Skip Serpico Sez - Iron & Wine is Awesome!

I’m vexed. I’m not going to go into detail but I will say that it’s got something to do with this. Suffice it to say, I need some music to mellow me out.

Well, nothing gets me chill like good ol’ Iron & Wine.




Sam Beam slays me…in a laid back manner.

His early stuff is so basic and chill that it really sets me at ease. And his demos are full of laconic deliveries and straightforward tales of love, devotion and love lost that it’s really hard not to get sucked in. In terms of vibe, he’s got some stuff that probably comparable to Norah Jones in terms of mellowness.

I first fell for Iron & Wine by accident. I’d been listening to a sampler from Paste on my iPod and I’d been hearing awesome things about an act called Iron & Wine.

RIP Paste Magazine

But there was one song on the sampler that I was infatuated with. It had soul claps and some awesome guitar work. Eventually I decided I wanted to hear what else the group had to offer, so I finally looked at the track list. The song? "Boy With a Coin" by Iron & Wine.



So I rushed out Best Buy (I was living in Vegas at the time and the local record store was clear across town) and picked up The Shepherd’s Dog. That was two years ago. Since then I’ve picked up all of his albums, singles, EPs and B-sides. I’ve scoured the net for demos, covers and live versions. Basically, Iron & Wine is one of my favorite acts out right now.

But that creates a dilemma. Y’see Iron & Wine’s new release coming out on the 25th. Kiss Each Other Clean (which is actually streaming on Teamcoco.com right now) will be the first Iron & Wine album that I’ve purchased new on the day it’s released. And I’m totally excited about that. The problem is that the iTunes version has two bonus tracks that won’t be on the physical release. Being the completist that I am, I really want those bonus tracks. I picked up the Record Store Day single for “Walking Far From Home” because it had two songs and there’s a chance that they wouldn’t have made the album (and neither of them did.)

Being the moderately old school guy that I am, I’m a sucker for a physical release. I like reading the inlay book and seeing who produced what songs, where they were recorded and who played banjo on which tracks. Oh and I like reading lyrics. Those are things you can’t really do with a digital release.

So I’m torn; do I opt for the ethereal iTunes version with the tantalizing two bonus tracks or do I grab the actual CD from The Sound Garden and live with it’s limited ten tracks liner notes?

"Buy it from ME!"
-Sound Garden