As an atheist, few things give me more pleasure than a healthy religious debate with an evangelical that is totally unprepared to defend his or her views. But religion itself is not a topic that I find unidentifiable. I have a religion, but instead of Jesus or Joseph Smith as my savior, it is Wayne Coyne and Black Francis who saved my soul from its descent into musical purgatory. Pearl Jam and Superdrag serve as my Old and New Testaments. The Rolling Stones are my golden plates. Radiohead is my burning bush. The Beatles are the wise men. Arcade Fire are the disciples.
One of the bands swirling closely outside deity status for me is The Magnetic Fields, who just so happen to have our Jam of the Day today with “Andrew in Drag.” This song, more than any other in recent memory, sounds as if it was taken from a vault sealed off in 1995. It hearkens to my golden era of musical enlightenment – creating the urge to drive back to my college town, pick up my friends, and roll to the beach, left-arm hanging dangerously out the window.
See what “Andrew in Drag,” from the upcoming album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, does for you. The LP is officially out March 6th on Merge Records and can be preordered here.