Portastatic - Noisy Night (XX Merge)

"Noisy Night" is the ultimate summer song, with lyrics referencing "summer currents" and "yellow bug lights" and "the dog days when the attic gets warm." It was a fitting song for XX Merge in late July. It was at least 90 degrees under that tent and Clay and I were sipping on mint julep snow cones.

This song is from the album Summer of The Shark, which is a reference to the summer before 9/11. Remember when the news was all about shark attacks, not because there was an inordinate amount of them but because there was nothing else to report on? How quickly things can change... I think this album summed up post-9/11 sentiments better than any other I've heard, and that includes Springsteen's The Rising. The Boss takes a lot of his cues from gospel on that album and eulogizes heroic firemen. Mac's approach is a little more subtle on Summer of the Shark. He paints images of catfish "swimming through tires at the bottom of the Hudson," not fully aware of the chaos at the surface. He addresses that day more directly in the song "In The Lines," where the narrator is trying to find a friend who may be gone: "Did you get lost or did our calls just cross in the lines? I hear some are going through but not my calls to you, but I'll keep trying."

Everything is still seems simple on "Noisy Night" though. Brokaw's reporting on shark attacks, the president's on vacation and Mac's singing about "lingering too long against the hood of your car." Bliss...