One of the most prolific, consistent, and unsung acts of the slowcore movem… Read Full Bio ↴One of the most prolific, consistent, and unsung acts of the slowcore movement, Los Angeles' Idaho centers itself around four-string guitarist and vocalist Jeff Martin, a talented songwriter who has gained comparisons to Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters), and Neil Young from the few journalists who have paid attention. Despite the lack of recognition from the press and a low profile, Idaho has gained a decent-sized underground following through a steady release schedule and sporadic touring.

Martin and high school friend John Berry began writing songs together in the '80s, meeting up occasionally throughout the years as something to do without a great deal of seriousness to it. They gave a tape of their work to an acquaintance who knew someone at Caroline, and soon enough, the duo found themselves with a recording contract. The duo actually debuted with the "Skyscrape" single on Ringer's Lactate in 1992 and released their first EP, Palms, on Caroline the following year. The full-length Year After Year was released by the end of 1993, with Mark Lewis and Unsane's Vincent Signorelli providing help on drums.

Berry exited for 1994's improved This Way Out, leaving Martin to himself. Receiving assistance from another batch of guest drummers (including frequent aide Joey Waronker), he played every instrument, including piano (Martin is classically trained). Since Martin wanted to keep Idaho a touring entity, he enlisted a semi-permanent supporting cast and, in turn, gave up some of the writing responsibility for 1996's Three Sheets to the Wind -- he had found it impossible to teach others the songs and have them play them the way he wanted. As a result, the bolstered lineup made for Idaho's most muscular record, featuring their loudest guitars but not sacrificing any sense of intimacy. The thicker sound pricked the ears of more journalists, who generally find the record to be Idaho's best overall.

Despite their recent underground success, Idaho found themselves ejected from Caroline. The group reverted back to a duo, with Martin retaining guitarist Dan Seta while the other two members, Lewis and Terry Borden, formed Flotilla. They also signed on with the smaller Buzz label, releasing The Forbidden EP and Alas in 1997 and 1998, respectively. After leaving the label, Martin set up Idaho Music (thanks to a car accident settlement) and issued the live People Like Us Should Be Stopped and Hearts of Palm in 2000. Seta left for 2001's Levitate, leaving Idaho as one-man act. A compilation of rare tracked entitled We Were Young and Needed the Money appeared in 2002. Idaho's latest release is The Lone Gunman, which was released in 2005.

In December 2008 Idaho contributed his song 'Santa Claus Is Weird' for a Christmas compilation called 'An Indiecater Christmas' which was put out by Indiecater Records.

and all their lyrics can be found here: http://www.slidingpast.com/lyrics/

Save
Idaho Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

You know i am trailing back
Sifting through all your gold

Stay down better to drown
Save something that you left
I will let you off
You bent my days way too hard

Stay down better to drown
Save something that you left
You don't think i tried to go
You know i am insane where'd our days go

Watch you fade
No time could waste

Away your soul
I'll keep it inside

Overall Meaning

The song 'Save' is a musing on the difficulty of moving on from a lost relationship. The lyrics describe a protagonist who is trying to let go of a former lover, but finds it hard to do so. The first line "you know I am trailing back" suggests that the singer is revisiting memories of the relationship, trying to come to terms with what went wrong. The second line "sifting through all your gold" implies that the singer is trying to find something positive to hold onto from the relationship, some good memory or feeling that can be salvaged.

The chorus "Stay down better to drown, save something that you left" seems to suggest that the singer knows that it's better to let the relationship go and move on, but at the same time, there is a desire to hold onto something from it, to remember the good times. The line "you bent my days way too hard" implies that the relationship was a difficult one, emotionally draining on the singer. The second verse picks up on this idea, with the line "you don't think I tried to go", suggesting that the singer had tried to end the relationship before, but was unable to.

The song ends with the lines "watch you fade, no time could waste, away your soul, I'll keep it inside", which suggest that the singer has accepted that the relationship is over and that the former lover is moving on, but that they will always hold onto memories of that person.

Line by Line Meaning

You know i am trailing back
I am looking back at our past together

Sifting through all your gold
I am trying to find the good memories in our relationship

Stay down better to drown
It's better to stay in a bad situation than to risk something worse

Save something that you left
Hold on to the few good memories that we have left

I will let you off
I will forgive you for hurting me

You bent my days way too hard
You made my life difficult and painful

You don't think i tried to go
You didn't realize how much I wanted to leave the relationship

You know i am insane where'd our days go
I feel crazy thinking about where our relationship went wrong

Watch you fade
I am witnessing our relationship fall apart

No time could waste
We don't have time to fix our problems, it's too late

Away your soul
Your personality and spirit are gone