on my way back from atlanta the other week i, for some reason, brought a book of cds in addition to my ipod. this practice vanished years ago, but i knew there was some stuff in that book that wasnt on the ipod, and i just felt the need to maybe mix shit up. as it turns out i did indeed listen to a bunch of stuff that hadnt been heard in years, which was quite refreshing. one record during my drive that i re-discovered was mike johnson’s year of mondays. mike has worked with just about everybody in “indie” rock – most notably, playing on most mark lanegan’s early solo records and playing bass in dinosaur jr. as you may have already guessed by the title, year of mondays is a bit of a downer record. its not a depressing record, its just that johnson’s vocals, somewhere between lanegan and stephen merrit, make it difficult for the mood to rise above the doldrums. sadly, since my return i have been unable to locate year of mondays to provide a few tracks, via up, for you sampling pleasure, but here are a few from his other, most excellent releases. will keep on attempting to locate mondays, though…

all there is off i feel alright

world hadn’t gone insane off gone out of your mind

arise off what would you do

mike johnson myspace