On the rare occasions I listen to my old iPod classic, I have it on Shuffle, going through the 9k+ songs I have on it. A lot of the tunes are familiar, but once in a while one comes up that I don’t even remember.
A song like “Summertime” by Mouth’s Cradle.
Who are these guys? I don’t remember where I found them or first heard them, or when this song made its way onto my iPod. I looked them up online, and while they do have their album The Next Big Thing on Spotify (which sadly does not include “Summertime”, there is no bio or socials for the group. Google gives middling results – some acknowledgement that they started in the early 2000’s and broke up, taking most of their music offline with them.
Thankfully as is so often the case, the group’s fans have kept their memory alive by posting their music on YouTube, which is the only place I’ve been able to find “Summertime” to stream. The track samples Train‘s “Hey Soul Sister”, and is a perfectly chill, pop/hip-hop track made for carefree days. Lyrically, the song has a touch of darkness (“No one but me will make it through the night, but I can’t complain ’cause it’s the summertime”) but overall they’re fun with goofy video game references and random imagery.
Wherever the duo that is Mouth’s Cradle is now, hopefully they will one day decide to engage with their fans again and put all their music back out in the world. For now, you can listen to “Summertime” at the top of the page.
The Indy Review 