Hawaiian Baby by Buffalo Tom, er - the Spinanes

I've written about specific artists and albums - and every time I spend more time than I allot - and while I love it and know it's therapeutic - I always expect to condense everything down to a magical few paragraphs that people can click, give a quick look, and then maybe someone, somewhere, will end up spending a part of their day like I did, immersed (maybe not Air Supply, but you never know?).  And everyone else can smile and move on.

So I thought if I just do a single song the post could be more "soundbite grade" - pleasant and digestible to more people.  I blew that already today with this rambling preamble.  But a friend the other day said "I like your blog - but can't you do it more than once a year?" - and so this is also a reaction to that.  Can I commit less, produce more, and nail a "quick-hitter"?

Driving to work on Tuesday my phone randomly played "Hawaiian Baby" by Buffalo Tom.  I don't know why my phone randomly plays songs some days when it connects to my car but it's one of those things I just don't want to waste alive time trying to figure out.  Plus it often takes me somewhere good - and this happened with Hawaiian Baby....

OK, here's the point of this post: I just love this song.  It's mellow, earnest, melodic.  Maybe a bit haunting but in a good way.  It touches on several of my favorite things - Hawaii, cool-vibe-music, descriptive imagery, a Santa Claus reference - if they'd somehow integrated a peanut butter and jelly sandwich it might just have become my perfect song.  

I knew the song as a hidden Buffalo Tom gem (and there are many - sometime I will bore with a full-on post about one of my favorite bands - surprised I'm sure that they are a bit obscure).  This morning I spent time thinking about the specific lyrics and trying to learn what the song means.  I found out quickly that it was actually written by a woman named Rebecca Gates from The Spinanes - a 90's 2 piece from Oregon with a pretty cool story itself (check out the link and you will dive into the Spinanes if you're like me).  Hawaiian Baby has an intense, hopeful, and caring feel to it - and probably more meaning in the lyrics than I can interpret but that's not obvious and I don't really care.  Snippets that suggest depth - "it's my heart"... "dinner with your father"... "Letters sprawled across"...over muted guitar and a pronounced rhythm - someone please give it a listen and try to like it! 

OK I have to get off the computer because I want to get back to that first Spinanes album while I'm cleaning the garage... 

The Spinanes eventual release of their gem (it was a b-side, not on one of their primary albums):
Hawaiian Baby, by the Spinanes

Buffalo Tom's cover (also on their album "besides" - which was considered a collection of b-sides but would beat many bands' best albums head to head - check out Anchors Aweigh, Butterscotch, don't get me started down this path):
Hawaiian Baby, covered by Buffalo Tom