can’t, write. And it looks like I write, but I’m glad that there’s now some recorded evidence that at one point I could play the guitar alright as well. I’ll make my kids listen to it. But in the name of posterity, I’ve posted a few of my favourite cuts from the album below. Favourite because I play on them the most? Sure, maybe, but indulge me.

While the full-length won’t see the light of day save for the excerpts I’ve linked below, former bassist Five Seventeen has our first EPs (two-thirds of the never-completed “Summer” trilogy) available for free on Archive.org and the Curse Of Sunshine EP, which features some of the album tracks, is available here, there and everywhere. It also has the song that appeared on Veronica Mars last season which you can stream off the MySpace page.

MP3: Lake Holiday – “A Life Worth Living”
MP3: Lake Holiday – “Forever And I”
MP3: Lake Holiday – “Keeping You Away From Me”
MP3: Lake Holiday – “Born On A Train” (Magnetic Fields cover)
MySpace: Lake Holiday

Will Sheff of Okkervil River tells Red & Black that the Black Sheep Boy is dead. Full stop. But he is willing to talk about the titular character of the last album and EP in this commentary for the video for “For Real” – really interesting stuff. I’d like to hear his take on the Lego version (“yeah, I don’t know what the hell this is”).

Video: Okkervil River – “For Real” (MOV)
Video: Okkervil River – “For Real” w Will Sheff commentary (YouTube)
Video: Okkervil River – “For Real” – Lego Version (YouTube)

The Riverfront Times talks to John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats.

Cat Power tells Jaded Insider about her plans for a second covers album. Mayhap she’ll give some of them a spin when she and the Memphis Rhythm Band roll into the Phoenix on November 22. And yes, I’ve elected to go to that one. Fingers crossed.

MP3.com talked to Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio for an hour and it looks like they transcribed the whole damn thing.

Spoon is gearing up for a big 2007 – Britt Daneil gives Billboard a progress update on their new album, optimistically pencilled in for a March/April 2007 release. He also talks a bit about the experience of scoring his first film, the new Will Ferrell flick Stranger Than Fiction which I hope against hope is as good as the trailers make it look.

np – Pavement / Live At The Palace, Hollywood, CA – April 24, 1994