Snow Day

If there was ever a day to celebrate Jeremy Messersmith, today is it.  Not only was our very own local indie rocker named to the 2010 bill for SXSW this week, but 2006’s Alcatraz Kid takes a step into a winter land of whimsy with Snow Day:

Act your age
Don't squirm around
Okay?
Get on the bus and someday
You'll be a scientist
Our little scientist

I want a snow day
Hope for snow to run in and play
Too much to ask for happiness
In little white packages

Comb your hair
Button your shirt
Don't swear
Brush all your teeth
And floss
At regular intervals
Regular intervals

Let me begin by saying that I’ve long regarded Dan Wilson as one of the most brilliant and gifted men to have ever graced our planet, let alone our fine state.  If Dan told me to jump, I’d first ask if he meant for me to jump à la Van Halen or Kriss Kross, and then I’d throw in the jumping off a bridge piece all on my own just to show my reverence for his genius.  That said, as soon as Dan touted Jeremy Messersmith as "one of the Twin Cities’ best new songwriters”, I was IN, and I’ve been hooked ever since. 

Why?  Well, JM’s music is a like a pair of Cuddle Duds for the Twin Cities: warming our hearts while simultaneously being a practical investment for any Minnesotan.  Alcatraz Kid (2006) and The Silver City (2009) should be staples in everyone’s musical wardrobe.

All the hipsters out there would probably claim that JM’s true genius lies in his old school hipster glasses, but outside of The Cedar, where Hipsterdom rules, it’s a bit deeper than that.  (Rivers Cuomo’s genius, on the other hand, may, in fact, lie in his geek rock specs.)

Novocain was the first JM song I heard, with others to follow shortly.  My immediate reaction was to wonder how someone could have a vibe similar to that of Elliott Smith, but create the exact opposite effect.  JM’s songs don’t make you want to kill yourself; they make you happy to be alive.  Whether he’s writing about unrequited love in songs like Beautiful Children or the joy of being a kid in Snow Day, JM’s songwriting is stripped down and honest.  He’s not afraid to shy away from the VCVCBCC staple and tell simple stories with light melodies, reaching everyone who has ever had those same feelings. 

JM could actually be the solo-artist Beach Boy of our time.  Every dang Beach Boys tune drops about a million references to the carefree fun of So Cal, making everyone from Minnesota jealously wonder, “Where the hell are these places?  Aren’t we equally as awesome?  When will someone write about places we know?”  In walks Jeremy Messersmith. 

We now have an artist celebrating who we are and what we’re about—and doing it in a way that completely surpasses Annoyingly Obvious and reaches the heights of Heartwarmingly True.  Check out songs like Skyway, Light Rail, and Franklin Avenue, sing along, and as the song fades, shout out, “Take that, Mulholland Drive!”

And while shoveling this week, try shying away from cursing the white shroud in a litany of 4-letter words and instead embrace it as “happiness in little white packages”.