Jason Lytle: Music Meant To Accompany The Art Of Ron Cameron [2010]

It's been a very busy year for Jason Lytle, and consequently for fans of his music. Besides offering tons of home recording to benefit his ailing sister, and releasing a record with his new band Admiral Radley (discussed here), here comes, out of nowhere and without fanfare, a whole new album called Music Meant To Accompany The Art Of Ron Cameron. Available on his website, the album is described as a sort of companion to the visual art of his old friend and skateboard buddy Ron Cameron. Judging from the music and cover art, both Cameron and Lytle share an obsession with the decaying stripmall world of modern-day California, an obsession which Grandaddy fans will find quite familiar. In fact, this is the most Grandaddyesque music Lytle has yet made since that band's demise—a very casual and largely instrumental affair, the songs have titles like "Liquid Hyper Tweeker Energy Drinks", "Lose Weight By Crying! Ask Me How!", and "Waiting For My Phone To Dry", and some of the tracks are basically discarded, depressing, weirdo Grandaddy b-sides, with sardonic comedy and tuneful synthesizers picking apart the follies of California's Central Valley (e.g., the hilarious "D.U.I. BBQ Checkpoint"). Lytle himself is dismissive of these tracks, and on his website describes it as "a bunch of shit". While it's not a major work, fans of Lytle will want to snatch this up soon; Lytle warns, "I don't intend on printing up any more ...and I plan on burning the hard drive that holds the material in a campfire in Zion National park while Mormon Hawks fly above on 100 degree air currents and look on in relief."

1. Waiting For My Phone To Dry 3:46

2. Birds Build Nests In Letters 3:55

3. Liquid Hyper Tweeker Energy Drinks 3:48

4. Lose Weight By Crying! Ask Me How! 2:31

5. At The Mall In Klamath Falls 3:30

6. My Phone Is Still Wet 4:30

7. I Love CA (Intersection Vendor Ending) 6:21

8. D.U.I. BBQ Checkpoint 2:43

9. Dismantle/Rebuild 2:34

10. Indie Rock Freestyle 2:55

11. The Town Where I'm Livin' Now 4:42

12. Still Waiting For My Phone To Dry... 4:13

This is no longer available on Lytle's website, so get it here.