Hayden "Mild and Hazy" 7 inch (Hardwood Records/1995)

Tonight's post comes from a fine song writer from the Great White North, Mr. Paul Hayden Desser who is better known simply as Hayden. I first came to know Hayden's music as I am sure most Americans my age did, when the Canadian music video channel Much Music first became available on our family cable box and I saw the awesome, slightly awkward video for his song "Bad As They Seem". In hindsight the video definitely did a good job in selling folk music to the grunge generation, it was a loner anthem of sorts sans distortion. Parts of the video were almost eerily reminiscent of Sonic Youth's "Dirty Boots" video in particular with the whole bit with him and the cute girl in the Smoother shirt. At the show in Hayden's room there is a raucous, flannel clad crowd stage (bed?) diving while he thrashed about on a electric guitar which is a interesting backdrop for a serene, harmonica break.

 But all of that is beside the point as "Bad As They Seem" is a great song with a great video and because of that song I special ordered the cassette version of his debut on Sonic Unyon, Everything I Long For. And since then I have followed his career and as a songwriter, Hayden truly does get better with age. Early on music writers always attached the Neil Young influence to him which quite honestly really didn't become apparent to me until his 2001 album Skyscraper National Park and then even more so on his subsequent albums. The debut and the follow up The Closer I Get, are really great albums but always struck me more as Pixies gone folk more than Neil Young. Anyhow...

The single that I am sharing here today was released right around the time that Everything I Long For came out. In fact kicking off Mild and Hazy is the second song from the album "In September", which is more of a loud, distorted folk rock song.  The songs capture the kind of bedroom folk kind of sound that Hayden had going with his first album. It should be noted that Mild and Hazy includes a cover of The Pixies classic "Gouge Away".

Hayden Mild and Hazy 7 inch track listing
1. In September
2. Mild
3. Gouge Away
4. Hazy

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