My Cow! by The Michael Character
This is the 17th TMC album. These songs were written between September of 2023 and September of 2024, though most of them were written between May and August of 2024.
This album is dedicated to the Wheelhouse Diner, a Quincy institution that we lost in June. I named a record after that place in 2016 and mentioned it (though not usually by name) in many, many songs over the years both because it felt a bit goofy to do so and because it really did mean the world to me. The Wheelhouse was a really critical site for the development of my politics, which may sound hyperbolic, but it's 100% true. If I have learned anything over the course of my adulthood, it's that the only better world worth building is one that you don't need a degree to understand. My many mornings at the Wheelhouse taught me that. Moreover, the person-to-person connections and mutual humanization and respect that form the foundation of all effective movement building work can all be directly and elegantly and durably achieved by breaking bread with strangers...and what better place is there to do that than the greasy spoon diner where the food is amazing, breakfast costs a reasonable amount, and the strangers aren't afraid to chat?! The Wheelhouse has my heart, forever.
Like all TMC records, this is a catalogue of the things I was thinking about over the last year. It contains a mixture of urgent political questions, tentative and perhaps unsatisfying answers, silly detours, personal anecdotes, inside jokes, and everything else, from the apparently essential to the strictly ornamental, that makes up a life. I like doing this, and it matters a great deal to me. I hope you get something valuable out of it too.
Other shout-outs: The Toast Office, Norwood Town Diner, Sunrise Breakfast, The Weekend, Sweet Melissa's in Laramie, WY, that incredible diner in Wichita, KS that our friends in Breading Brainbow (RIP) suggested, and, of course, the people and ideas and values and foodstuffs that, in aggregate, constitute my beloved 'Waffle House.' Thanks too to all of the people who booked shows for us, played with us, or came to see us play this summer. It was the first TMC full band tour since 2013 and you all made it feel like a smashing success!
Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention that I, James Ikeda, was the Paramount Champion of the TMC/Spry 2024 Summer Tour My Cow Competition. Long may I reign.
Tracklist
| 1. | Song for the Wheelhouse Diner (34) | 4:48 |
| 2. | CommRash | 1:24 |
| 3. | Theories of Change | 3:38 |
| 4. | Gene's Resting | 0:24 |
| 5. | Means Testing | 1:20 |
| 6. | The Metal Comb Kid | 2:46 |
| 7. | Cedar | 2:12 |
| 8. | Boy Wonder | 4:20 |
| 9. | The Metal Comb Kid (reprise) | 4:28 |
Credits
All songs written by James Ikeda
The Band...
Mattie Hamer - Drums & auxiliary percussion & backing vocals
James Ikeda - acoustic guitar & vocals
June Isenhart - electric guitar & backing vocals
Amanda Lozada - electric guitar & backing vocals
Addison Waco Michalowski - bass guitar & backing vocals
Eugene Umlor - keys & synths & kalimba & backing vocals
Produced, Mixed, and Mastered by Benjamin Greer with invaluable production input from the rest of the band. This is the 11th TMC record that Ben has worked on.
Album art by the inimitable Louis Roe based on a photo that I'm pretty sure Ben Greer took of me and Fenn Macon at the Wheelhouse Diner on their last day open, 06/30/2024. This is the 9th TMC record that Lou has done the art for.
Recorded at Dimension Sound Studios in Jamaica Plain between 11/15/2024 and 11/17/2024 with engineer extraordinaire Dan Cardinal. The credits in the reprise track were recorded 12/23/2024 at Ben Greer's apartment in Allston, MA. Most of the comping was done at June's apartment in Somerville, MA the weekend of 11/22/2024.
Thanks to Wes Meadows at Flowerpot Records in Berea, Ohio for graciously putting this out on CD!! Wes has been a long-time supporter of this project (nearly a decade!) and it's a joy to get to collaborate with her on this release.
Special thanks too to Conor Ryan Hennessy, aka Doc Henny, the Big Con Himself, the REAL Metal Comb Kid.
Finally, it must be said that Waco was the founding bassist of TMC back in 2010 and even played bass in my first band in 2009, and having him back for this record and on tour this summer was just fucking beautiful. I love him very much, and there's nothing quite like dusting off a deeply significant musical collaboration after over a decade. Nothing has ever felt so right, and I'm really proud of the work we've done together. Friendship!
