Pitchfork: Jagjaguwar Preps Simon Joyner Reissue, Comp

Jagjaguwar Preps Simon Joyner Reissue, Comp

Omaha-based singer-songwriter Simon Joyner has been hailed as the new Cohen and the next Dylan, but we like to think of him as the only Joyner. For over a decade, Joyner has impressed specialized pockets of fans worldwide (including Conor Oberst) with his mournfully poetic tunes. Jagjaguwar will attempt to expand Joyner's audience with a pair of releases scheduled for the next couple of months.

The first of these is the reissue of 1993's Room Temperature, coming on vinyl for the first time on December 7. Recorded using only two mics and a four-track cassette recorder, Room Temperature was originally released on Omaha's One Hour Records and finds a younger and even more fragile-sounding Joyner creating confessional and magical images with his words.

Tracklist:

01 Folk Song for Sara
02 The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is a Straight Line
03 Ruby Slippers
04 Hallelujah
05 Double Joe
06 Ghettoblaster
07 Godzilla
08 Vegetables
09 Seizure
10 Pseudonym Song
11 Scribble
12 Home Base
13 Petri-dish
14 The Leavenworth Cafe Blues
15 Grapefruit

Jagjaguwar will also release a singles compilation in January entitled Beautiful Losers: Singles and Compilation Tracks 1994-1999. Comprised of an indecent amount of quality tracks given to 7", cassette, and CD compilations by mostly small-time chancers trying to build their labels, the collection is a testament to the fertile mind of Joyner. Tracklist:

01 Love Is Worth Suffering For
02 Fearful Man
03 Robin Hood
04 Jeff Engel Rules
05 Don't Begrudge a Man His Funeral
06 Milk
07 Sorrow Floats
08 Hotter than Satan's Heels
09 Flouride
10 Hold on to Your Breath
11 Swing
12 R is for Riot
13 Hot Tears
14 I Would Not Try to Break Ties with Me
15 Last Night I Had a Conversation with God
16 Burn Rubber
17 Veteran's Hospital Song
18 Flannery O'Connor
19 Judas Blues
20 Is This how Generous You Are?
21 One for the Catholic Girls

Both of these albums should be more than enough to educate and prime everyone until a new Simon Joyner album comes our way sometime this summer. That as-yet-unnamed album will be released by Jagjaguwar and is currently being recorded in Omaha, Nebraska with producer Michael Krassner.