Lambchop Deliver Two Rarities Compilations

No list of wayward Southerners would be complete without Kurt Wagner, leader of the sprawling, shape-shifting, country/soul/jazz/fill-in-blank band Lambchop. Any person who would write a song entitled "Soaky in the Pooper" (an account of a bad acid trip) automatically makes the cut.

The outside world will get yet another glimpse into the mysterious inner workings of the Lambchop machine this week, when not one but two compilations are released. Sequels to the 2001 singles collection Tools in the Dryer, The Decline of the Country & Western Civilization (1993-99), due out on the German label City Slang on Friday, April 7, and The Decline of Country & Western Civilization Part II: The Woodwind Years, due out next Tuesday, April 11, on Merge, collect singles, B-sides, sundry tracks, and unreleased material.

Lambchop seem to like things in pairs: in 2004, they released two albums on the same day: Aw C'mon and No, You C'mon.

The Merge disc collects early recordings and alternate versions of tracks that would later appear on the albums Thriller and Nixon, including "The Distance from Here to There" and "The Book I Haven't Read. The Belgian-only "It's Impossible", British B-sides "Alumni Lawn" and "Burly & Johnson", and the unreleased "Gettysburg Address" also appear on the second compilation. There is some overlap between the two releases.

Tracklists:

The Decline of the Country & Western Civilization (1993-99):

01 Soaky in the Pooper
02 Two Kittens Don´t Make a Puppy
03 Nine
04 Moody Fucker
05 Loretta Lung
06 Scared Out of My Shoes
07 Your Life as a Sequel (fast)
08 Smuckers
09 The Scary Caroler (fast)
10 I Can Hardly Spell My Name
11 Alumni Lawn (slow)
12 Playboy, The Shit
13 Whitey
14 Cigarettiquette
15 Mr. Crabby
16 Gettysburg Address
17 Beyond Belief

Decline of Country & Western Civilization Part II: The Woodwind Years:

01 My Cliché<br> 02 Loretta Lung
03 Two Kittens Don't Make a Puppy
04 It's Impossible
05 Ovary Eyes
06 I Can Hardly Spell My Name
07 The Scary Caroler
08 Your Life as a Sequel
09 Smuckers
10 Alumni Lawn
11 Burly and Johnson
12 Mr. Crabby
13 Playboy, The Shit
14 Gloria Leonard (Alternate Version)
15 The Old Fat Robin
16 The Distance from Her to There (Alternate Version)
17 The Book I Haven't Read (Alternate Version)
18 Gettysburg Address

Merge's website says that we should expect an all-new Lambchop studio album this August. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, catch up on those Southern Gothic novels collecting dust in the corner.

Lambchop: http://www.lambchop.net/
Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com/
City Slang: http://www.cityslang.com