Album Notes

Matt Farley and Tom Scalzo, the founding members and lead songwriters of Moes Haven, have so many songs inside them that when they get together to write there's no time to ask "why?"

"Sometimes we write and record songs for 16 hours straight," says Farley. "After sessions like that, we listen to what we've done. Usually we can't remember half of the songs we wrote. We're suprised by our own material."

Scalzo adds, "I couldn't tell you what we were thinking when we wrote half of these songs. They just keep coming. If we stop and think about it, we might lose a song or two."

And so, for DOWN WITH MEMORIES, Moes Haven gives you 29 tracks that even they can't explain. These are the songs that just happened to come out while they were writing. There's no common theme from song to song. But they're all good.

Some are funny.

Some are strange.

Some are sad.

Some are whimsical.

Some are insane.

There are a couple of blues songs performed by Scalzo ("Look Out!", "Angered by Love"). But Scalzo doesn't sing in his usual voice. Rather, he dons the persona of "Blind" Vermont Jones, a bitter 97-year-old blues singer from Vermont. If you didn't know it was Scalzo singing, you'd think you were listening to a recently unearthed Robert Johnson record.

There are some hard rockers ("A Scene," "No Future"), some reggae numbers ("Bob Must Be Dead," "The Pleasures of Months"), and plenty of insanity ("Wanna Russhuel Pie?", "The Last Noel," "Necrophobia").

And, as always, Moes Haven manages to sneak in some sweet, sad, beautiful tunes into this album - assuring the world that they can write a straightforward song that stands up with the best works of any songwriters out there.

"Miss Molly Kiely," "Souvenir", and "Her Name is Jaime" are just great songs.
But then, every song on this album is great. And each is great in its own way.

DOWN WITH MEMORIES is classic Moes Haven: complex, strange, funny and beautiful.