Omaha indie rock fixture Tim Kasher (now based in LA) is already known for leading Cursive and the Good Life, as well as his youthful tenure in influential bands like Commander Venus and Slowdown Virginia. He's been kicking out solo albums intermittently for a decade and a half. So why not throw in one more creative guise?
Kasher spent last Memorial Day weekend writing songs. As a teenager, he'd heard Elvis Costello make an offhand remark that he could write a whole album in a weekend. Now, at age 50, he decided to try it. He afforded himself four days rather than two, buckling down from Friday to Monday with the aim of writing at least eight complete songs. He let his Patreon community, Tim Kasher’s home phone, keep tabs on the process. By the end of the holiday weekend, he had 12 new compositions to record.
Those recordings (completed later, without time constraints) are combined into the new album Sponges Of Experience, to be released under the moniker Tim Kasher's home phone at the outset of Memorial Day weekend this year. Born Losers will handle the project's physical-only release. Although this thing won't be streaming, two songs, the upbeat opener "The Dying Animal" and the pensive ballad "The Collapse," are online today to give you a taste.
Kasher wrote a much longer, more thoughtful explanation of his process:
Hey, you. This album was written over the 4-day weekend of Memorial Day, 2025. It was a challenge to myself: when I was a wee teenager, I heard Elvis Costello mention on some talk show (I’ve long forgotten which) that he could write an album over a weekend. It was an offhand remark, a throwaway line as he was promoting something or other. As I had already become a prolific writer myself, I was curious if I could pull off something of the sort.
Fast forward to 35-odd years later, I decided to give it a shot. I offered myself FOUR days rather than just the two, and perhaps that’s a cheat, but since it was Memorial Day weekend I decided to allow it. As it turned out, I absolutely needed those extra two days.
The other rules were simple: I just needed to write a complete composition and completed lyrics for enough songs to fill an album. At least… eight songs, though I would’ve been disappointed with just eight. I kept pushing myself to write as much as possible, as I wanted to have enough songs to be able to weed out one or two of the crappier contributions. All of the additional arrangements you hear were written and recorded after the fact, casually over the remaining year, no rush nor rules on those parameters.
I have a nice little community online, a Patreon group called, “Tim Kasher’s home phone”, that I shared the weekend challenge with. They were incredibly supportive, helping keep me to task as I didn’t want to let them (nor I) down. As soon as I finished a song I went live online to perform it. ‘Receipts’, you might say.
I started strong: four songs the first day and four songs the second day. Excellent, after two days I had already hit that minimum quota of eight songs! But as mentioned, I wanted more; more songs to be able to pick and choose from.
The third day was rough. Unsurprisingly, I hit a wall and had to take the bulk of the day off as I simply could not muster any inspiration. I managed to eke out one more song that day. But the fourth and final day bore more fruit, including The Collapse and Don’t Hang Up, a couple of favorites. What a ride.
Spurred on by many of the kind folk in the Patreon group, I decided not to cut any songs from the album and let it be released as a complete artifact of the weekend. I can’t claim to love all these songs, but I do love some of them, and certainly, all of them are endearing to me.
This funny little trifle of a weekend project wound up meaning a lot to me. I love music and songwriting in a way I don’t think I’ll ever quite be able to explain, though I’m sure I’ll continue to try, and will continue to express this adoration for the rest of my days. I feel so incredibly thankful for being a songwriter, and I encourage all of you to become songwriters as well. They don’t gotta be good songs, it’s enough that they’re simply yours. With sincerity, Tim.
Hear "The Dying Animal" and "The Collapse" below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "The Dying Animal"
02 "At Death’s Red Door"
03 "You Left The Party"
04 "What Is Anything"
05 "Real Love"
06 "The Collapse"
07 "Bygones"
08 "You’re Wigging Me Out"
09 "Reaping Time"
10 "Pillows Of Anxiety"
11 "Lonesome Horseman"
12 "Don’t Hang Up"
Sponges Of Experience is out 5/22 on Born Losers. Pre-order it here.
