archeogeist asked: Do you think you're going to re-record some of your "lo-fi" songs? I absolutely love how angry your older work is (especially Going to Maine) but I find low quality music grating. I really apologize if you've already answered a question like this before. Thanks for taking time to read this. :)

No - with the exception of the one we did on Nothing for Juice, I’m against re-recording old songs. Here’s the deal: it’s 100% cool if people don’t like the way those records sounded – but I do like the way they sound. They sound like I wanted those songs to sound. They’re not for everybody! But I don’t believe in golden/Platonic notions of “sound quality” etc. There’s just different ways that things sound, none of them “good” or “bad” – just different. If a person doesn’t dig the way those recordings are different: that’s ok! Some people do, some don’t, it’s all good, I’ve worked in a bunch of different formats so it’s not like the old days when you had to either deal with the noise floor or take a pass.

At any rate though, no. Back when bigger labels were casting their nets around this used to be the first question they’d ask me: “Wouldn’t you want to go into a studio and really get high quality version of ‘Grendel’s Mother,’ maybe explore how to make it the best it can be, have a band playing behind you?’” No; the version I like is the one recorded at a radio session where the tape machines were running at the wrong speed so there’s a little unintentional pitch-shift on both the vocal and the guitar. The version of “Going to Maine” that expresses the song the way I want it is the one that grates on your ears some. I would submit to you that part of why it sounds angry to you is that it’s actually physically assaulting your ears. I come from the gothic 80s. There was an aesthetic of assault lingering in those early recordings.