I have to admit that when I first heard this album, I rarely listened to "The Tourist," the last song: You know, the phone rings, there is laundry to be done, and to think I own it on vinyl! It dawned on me that this was indeed my favorite song from the record when 1.) I saw them play it live and 2.) When The Decemberists' bass player Nate Query's old jazz group used to cover it, and later and to this day he bows out the melody at sound check on his upright bass. I'm sure the words are amazing and mean something, but oddly enough given the band that I spend eight months out of the year touring with, it's always the melody for me first and I find this one just like an attic space full of opium and air-conditioning. I couldn't resist singing "Hey man, slow down" into a vocoder on one track and a whammy pedal on the other ... Flash Hawk temporarily getting taken over by the spirit of Sir Nose, or perhaps invaded by Dan Deacon. -Chris Funk
