Cooksie Songs

Cooksie played the Double Door here in Chicago Saturday night, opening for Michael McDermott, and--aside from having to wait through McDermott's, um, rather sentimental set to get paid--it seemed to go pretty well, considering we haven't technically been a working band since July, or thereabouts. At least some folks seemed to like it, and it was definitely the biggest crowd we've ever played for, owing no doubt to McDermott's brooding good looks.

McDermott is one of these hunky sad singer-songwriters who make eyes at the ladies and keep up with what Ryan Adams has been wearing lately. But he's pretty much a genius, because he managed to find hot chicks to play fiddle and bass for him, and they were clearly willing to accomodate him in the wardrobe department. The bass player, a blonde, wore a revealing Catholic school-girl skirt, which led our guitar player to remark: "If she's wearing that skirt to distract from her bad bass playing, she should just take it off."

We opted for the EMusic Live service, an arrangement whereby the club records your set and sells CDs of it immediately after the show. No one bought ours, naturally, not that we would have seen any money anyway--the contract they make you sign is truly evil. But it does us no harm and we get a rather low-quality recording of the show out of it, so what the hell. When we become phenomenally successful and EMusic Live is making millions off that legendary Double Door show, we'll be kicking ourselves.

Anyway, here are a couple tunes--again, the quality ain't great. We did "I Hate the Radio," a song written by Karl Straub of the Graverobbers, who is the great unsung songwriter of the "Americana" scene. My brother Matt, Cooksie's drummer, was the founding drummer of the Graverobbers. "I Hate the Radio" has some of my favorite lines of any pop tune ever:

I hate the radio
It's a phone call from an old girlfriend
Someone you used to like
But now you never wanna see
It's a giant headstone where the music used to be

The other one is a John Cook original--identifiable, as always, by the fact that the first and second verses are lyrically identical--that we've never recorded. Have a listen:

I Hate the Radio
Against the Wall

Recorded live at the Double Door in Chicago, Saturday March 12.