This Manic Moment

Cars Can Be Blue Release Sophomore Record

originally published May 28, 2008

Notoriously obnoxious, hilarious and sometimes sweet, this duo (made up of Becky Brooks and Nate Mitchell) has now been in Athens for a bit over two years, and just finished recording its sophomore album, Doubly Unbeatable. Louder, faster and more focused than the first record, All the Stuff That We Do, the new set of songs benefits from the input of Jeff Walls, who helped give The Woggles their nasty garage sound. Mitchell acknowledges that this decision was intentional and says, “I knew he would know exactly how to get a sound that was totally seething with energy.” He also credits other contributors to the record: “Joel Hatstat handled all of the studio engineering/technical stuff and is a great guy to record with because he's so laid-back, but he's also an ace facilitator and problem solver for all these crazy ideas we threw at him. It's kind of like Becky and I were the Starship Enterprise, Jeff was Captain Kirk, and Joel was a combination Mr. Sulu/ Mr. Scott.” Problem solving, luckily, is more invisible than perceptible, so it's the wonderful chaotic griminess of the production that comes through, matching the mix of dirt and sunshine that was already present in Cars Can Be Blue's songs.

How has the duo adjusted to being denizens of the Classic City, rather than just passers-through? Well, Athens has its ups and downs. Mitchell's played drums with Titans of Filth, started a new dance band called Everybody Everybody, tried his hand at stand-up with Conner and Charlie Taylor (Stubble on Stubble) and hosted the Sunday Night Flip Out dance party with DJ Kurt Wood at the Secret Squirrel. Brooks admits to no impact on the town other than her own genius, but says, in response to a question asking how Athens has changed her, “I'm happier. I'm an alcoholic now.”

Mitchell says the move from Athens outsider to Athens insider can be weird. “There have been some shows or parties that have totally vindicated my original desire to move here, but the small-town fishbowl effect can get wearying after a while.” Hey, they're honest, and it's gotten them in trouble from time to time.

Doubly Unbeatable isn't a step back from honesty, but it's a little bit more serious than its predecessor, which contained songs about abortion, the mentally impaired and doing it with Batman. There are, with the exception of “I Think It's a...,” fewer dick jokes this time around, but Mitchell says it wasn't necessarily a conscious decision.

“I guess we decided to try and chase the perfect two-minute pop song rather than the cheap laugh. We just wanna write good songs that aren't boring.” That devotion to the short song is certainly something that remains, along with Brooks' pure holler of a voice, which is used to great effect throughout, such as on the opener, “Sun Blows Up,” a nouveau Phil Spector track that sets the pace for the rest.

You'd think that a two-minute song would take less time to write than a longer one, but Cars Can Be Blue haven't put out an album since 2005. Brooks says, “I can only write songs when I'm manic, so I can't really control how quickly an album gets written,” and Mitchell concurs to some extent, but admits they don't want to put out anything they're not 100 percent happy with.

The recording time, however, was short, even if the process leading up to it wasn't. Mitchell says, “We spent three years coming up with a whole mess of song ideas and gradually refining them into real songs. Most times, stuff just blurts out of Becky when she's in a manic mood, and you have to have a tape recorder running or she won't even remember something the next day. We made four-track demos of everything at home, and Becky spent more time working on vocal harmonies, so by the time we booked studio time and went in to record, we were able to track 23 songs in two days. Most of what you hear on the album are first takes, which hopefully gives it more immediacy, more energy, and makes it sound more like a classic rock and roll record where people didn't have time to fuck around when the record light was on.”

So, why the title that doesn't quite make sense when you stop to think about it? Mitchell says, “It's our second record, there's two of us, and despite all the emotional trauma, relationship drama, petty fighting and bad luck that has plagued us, we still made a great album! The strongest steel goes through the hottest fire, and we are never going to stop being a band, unless one of us dies. You will never get rid of us! Never!” Fair enough.

Cars Can Be Blue celebrate their CD release at the Caledonia on May 29.

Hillary Brown

WHO: The Cake Eaters, DJ Kurt Wood, Stubble on Stubble, The Barberries, Cars Can Be Blue
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Thursday, May 29
HOW MUCH: $6 (18+), $7 (21+)