So, maybe you live in a place that, for some reason unknown to you, is about 30 fucking degrees hotter than it should be, which makes it about 50 degrees hotter than you're used to. You're not accustomed to this, probably because your blood has yet to thin since moving to the deep south, the low country, that portion of the East Coast that has almost zero "liberals" among its population. What I'm getting at here is that due to the current summer-like climate situation, Americans find themselves clamoring for summertime jams (no Fresh Princes need apply) more than any other winter in the nation's history.
Saturday Looks Good To Me are perfect musical companions for the faux-summer(or if you prefer, the "damn this is one hot" fall)like-temps. All those crazy things you feel every couple days (happiness, melancholy, longing, love, discomfort, hotness, coldness, reverb) are found on any one of the 26 bazillion tunes in the SLGTM catalog. Their convincingly "authentic" '60s-ish song-stylings make apocalyptic-like weather situations seem like a just another day at the beach.
Now (er, the end of February) is just as good a time as any for SLGTM to go on tour. This particular jaunt finds the group playing shows with Canadian-favs Ladyhawk and fellow Michigan resident Chris Bathgate. SLGTM's 2006 LP, Sound On Sound (Redder), was a B-sides/rarities album with 30 tracks culled from many a demo tape, 7-inch, EP, and tour-only release. So, the band has to get back on the road, if for no other reason than as an excuse to record another tour-only EP that could be considered for inclusion on a future odds & sods LP. Green Mansions is that EP, a limited edition (250 copies), one-sided LP of all new material put out by head SLGTM-er Fred Thomas' own Ypsilanti Records.
The recording of the EP was done in stark contrast to the process for SLGTM's as-yet to-be-released LP, Fill Up The Room. As Thomas tells it, the recording of the future LP saw the band spend "the better part of the year meticulously recording in elaborate studios all over the place." For the EP, they returned to what Thomas calls "our early supremely lo-fi roots," even recording the EP masters "on a no-name tape found on the ground." Only one song from GM, "Peg," is scheduled to make an appearance on FUTR. GM will be made available to lame-os, slackers, and invalids who can't make it to a Saturday Looks Good To Me show on the upcoming tour or through the band's regular site or the Ypsilanti Records site and/or either one of those organizations' MySpace pages. That makes it pretty impossible to whine about not getting a chance to own one, so save it.
Green Mansions tracklist: