Scott Jacobson - “Emily” from 2002’s Seldom Is Heard A Discouraging Word EP
Since this EP’s release on Tape Mountain (and available for download), New York’s Scott Jacobson has:
- been a writer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- been a writer on the TV Funhouse segments featured on Saturday Night Live
- co-authored the sex guide parody bookbuster Our Bodies, Our Junk
- directed the acclaimed music videos for Superchunk’s “Digging For Something” and The National’s “Conversation 16”
Naturally, and unfortunately, Seldom Is Heard A Discouraging Word is overlooked in Jacobson’s oeuvre. The EP doesn’t fit into his career trajectory of humor as easily as the rest of his work. Still, in this relatively short amount of music, Scott Jacobson traverses a number of styles of indie-pop.
“Emily”, featured here, is the Club Hit. The airy homemade percussion/breakbeat serves the highly catchy song well, as do the odd lyrics and fuzzed out guitars. Most importantly, the song is extremely fun, making it reminiscent of New Zealand greats Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate i.e. Tall Dwarfs.
Another choice cut and proper epic ending is the mostly solo “Angie It’s Okay”, with self harmonies and guitar layers The Byrds would pine for, post Notorious Byrd Brothers.
Overall, if you have any affection for the classic early 90s era Indie Pop 7-inch Single, you should have this. If Pitchfork magazine didn’t have a restraining order against me, I would give this an solid 8.3!
Once again, thanks to the fine folk(s?) at Tape Mountain in Portland, this EP can be yours in digital file format.
