We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

TCR 054 - Letter to Moe (free digital download)

by Lois

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
Letter to Moe 9-14-85 / In the Motel - Russell's Inn 9-7-85 36:06
2.
Louise Poppendorfer's Letters to Mother 1918 18:34

about

A found cassette classic from 1985, Letter to Moe chronicles a decayed Midwestern United States via a travelogue narrated by a singular voice. The audio journal takes listeners past alfalfa fields where cows lay in the sun, by former family dwellings in rubble, and through a central business district in tatters before finally arriving in Natoma, Kansas, where the everyday family tree sleuth tells of the former glories of the infinitesimal town and the surrounding communities that now “cease to exist.”

The latter half of side A, a postscript to the road trip, features a garbled recording of a drunken night at the Russell (Kansas) Inn and dubbed renditions of “trip memory tunes”: Lionel Richie’s “Stuck on You” and Diana Ross’ “Missing You.”

On the B side, the narrator reads letters written 67 years previous by Louise Poppendorfer as the woman recounts the story of her brother Johnny’s catastrophic death on New Year’s Day 1918 and her follow-up grief. At the time of this audio document, the 93-year-old Poppendorfer, who’s referenced on the flip side and who's looked after by the local undertaker, still wrote a column for the Russell Daily News.

TCR’s first digital-only download was transferred directly from found tape and will remain a free item in perpetuity due to the unknown whereabouts of the narrator/artist/historian/storyteller.

credits

released September 15, 2020

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

That's Cool Records image

That's Cool Records

contact / help

Contact That's Cool Records

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like TCR 054 - Letter to Moe (free digital download), you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now