M. Ward

TRANSISTOR RADIO

If you're not familiar with The Big Bopper, Fats Domino, or even The Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, listen up as M. Ward is and he pays artists like these, and the sheer inspiring power of independent radio, a most kind tribute on his new disc, Transistor Radio (Merge Records).

'Big Boat' is a rollicking number that sounds as big as the name suggests and as large as the names mentioned above. Though Ward is on an indie label, Merge, he may not fit the profile which is typically indie, but he is a true indie (independent) artist. By that I mean he creates and crafts his art independently of what others may want or expect -- this to me is what indie means. Indie being a term tied more frequently to style of music than the word from which it sprang (independent) -- most often by the lazily literate and the literally lazy (myself included). He's not only 'indie', but an anachronism as well and so, quite possibly, is the song, 'Big Boat', itself; stirring up strains of Hayden gone fishing with Richard Buckner, haunted by the ghosts of Fats and the Killer.

+ Big Boat
MP3 courtesy of betterPropaganda.com