Aimee Mann reflects on 'Bachelor No. 2' as she hits the road

Some albums have a way of becoming tied to specific times in our lives. For me, Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo is one of those records I'll always associate with the beginning of my public radio career. I was working nights at the time, and the album was regularly featured on both IPR's nightly music mix and World Cafe. I was heavily into the alternative rock of the early 2000s, and the simple yet perfect melodies and brilliant lyrics of Bachelor No. 2 were a welcome change of pace for me.

For Mann, listening to and rehearsing the songs from the album 26 years later reminds her of the circumstances under which it was made. Bachelor No. 2 was famously the subject of considerable friction between Mann and Interscope Records, which didn't quite seem to understand the album. Mann ended up releasing the record herself.

"That was the record that propelled me out of the major label system. There are a lot of songs that I can tell are referring to how difficult it was to be part of the major label system and how irritating and sort of disappointing it was to be kind of stuck in that loop" Mann said. "As I've been rehearsing it, I can certainly remember what various songs were about and what the dynamic of that record was, the vibe of that record."

Around the time of the album, I was also mildly obsessed with the movie Magnolia, which Mann wrote much of the music for. It's far from a perfect movie, but it's full of fascinating ideas, including a particularly audacious sequence where all of the movie's major characters (who are scattered across Los Angeles) are separately singing along to Mann's "Wise Up."

"[Director] Paul Thomas Anderson told me about this scene, and honestly, when he described it, it sounded so weird," Mann said. "I was like, 'I don't understand how this could work.' It's almost like a musical number in the middle of a story. Traditionally, movies don't really treat musical numbers like that. It sort of never works."

"But [Anderson] has such an interesting touch, especially in that movie, where all the things that happen that are surreal and unexpected and almost unbelievable, are treated as weirdly matter of fact. Reality itself is treated as almost a surreal experience," Mann said. "I mean, it really creates a mood and totally works."

A 20th anniversary edition of Bachelor No. 2 was released in 2020, which actually makes some changes to the album: The track order is switched around a bit, and several songs from Magnolia are added, including “Wise Up” and “Save Me,” along with Mann’s cover of Harry Nilsson’s “One.” Given what we know about the production history of Bachelor No. 2, I asked Mann if this anniversary edition of the album was closer to her original vision.

"Yeah, that's probably the record that would have been put out, because all those songs were being written at the same time," Mann said. "The songs that were wanted for the Magnolia soundtrack, [the label] kind of didn't want them to be cross-pollinated with my record."

Mann is currently on a very brief tour, where she's playing Bachelor No. 2 live. It's a total of six dates, and she got it started Wednesday night at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City. A performance at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines is happening Saturday night. There are two dates in Wisconsin, one in Chicago and one in St. Louis. Aside from her touring schedule, Mann is also writing a graphic memoir that she's going to start illustrating soon, a process she expects to take a couple of years.

"I'm doing rough drawings and just trying to practice some stuff, because I'm not really that great at drawing," Mann said. "Cartooning is [so] specific. I mean, if I could just look at a reference for every single panel, it would be much easier. But [then you] draw something that is out of your own head and you're like, 'Wait a minute, I don't know what a hand looks like. I thought I knew.' It's like when you think of a song and you go to sing and you're like, 'Whoa, I do not know this song at all it turns out.' Just like anything, it takes a lot of practice."

Mann also found time to join the legendary rock band Rush on the first night of their reunion tour to perform "Time Stand Still." Mann sang on the chorus on the original studio recording, but she'd never performed the song live with Rush before.

"[Rush's] audience is so extraordinary, and I think they were obviously really, really excited," Mann said. "They have a new drummer — a female drummer — that part is very exciting. And their fans are pretty rabid anyway. So there was a really crazy air of excitement that was super fun to be around. And they're playing like three hour shows! I can't imagine doing it. Those guys just, like, monsters, man. They're just really digging in and doing it."

With plenty to talk about, I still couldn't help myself: I had to ask Mann about her cover of The Carpenters' "Rainy Days and Mondays" that appears at the end of an episode of Tim Robinson's HBO series The Chair Company. If you haven't seen it, there are no spoilers here, but the episode ends on a pretty shocking note that prominently features a ... very realistic prosthetic. As with Magnolia, Mann knew about the scene ahead of time, but wasn't quite ready to see it.

"I don't think I had really registered how realistic [the] prosthetic appendages would be," Mann said. "So yeah, that was a bit of shock. But I really love Tim Robinson."

Still, Mann and I agreed we'd be careful about who we recommend the show to.

Tickets are still available for Aimee Mann's show at Hoyt Sherman Place on Saturday.