I’ve Never Been So Happy And Full Of Beer

Good Shoes “Small Town Girl” – There are some weird leaps in the lyrics to this song. The first few times that I heard it, I just thought it was a sweet song about a local girl, but on closer inspection, it’s a bit stranger than that. In the first verse, the guy is talking about reading about this small town girl who ended up doing “oh so well” in Hollywood. Then, in the chorus, he seems to be with her, and she’s telling him that it’s not such a great life. In the second verse, she’s angry at him for just being a “shag,” but also annoyed that they are “just friends.” So he just cuts it off, then and there! On the outro, it’s not quite clear who is singing about their secrets. So, is this about a guy who read about a girl, and then went out of his way to find and have sex with her? Who is this guy? (Click here to buy it on a Rough Trade compilation, or here for Good Shoes’ official site.)

Marykate O’Neil “Things Are Too Good (They’re Bound To Go Bad)” – Remember when indie rock was synonymous with bleak humor, pragmatic pessimism, and noisy, off-kilter pop tunes, and not “punk-funk,” weepy sad sackery, cryptic Christianity, and “collectives” featuring anyone in the neighborhood who happened to still have their old high school marching band instruments? I do, and clearly, Marykate Olsen O’Neil does as well. I love the way this song takes a perverse kind of joy in its own paranoia, as though the singer is trying to bring on a negative self-fulfilling prophecy because she’s just way more comfortable in a bad situation. It’s a song about fearing success and hedging bets, and it speaks to terrible impulses, but it’s something most people deal with every day. I’m not sure if I’d trust someone who said that they didn’t. (Click here to buy it via Marykate O’Neil’s official site.)