2:40
Longjohns, Boots And a Belt, 2003
Written by Pete Bernhard, Lucia Turino, and Cooper McBean
This is a fairly straightforward porch-folk Americana tune from the band, who usually mix jug-band rowdiness, bluegrass drive, and punk edge into their sound. Here, though, they dial it back for something more traditional. The song evokes "demon North Carolina" for introducing the narrator to a girl who knocked him for a loop: "Well if I'd a known that things woulda ended up this way / I would have never left my happy home anyway." The performance leans on old-timey harmonies that feel half-soused and half-sorrowful, the kind that sound like they could've been recorded on a back porch in 1932. Beneath it all, deft, adroit finger-picking keeps the tune rolling along with a loping, backcountry rhythm.