The Mendoza Line

The story behind my coming into contact with The Mendoza Line's 2002 Lost In Revelry is that I picked it up while abroad in England during college. It became a soundtrack of sorts to the end of my trip there which found me ending up in various parts of that country and into France. The thing is though the ML are a Brooklyn based band out of Athens, Georgia and there albums aren't cheap especially when buying them on import. The Virgin sticker on the case reads 14.99 and that would be in pounds. Quite the moronic spender I was those few months in the U.K. but at least I got some fine music out of the deal.

In non-music terms, The Mendoza Line is a phrase used to describe a batting average in baseball that is .200 which separates the piss poor from below average hitters or the abdominable from the respectable. Mario Mendoza's (.215%, lifetime) last name serves to describe this status and was coined by George Brett. A search of the term will give you more information on it if you so desire but this site is interesting if your feeling lazy.


In music terms, The Mendoza Line are on Misra records. Lost in Revelry is their fourth albumand received much critical praise upon its release and even made its way to a few notable best of lists at the end of the year including Uncut and Magnet. Like most bands of its caliber, The Mendoza Line didn't earn much attention apart from the critics. So it goes. Besides releases for Misra, Cooking Vinyl, Kindercore and Bar/None have also serviced consumers with TML product.

The thing I really like about this band is they have a few singers, some men and some women so when you get tired of one voice you are soon faced with that of another.

Allmusic called the album "Stunning" and a mix of indie rockand back porch country j.i.c. you didn't believe me before downloading. To that I would add that the music also incorporates some great songwriting that is obviously thought out and the product of lots of honing in on the skill that these guys have.

A Damn Good Disguise

As always if you like the track and want to purchase more music by the band you should. I believe they have a best of compilation of sorts coming out soon. Check out Misra for more details and a few more tracks for download. Some of the guys/gals in the band have a side project called Slow Dazzle, also on Misra.