Released as a preview for their release, Upstairs / Downstairs on Dirtnap, you’ve got one original, the title track, which will be on the album (in a slightly different version), and “Only Babies Cry,” a Paul Baribeau cover, which won’t. I’m not sure how I first heard the song “Books about Miles Davis,” but I do know I liked it immediately. I’m not sure how they do it (but I’m convinced the secret’s got to be in that egg shaker), but The Ergs have managed to write a song that references books that would be one of the most annoying books for me to read. It’s suspense all the way through, with a quick payoff at the end, which would make for a terrible, awful book. Fortunately, it makes a damn fine song. It just keeps building up to some sort of explosion that you finally resign yourself to knowing it’s just not going to come. Then, the most blissful ten or so seconds of energy completely surprise and fulfill you simultaneously. And then the song ends. Dear lord, that song is amazing.
–megan (Whoah Oh)