Tullycraft - Every Scene Needs a Center

Let me tell you why I'm now in love with Strictly Discs down on Monroe Street here in Madison. When they didn't have the new Tullycraft album, Every Scene Needs a Center, they got it for me in two days. Then they fucking removed the sticker seal from the top of the case without leaving any adhesive behind. Then they stamped my little card which says that I get a free CD once I've bought 11 more (okay, 10--I had to buy that Camera Obscura album when they didn't have Tullycraft...just had to). Oh, plus they've got a special room of "imports" (i.e., lotsa Beatles bootlegs) hidden in the back, like the secret porno section of the Family Video across the street. This is how you do a mom and pop store, folks. It should also be mentioned that the only reason they didn't have the Tullycraft is that they'd just sold out of it. That speaks as much to the quality of Every Scene Needs a Center as it does the taste of Strictly Discs.

So I had this album for a couple of days and then loaned it to my friend Andrea, who had never heard of Tullycraft before and claims to have subsequently played it three times in a row, so immediately enamored was she of this "young and indie famous" Seattle band. I've tried to show more restraint with the album, but it's difficult. When you fall for Tullycraft, you fall hard. I fell at the last Athens PopFest. Sure, I could already sing "fuck me I'm twee" along with the band, but it was the overwhelming enthusiasm and sugar-high energy of Chris Munford that won me over, blasting out his amazing mini pop songs in-between aggressively cheery and hilarious banter. At a certain point, just after leading the audience through the singalong "If You Take Away the Make-Up (Then the Vampires They Will Die)," he invited one member of the crowd onto the stage for a marriage proposal--accepted, luckily--and Chris told me the next day that he'd never been so nervous, because "what if she said no?!" Actually, during a Tullycraft concert it's fairly safe to make such sweeping gestures. It's difficult to think soberly at such an event. Speaking of which, I'd almost forgotten that Bunnygrunt was buying the band shots during the performance, and Chris Munford drunk is just twice as much Chris Munford. (The following evening, Tullycraft and Folklore reciprocated by bringing shots onstage for Bunnygrunt. PopFest was kind of insane.)

Here's some music from Every Scene Needs a Center, courtesy Tullycraft's website--which blogs more regularly and consistently than I can here--including the lovely little video for "Georgette Plays a Goth." Now please write to the band and try to convince them to tour more often.

Tullycraft - The Punks are Writing Love Songs

Tullycraft - Georgette Plays a Goth