Just a couple weeks ago, on April 5th, Marissa Nadler celebrated a birthday. Apparently. According to Wikipedia. I didn’t know that until this afternoon, while I was researching people whose birthdays fall during the same month as mine. Good for her! Happy birthday, Marissa! 33 years young! Let’s cheers using the rarest release of hers that I own.
At least I assume it is. It’s not that hard to find all her vinyl releases (and in fact I completed her discography at the WFMU Record Fair in November when I found a sealed copy of The Saga Of Mayflower May for $25. But tracking down Four Track Recordings, Outtakes took a while, and some Internet sleuthing, but it joined my very modest CD collection via eBay back in 2009.
It’s a beautiful recording, and quite reminiscent of another self-released CDr of the era — Chelsea Wolfe‘s Mistake In Parting from 2006 — and if you held a gun to my head I’d say Marissa’s is the superior effort, both in songwriting and packaging. The first four tracks were recorded live with Orion Rigel Domisse on organ and backing vocals. I think the remaining tracks were four track recordings split between California and Rhode Island between the years 2003 and 2005.
Of course, I always tell the story about the first time I saw Marissa perform at Tonic in NYC back in…was it 2004? So it was before this CDr was available. In fact I don’t recall her having any merch at that show, but then again not many artists who played Tonic followed that live music tradition. Her set confused me at first but the more I internalized the more I fell in love. You know, there was a period in my life when I thought female songwriters were all of the “save me,” “love me”, “help me”, “catch me” ilk. Maybe it was a simple case of immaturity. I don’t know why I was nonplussed by them all. It was artists like Marissa Nadler, Scout Niblett, PJ Harvey, Shannon Wright, and fellow Taurean Nina Nastasia who showed me female songwriters could totally slay me with their songwriting craft. And this recording, which was made during the time in which I first encountered Marissa’s music, was integral to that learning process. Seek it out if you can. It warrants your attention.
Marissa Nadler
Four Track Recordings, Outtakes
(No Label, 2005)
01. Flora Barone Queen of The Vaudeville Throne
02. Box Of Cedar Live
03. Famous Song Live
04. Annabelle Lee Live
05. Black Hole Infinity – Four Track California 2005
06. Chelsea Hotel #2 – Four Track California 2005
07. Ashes – Four Track Providence 2003
08. Days Of The Dead – Four Track California 2005
09. Strange – Four Track California 2005
10. Battle Hymn Of The New Republic – Four Track Pr. 2003
11. As I Lay In Death My Son – Ballads Outtake 2003-4 [MP3]
12. Lily, Henry, And The Willow Trees – Alt. Version – Saga Outtake 2004-5
