Songs For 43 Presidents
Thursday July 17, 2008 @ 05:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Bill Callahan

Can you name all 43 American presidents? Which one is your favourite? Abraham Lincoln? George Washington? William Howard Taft? How about Franklin Pierce? You forgot about him, didn't you? There's a good chance you'll have a solid knowledge of all of them come Sept. 9, when Of Great And Mortal Men: 43 Songs For 43 Presidencies hits stores through Standard Recording Company.

The three-disc collection features a song about each U.S. leader — from one George (Washington) to another (W. Bush). The songs were written by Nice Monster's Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer and former Above The Orange Trees member Jefferson Pitcher. It features guest appearances by Smog's Bill Callahan, Califone, Rosie Thomas, Low's Alan Sparhawk, Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart, Cake's Vince DiFiore, Mark Kozelek and others. Of Great And Mortal Men will be released as a 100-plus page hardcover book that'll feature portraits and photographs of all 43 presidents, so you can figure out what the ones who aren't on bills and coins look like.

Gerken, Kiefer and Pitcher came up with the idea after stumbling upon the "February Album Writing Month" website, which challenges its readers to write a 14-song album in 28 days. They tracked 42 demos in February 2006 and later recorded the 43rd track about current president George W. Bush. A song about either Barack Obama or John McCain will be issued as a digital download once one of them is elected in November.

"[Of Great And Mortal Men is] a walk through American history and an inquiry into what makes us Americans as filtered through the lens of our highest public office," Kiefer says. "There's heartbreak and beauty and criticism and revelation. We're trying to make it work like a big beautiful historical novel."

You can preview "James Monroe: The Last Cocked Hat," featuring Marla Hansen, here.

Kiefer has released seven albums, the most recent being last year's To All Dead Soldiers, which he recorded with Pitcher while they were writing Of Great And Mortal Men. Nice Monster are working on a new EP.

Here's what's on Of Great And Mortal Men: 43 Songs For 43 Presidencies:

Disc one:

• "George Washington: Washington Dreams Of The Hippopotamus" (featuring Vince DiFiore)
• "John Adams: Armed With Only Wit And Vigor And The U.S. Navy" (featuring These United States)
• "Thomas Jefferson: The Mouldboard Of Least Resistance"
• "James Madison: Zinger"
• "James Monroe: The Last Cocked Hat" (featuring Marla Hansen)
• "John Quincy Adams: Death In The Speaker's Room"
• "Andrew Jackson: Benevolence" (featuring Califone)
• "Martin Van Buren: The Little Magician" (featuring Tom Brosseau)
• "William Henry Harrison: So You Don't Have To"
• "John Tyler: Hindsight Falls On Deaf Ears" (featuring Bill Callahan)
• "James Polk: The Other Is Better/The Landscape To Transform" (featuring Monahans)
• "Zachary Taylor: Rough And Ready"
• "Millard Fillmore: The Proof Is In The Pudding"
• "Franklin Pierce: My Only Enemy Is Myself"

Disc two:

• "James Buchanan: God Will Strike You Down" (featuring Marla Hansen)
• "Abraham Lincoln: Malice, Charity, And The Oath Of God" (featuring James Jackson Toth)
• "Andrew Johnson: Was Ever Alone?"
• "Ulysses S. Grant: Helicopters Above Oakland"
• "Rutherford B. Hayes: The Beard Of God"
• "James Garfield: Seven Months"
• "Chester Arthur: The Epitome Of Dignity"
• "Grover Cleveland: Bees And Honey"
• "Benjamin Harrison: Kid Gloves Hands Surplus To Big Sugar"
• "Grover Cleveland: Rubbermouth"
• "William McKinley: Czolgosz's Dream" (featuring Magnolia Summer)
• "Theodore Roosevelt: The Sherman Act Does Not Care"
• "William Howard Taft: There Was No Longer Use To Hide The Fact That It Was Gout" (featuring Marla Hansen)
• "Woodrow Wilson: A Life Among Men" (featuring Jamie Stewart)

Disc three:

• "Warren Harding: An Army Of Pompous Phrases"
• "Calvin Coolidge: On Silence" (featuring Radar Brothers)
• "Herbert Hoover: Woe Is A Spoon-Shaped Heart" (featuring Marla Hansen)
• "Franklin D. Roosevelt: Illuminating The Bright Lines"
• "Harry S. Truman: Suits And Fine Trousers Vs. Hiroshima" (featuring Denison Witmer)
• "Dwight D. Eisenhower: When Ike Walked The Land" (featuring Alan Sparhawk and Mark Kozelek)
• "John F. Kennedy: There Is No Plan"
• "Lyndon B. Johnson: Ladybird Take Me Home" (featuring Steve Dawson)
• "Richard Nixon: 2 Under Par Off The Coast Of Africa" (featuring Tom Carter)
• "Gerald Ford: Now You See It, Now You Don't See It" (featuring Vince DiFiore)
• "Jimmy Carter: A Great Beam Of Light" (featuring Rosie Thomas)
• "Ronald Reagan: Such A Marvelous Dream" (featuring Califone)
• "George H.W. Bush: It Was Foreshadowed Here: The Beginning Of The End"
• "William J. Clinton: The Mighty Lion Will Not Roar Again"
• "George W. Bush: Though The Night"

—Kate Harper