plik

The Blow

Poor Aim: Love Songs

KLP167 CD/LP

File Under: Pop

Box lot: CD 25, LP 25

Vinyl non-returnable
UPC: CD 789856116720 LP789856116713

14 Songs

Hey Boy, The Sky Open Wide Like The Tide, Knowing The Things That I Know, Let’s

Play Boys Chase Girls, The Love That I Crave, Hock It, Come On Petunia, Begin Remix, Hock It
(YACHT remix), The Love That I Crave (Strategy’s Strata Club remix, The Sky Open Wide Like
The Tide (Lucky Dragons New Age remix), Hey Hey Boy (K Maricich remix), Hey Boy (DJ Alan
Fortarte remix), We Are Over Here (Lucky Dragons remix)

Back in 2004, Khaela Maricich and Jona Bechtolt attempted an experiment: working together for

the first time as the Blow, they would record an EP of radio-style pop hits. The songs had to be slick enough
to make it on the radio, and smart enough to make both of the collaborators proud. The delicious result of
their experiment, Poor Aim: Love Songs (KLP167), is being celebrated with this K Records re-release,
including the addition of several re-mixes by close friends of the Blow, including Strategy, Lucky Dragons,
Alan Fortarte (White Rainbow), and by Khaela and Jona (a.k.a. YACHT) themselves.

Poor Aim: Love Songs is resilient electro-pop music that can be lovingly devoured by people of all

ages and coolness factors. Already, the songs have fallen into a beloved repeat-play position in many a
heart (and cell phone, as ring tones!). In their experiment, the two challenged each other with stringent
requirements: Jona insisted that the rhythms couldn't be redundant; Khaela guaranteed that the lyrics held
sentences worth repeating. They succeeded. The songs are catchy as hell, and rise to meet all of the duo's
snobby music standards. With sing-along-when-you-think-you're-alone types of refrains, it's as if the oldies
station on the car stereo is playing at the same time as the urban party music station, with the occasional
interfering sonic sway of an eighties keyboard refrain. That mash of sounds would come closest to
describing Poor Aim's productional pitch, the sound of feeling fun and desperate and bravely romantically
unsuccessful all at once; easy listening for difficult feelings.

While Jona and Khaela set out with an ambitious goal (to create the perfect pop music), it was

within the protective shell of the Pregnancy Series, intended as a limited pressing of 1000 CDs presented by
two Portland, Ore. labels, States Rights and Slender Means Society. This is a context that implies
inaccessibility. The album was born inside this tender paradox, designed to attract the affections of a mass
audience, yet limited in its availability and destined to be purchased by only a few. The Blow followed Poor
Aim: Love Songs with 2006's stunning full-length album Paper Television (KLP178), but Khaela and Jona
had a suspicion that their initial collection of songs might be palatable to more than just a limited edition
audience. That has been confirmed undeniably by the constant demands for Poor Aim whenever the Blow
performs. Although the 12" version of Poor Aim was released by K and has never been out of print, the kids
demand modern digital formats, so this re-issuing of Poor Aim: Love Songs as a full-length CD is the result.

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