If summer has to end, we might as well have all of the bittersweet, nostalgic ear morsels we can get our hands on to soften the blow- and Clever Girls’ first sizzling single off of their upcoming release absolutely delivers on this front and more. The songs we love to feast on don’t just come from thin air, and that’s why we’re going to share with you the key ingredients cooked up in the brain kitchen of songwriter Diane Jean to create “Remember Pluto.” OK, here we go!
RECIPE FOR “REMEMBER PLUTO”
1. One Creemee (even though it’s way too cold for ice cream)
So you might not know this, but in Vermont (where Clever Girl’s happen to be based), we refer to soft serve ice cream as “creemees,” and they’re the best you can find anywhere. This song has the sugary nostalgia of that rainbow besprinkled cone, with the twinge of sadness brought along with September’s first chilly evening that has you wishing you wore your beanie.
2. One Fashion Mullet
“Business in the front and party in the back” isn’t just a sentiment for hair anymore. “Remember Pluto” has a certain simplicity and clean-cut restraint that let the sentiment of the song shine through. That being said, the fête is not forgotten by the band’s rhythm section Toby Sullivan (bass), and Rob Slater (drums) in the background. The lively bop will have you headbanging (in that cool understated kind of way) those blonde locks all Autumn long.
3. Two Dashes of Your 4th Grade Science Project
I for one hadn’t really thought about the outcast of our solar system for some time. “Remember Pluto” has that DIY hand-painted Milky Way guitar hook (via Winfield Holt) that bubbles those forgotten memories right to the surface.
4. One-to-two tsps. of Chuck Palahniuk Novels (to taste) and a dash of Raymond Carver
While writing the record, Diane read Raymond Carver’s short story Why Wont You Dance?. This work provides only subtle tasting notes but one can draw parallels to Carver’s story which leaves the contents of an entire house arranged on the front lawn, to the disarray laid out in Diane’s lyrics:
“I’ve been the train and I’ve been the tornado
I’ve been the razor blade and the cotton swab”
Also having read Snuff and Lullaby during this same period, it’s not a far stretch to find some aftertaste of Chuck Palahniuk’s stark writing style in the gritty bones of “Remember Pluto”:
“I don’t think so straight anymore
I guess I can’t stand up”
5. Two Cups of Your Perfectly Scratchy Flannel with All the Holes In It
This tune has a timeless flavor to it that makes it feel like an instant classic. It’s got those warm, wooly, blown out tones that have kept us curling up with our favorite Sonic Youth records again and again. It fits so right that it never goes out of fashion, and we can all feel good about that.
COMBINE ALL VIGOROUSLY IN THE MOSH PIT OF A MANNEQUIN PUSSY SHOW
FOLLOW DIRECTLY WITH TWO HOURS OF CRYING ON YOUR CARPET TO ANGEL OLSEN
AND VOILA! “Remember Pluto” by Clever Girls! Best served on a windy day in your best friend’s Suburu while they drive you through the Green Mountains. *Bonus points if you make a corny joke about how the Green Mountains are now the “orange and gold mountains” and your friend threatens to pull over and let you out!
— Hammydown (aka Abbie Morin)
