The Mendoza Line's very last ever record

Always the thinking person's country rockers, Brooklyn's Mendoza Line took its name from a baseball term for the lowest possible batting average you could have and still remain in the majors (it's .215 and named after Mario Mendoza). The band is all done now, and Mendoza Line mainstays Shannon McArdle and Timothy Bracy are breaking up their marriage as well as their band...but there's one more double-disk album for fans. Disc one of A 30 Year Low is biting, original songs about relationships on the rocks, while disc two is a collection of live performances, covers and alternate takes. Check it out if you like Clem Snide, Wilco, Graham Parker...anybody with a sense of humor in their twang (though the humor is pretty bitter on this album, just a warning). Here's my review up at Dusted yesterday:30 Year Low is the Mendoza Line's last album. It clocks in at eight songs and under 30 minutes. That's probably about all the collaboration songwriters Timothy Bracy and Shannon McArdle could stand; they're not only ending their band but also their marriage, and from the sound of it, there's nothing amicable about their divorce. And yet, painful as 30 Year Low must have been to make, the record is well worth the trouble. Bristling with bile, laced with hatred, couched in the most scathing kind of intelligence, it is a bracing portrait of marital trainwreck. Infidelity, money troubles, aging, children and the lack of them - the big relationship-breakers are all here in spades, but delivered with wit and style and literacy. It's a voyeur's special, laid bare for your entertainment. You'll laugh, they'll cry - it hardly seems fair, does it? (More here: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/3796)MP3s"Since I Came"http://www.mendozaline.com/songs/mendoza-line_since-i-came.mp3"30 Year Low"http://www.mendozaline.com/songs/mendoza-line_30-year-low.mp3"Aspect of an Old Maid (Alt. take)"http://www.glurp.com/mp3s/aspectofanoldmaidV2.mp3BTW, Will Sheff from Okkervil River guests on the album version, which is on the player. It's maybe the best song on the disc (though "31 Candles" is pretty great, too).