Tacocat - This Mess Is a Place (2019)

Posted By: delpotro

Date: March 2, 2020

When Seattle band Tacocat—vocalist Emily Nokes, bassist Bree McKenna, guitarist Eric Randall, and drummer Lelah Maupin—first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros. Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression—from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s NVM and 2016’s Lost Time.

This Mess is a Place, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop, finds the band waking up the morning after the 2016 election and figuring out how to respond to a new reality where evil isn’t hiding under the surface at all—it’s front and center, with new tragedies and civil rights assaults filling up the scroll of the newsfeed every day. “What a time to be barely alive,” laments “Crystal Ball,” a gem that examines the more intimate side of responding emotionally to the news cycle. How do you keep fighting when all you want to do is stay in bed all day? “Stupid computer stupor/Oh my kingdom for some better ads,” Nokes sings, throwing in some classic Tacocat snark, “Truth spread so thin/It stops existing.”

Despite current realities being depressing enough to make anyone want to crawl under the covers and sleep for a thousand years, Tacocat are doing what they’ve always done so well: mingling brightness, energy, and hope with political critique. This Mess is a Place is charged with a hopefulness that stands in stark contrast to music that celebrates apathy, despair, and numbness. Tacocat feels it all and cares, a lot, whether they’re singing odes to the magical connections we feel with our pets (“Little Friend”), imagining what a better earth might look like (“New World”), or trying to find humor in a wholly unfunny world (“The Joke of Life”).

Throughout the album, Tacocat questions power structures and the way we interact with them, recalling the feminist sci-fi of Ursula K. Le Guin in pop-music form. “Rose-Colored Sky” examines the privilege of people who have been able to skate through life without ever experiencing systemic disadvantage: “For all the years spent/Hot lava shaping me/For all the arguments/I wonder who else would I be?” Nokes sings. “If I wasn’t on the battleground/I bet I could’ve gone to space by now.” “Hologram” reminds us to step outside ourselves and try to see beyond imaginary structures that trap us: “Just close your eyes and think about the Milky Way/Just remember if you can, power is a hologram.”

The record is full of beautiful details, finding plastic beaded curtains catching light amidst feelings of despair. This Mess is A Place explores politics with more nuance than the topical songs of Tacocat’s past, inviting listeners in for more complicated exchanges and leaving space for introspection. “Grains of Salt” finds the band at the best they’ve ever sounded: Maupin’s spirited drums, McKenna’s bouncy walking bass, Randall’s catchy guitar and Nokes’ soaring melody combine to create a bonafide roller-rink hit that reminds us that it just takes some time, we’re in the middle of the ride, and to live for what matters to you. It’s a delightfully cathartic moment and the cornerstone of the record when they exclaim: “Don’t forget to remember who the fuck you are!”

Producer Erik Blood (who also produced Lost Time) brings the band into their full pop potential but still preserves what makes Tacocat so special: they’re four friends who met as young punks and have grown together into a truly collaborative band. Says Nokes: “We can examine some hard stuff, make fun of some evil stuff, feel some soft feelings, feel some rage feelings, feel some bitter-ass feelings, sift through memories, feel wavy-existential, and still go get a banana daiquiri at the end.”

Tracklist:
1. Hologram (03:46)
2. New World (02:55)
3. Grains of Salt (03:54)
4. The Joke of Life (03:19)
5. Little Friend (03:18)
6. Rose-Colored Sky (03:51)
7. The Problem (02:18)
8. Crystal Ball (03:33)
9. Meet Me at La Palma (02:38)
10. Miles and Miles (02:53)

EAC

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 11. February 2020, 20:37

TacocaT / This Mess Is a Place

Used drive : PLEXTOR PX-891SAF Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:46.51 | 0 | 17000
2 | 3:46.51 | 2:55.22 | 17001 | 30147
3 | 6:41.73 | 3:54.16 | 30148 | 47713
4 | 10:36.14 | 3:19.02 | 47714 | 62640
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8 | 23:22.49 | 3:33.38 | 105199 | 121211
9 | 26:56.12 | 2:38.02 | 121212 | 133063
10 | 29:34.14 | 2:53.63 | 133064 | 146101

Track 1

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Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 98.5 %
Extraction speed 4.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 13272A71
Copy CRC 13272A71
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [05F0FB3C] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\02. New World.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 4.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 6424A07A
Copy CRC 6424A07A
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [FF366538] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\03. Grains of Salt.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 5.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 9BB58DCE
Copy CRC 9BB58DCE
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [6E103020] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\04. The Joke of Life.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 6.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DFD6F2BE
Copy CRC DFD6F2BE
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [6F88AF82] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\05. Little Friend.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 6.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FA74B60D
Copy CRC FA74B60D
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [854D9A53] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\06. Rose-Colored Sky.wav

Peak level 98.0 %
Extraction speed 7.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B9EBF3CA
Copy CRC B9EBF3CA
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [5BC14160] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\07. The Problem.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 5.0 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 30A08205
Copy CRC 30A08205
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [04B173A0] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\08. Crystal Ball.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 7.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 21FA1F92
Copy CRC 21FA1F92
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [3A1F2F13] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\09. Meet Me at La Palma.wav

Peak level 97.8 %
Extraction speed 5.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC D6DAC983
Copy CRC D6DAC983
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [85A01ABA] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename C:\TacocaT - This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop, 2019) EAC-FLAC\10. Miles and Miles.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 7.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC D547DC70
Copy CRC D547DC70
Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [6D54953D] (AR v2)
Copy OK

All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: H1XHXsGXLNdkEt5s9bsZ_IBQ4.8-] found
Submit result: H1XHXsGXLNdkEt5s9bsZ_IBQ4.8- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
2 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
3 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
4 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
5 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
6 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
7 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
8 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
9 | (22/22) Accurately ripped
10 | (22/22) Accurately ripped

==== Log checksum 2BAD57D498365B477F4BE8E9D4C3485C2E954693C3524B379DAC01081E087031 ====

Thanks to the Original ripper !