Reed KD

In Case the Comet Comes

(Dirty Laundry)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

We should all know by now that there isn’t any single trait that makes an American – but, c’mon, if you don’t get swept up in the romanticism of a good road trip, you’re probably a terrorist.  Reed KD embarked on a real road trip – one without a real home base or destination – as he put In Case the Comet Comes together during 2007 and 2008.  It’s a DIY record to the fullest, written in a VW van, recorded in closets and garages across the country, with Reed KD credited with everything from vocals and guitar to microrgan and water glasses (when it came to the trash can, though, he had to bring in a specialist: Keefe Swacker).

He named his label Dirty Laundry, which seems doubly appropriate.   For one, it’s obviously a safe bet that he’s lugged a fair bit of literal dirty laundry around during his travels.  But the road is also a place for escape from the past – and ghosts and regrets raise their head in the most cheerful of places, as on the brisk, bluegrassed “If the Tide Swings” (“I wish I never had that one night stand and threw our good love away”).

The foot-stompin’ takes a turn on the third track with the lovely, Simon & Garfunkel-ish harmonies of “Winding Roads,” a gentle acoustic tale that’s perfectly aligned with its name.   Not only was the album composed during a road trip, not only is it literally about road trips, but the playful and versatile nipping of genres is almost like a stylistic road trip through America.  “Lake Missouri” is a torchy twanger that brings to mind Band of Horses (though Reed KD’s soft vocals are more Ben Gibbard than Ben Bridwell).

Of course, the peril of being a one man show is that no one is around to say “No!  Hey!  No.”  “Hippie Chicks” is built on a contrived electronic heartbeat and seems calculatedly quirky with its lyrics about liking karaoke in my underwear and so forth.  Calculatedly quirky, of course, is the worst kind of quirky.

But In Case the Comet Comes quickly recovers and moves on, leaving that song as an anomaly – and, hey, you can’t be afraid to fail.  In case you hadn’t picked up on the motif yet, the eighth track is helpfully titled “Keep My Bags Packed.”  It’s much more than cheap sentiment; like Eddie Vedder’s work on Into the Wild, it’s music that genuinely understands and earnestly expresses wanderlust, taking time to pause for reflection even as the restlessness starts to creep back in.