The Los Angeles-based Plug Research label announced plans this week to release Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake, a solo album from James Figurine, AKA Jimmy Tamborello of The Postal Service. The album will hit shelves on July 11, 2006. Tamborello also records as DNTEL and was a member of the synth-pop outfit Figurine. This is his first official full-length release since The Postal Service’s 2003 album Give Up which has sold over 750,000 copies to date.
In November of 2001, Figurine went on a short tour of Germany with Lali Puna. Their European label, Monika, set them up with a driver to get from show to show. She only brought three or four tapes to listen to on the drives, mostly techno. Jimmy had never paid much attention to dancefloor-oriented electronic music, but listening to the same tapes over and over again (especially Kompakt’s pop-leaning Total 3 and some 7”s on Parfum) while driving through Germany made a giant impression on him. So, this record was supposed to be an extra melodic, minimal techno record with some sparse vocals. Instead, his technopop tendencies got the best of me, the songs slowly filled up, and five years later, this is what he ended up with.
John Tejada (Palette Recordings) assisted Tamborello along the way, adding sounds to some of the songs, helping write and arrange a few, and then mixing everything in the end. Sonya Westcott (Arthur and Yu) sang on “55566688833,” Morgan Nagler (Whispertown 2000) contributed some lyrics and vocals to “Pretend It’s A Race And I’m On Your Side,” Erlend Øye (Kings of Convenience, Whitest Boy Alive) sang some words written by designer/animator/poet Geoff McFetridge on ”All The Way To China,” and Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) sang on “You Again.”
Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake track list:
1. 55566688833
(Additional vocals by Sonya Westcott)
2. Leftovers
3. Ruining the Sundays
4. Pretend It’s A Race and I’m On Your Side
(Featuring vocals by Morgan Nagler)
5. You Again
(Additional vocals by Jenny Lewis)
6. Apologies
7. One More Regret
8. White Ducks
9. All The Way To China
(Vocals by Erlend Øye)
10. Stop