1. Massachusetts — Scud Mountain Boys
Joe Pernice is a man of many names and pseudonyms, and while his work with the Pernice Brothers is (justifiably) his most renowned and acclaimed, his early songs with the Scud Mountain Boys are just as rich with melancholy gems as anything else he's ever done. His tribute to his home state - as well as that of one of your favorite blue lobsters - is a masterpiece of the genre: a marriage of pretty melody and wrenching lyrics about addiction and the awful, hopeless sense of drift it can create...
Ah, yes. Home, sweet home.
2. New Hampshire — Matt Pond PA
That's right. More Matt Pond PA. Suck it up, people... if you're coming here, you're gonna get some Matt Pond PA — and what's more, you're going to be grateful for it. Why? Because these songs are just gorgeous. And in New Hampshire, in particular? They even threw in a little pedal steel, just to make extra-sure there's no possible way you can not fall head-over-heels. You can try, but you'll fail. Few things in this world are more lovely than the judicious application of pedal steel. And in this song, where it's added to Pond's typically melancholy vocal stylings and carefully-wrought lyrics (there are things that we’ve done that we cannot undo/there are things i can’t hear when we’re telling the truth)... forget it. Resistance is futile.
3. Long Vermont Roads — The Magnetic Fields
If you're as worthy of my undying love and admiration as I presume you are, you're already entirely familiar with this song. And if not... well, I've just introduced you to something so wonderful that you're going to spend the rest of your life thanking me. I can't hear this song without being instantly projected back to the when and where that I first heard it: that tiny little bedroom in a converted attic that was my first apartment, staring up at the ceiling, lying on my cheap futon, wondering where it all went wrong.
4. Oregon — Poole
From one of the truly great lost albums in power pop history, Poole's Alaska Days (which, tragically for the sake of this mix, does not actually offer a song with the word Alaska in the title). Look: I understand that music - like all forms of artwork - is subjective, and that which floats my boat may leave yours sinking helplessly to the murky depths. But I can't imagine how anyone who doesn't qualify as entirely insane wouldn't find something timeless and joyful and wonderful in the most pure sense that music may ever be wonderful in this song. Chiming guitars, boatloads of happy jangle, nifty little harmonies at the chorus... what's not to love?
5. Carry Me Ohio — Sun Kil Moon
Quite simply: the single best song Mark Kozelek ever recorded with (as?) Sun Kil Moon. Six and a half minutes of slow-building gorgeous elegy that lodged itself in my head the first time I ever heard it, and which has remained there ever since. "You seem/the star that I just don't see/anymore" is still one of the most sad and damning lines ever committed to music.
6. Missouri — Low
D'ja ever notice that Missouri can be pronounced the same way as "misery?" If you were paying attention during the Magnetic Fields song (see #3), you did. So did Low.
7. New York Friends — Averkiou
I don't know jack about this band, beyond the fact that they're from Gainesville and... uh... that's all I've got. But I sure do like this song. So do you, even if you don't know it yet. Welcome to TwoBusy: it's educational!
8. New Mexico — Sea Stories
Honestly, this entire post is just an excuse to try to get you to listen to another Sea Stories song. Indulge me, won't you? Wide Eyed and Dreaming is still one of the most hopelessly gorgeous albums I've ever heard, following the band from strength to strength, blending slow-building, beautiful melodies with thoughtful, song-story lyrics to put a lump in your throat with a nonchalant ease that is nothing shy of wondrous to behold. Please, please, please, find a place for this terrific, long-forgotten album in your life. You'll be a better person for it.
9. North Dakota — Lyle Lovett
I've never been a big Lyle Lovett fan, but a couple of the songs from Joshua Judges Ruth grabbed hold of me a couple of years back in a serious and lasting way, and never let go. North Dakota is one of them. Obviously, the guest vocal by Rickie Lee Jones doesn't hurt, but it's the lyricism and quiet ache here that moves me so.
Now the weather's getting colder
It's even cold down here
And the words that you have told me
Hang frozen in the air
And sometimes I look right through them
As if they were not there
C'mon. Regardless of how you feel about Lovett... that's just ridiculously good.
10. California On My Mind — Wild Light
Gleefully, willfully obscene and catchy as all hell. The most completely, unabashedly radio-friendly-sounding song you will never, ever, not in a million billion years, hear on commercial radio. I'll put it this way: any song that can get my wife to happily sing, "Fuck today, fuck San Francisco... fuck California!' is worth its weight in gold. I defy you to listen to this song and not want to immediately hear it again. It's that good.
11. Hawaii — Mew
When your name isn't Fiona Apple and yet you still choose to title the long-awaited follow-up to the album that (kinda sorta) broke you in America something like No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away... well, let's just say you've got your work cut out for you. And I'll tell you what: you're going to listen to the first two minutes of this song and ask yourself: Why am I bothering? Dude, why are you subjecting me to this? And then, around the 2:20 mark... the Mew-ness of the music will suddenly kick in, and you''ll suddenly be rapt with attention, and waiting for something remarkable and symphonic to abruptly burst out of the song again and...
Well, if you're me, you're hooked. Again.
Damned sneaky Danes.
