Circulating over the years via bootleg cassette copies, The Mommyheads’ Swiss Army Knife has never had a proper release. It contains live cuts from an early incarnation of the Baroque Pop group, but also showcases the creativity of Mommyheads songwriter Adam Elk who independently recorded these tunes on four-track during his teen years in Brooklyn. Now the 21 song collection is being released on February 11th.
Songs on the bootleg include “They Call it Accident”, “We Are Intertwined”, “Canoe Driver”, as well as “Gravity” and “Cactus Farm”. As with The Mommyheads’ full-length albums that followed, a focus on melody underpins the whole collection. “Gravity” and “Cactus Farm” would end up on their classic debut Acorn. While the sound of the bootleg recording is “homespun” and “idiosyncratic”, that contributes to their fresh-sounding feel even after the passage of almost 30 years.
