The Calendar Sung Itself: New Comedown Songs for Valentine's Day Letdowns

Miracle Falls' Paul Dillon commissioned songs on l'amour for the holiday.

Alma Anatomical Heart
By Jay Horton

Following up on his curated group of original New Year's Day songs, Sparklehorse/Longwave/Mercury Rev mainstay Paul Dillon is sharing a new group of original Valentine's Day songs  from Hopewell's Jason Russo, Swervedriver's Adam Franklin, Matt Drenik from Battleme, Sunset Valley's Herman Jolly, and various luminaries (Jsun Adams, Matthew Strange, Jonathan Mono) now combining forces as Daydream Machine.
  

Originally just a private late-December resolution to spark creative energies during midwinter freeze, Paul Dillon set himself the task of writing and recording a song about New Year's Day over the seven days prior, and, as word spread, he let old acquaintances add their own contributions. The resulting collection, freely streamed on Soundcloud, proved successful enough to garner even more interest from musicianly friends curious about the time based challenge. 

Finally, on February 7th, Dillon started the countdown for the second playlist centered on Valentine's Day. And 
since participants still had only a week's deadline with which to work, essentially drew a heart around the new theme.

Alas, despite the best of intentions, the project's founder couldn't quite finish his assigned song due to responsibilities with soon-to-record PDX supergroup Miracle Falls. Scheduling obstacles with the girlfriend even delayed their actual Valentine's Day celebration. Nevertheless, Dillon fulfilled his role as curator and posted a new playlist the afternoon of the 14th that features just-created musings on l'amour from a murderer's row of indie vets.

Dillon will return for a third installment in the none-too-distant future, though he remains tight lipped about the next holiday tentpole.  

Daydream Machine will have its record release party on March 19 at the Doug Fir Lounge.

WWeek 2015

Jay Horton

Jay Horton

Jay Horton is a longtime correspondent and jack-of-all-arts-coverage: music, film, theater, food, television, books, dance and college football special teams, to taste. Follow him on Twitter @Hortland.

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