Prince of Darkness Wrote:
billy g Wrote:
Kimmie Rhodes - West Texas Heaven
No Depression Wrote:
The production by Rhodes and husband Joe Gracey avoids clutter, letting the songs stand on their own. The range on West Texas Heaven extends from the airy plaintiveness of “Wild Roses” to the Bobbie Gentryish “Git You a Job”; through it all, country music rarely rings more honest and true.
Joe Gracey died very recently.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/joe ... 77014.htmlDamn, i didn't know that.
+ 1
Wilco
Scud Mtn Boys
Belle & Sebastian x 2
American Analog Set
Joe Henry
Gillian Welch
Superdrag
a few more:
Saw Doctors - Same Oul Town
Traditional Irish mixed with Working class Rock and Pop. IMO, they are just a notch below the Pogues among irish bands probably not quite as good as the Waterboys at their best but a little more consistent.
The Auteurs - After Murder Park
Luke Haines is one of my favorite songwriters and I'd argue that the Auteurs are probably the best British Band of the last 20-25 years. This is the heaviest album with Albini on production.
New Composers Ensemble - 53rd Street Ghost
DustyGroove Wrote:
A killer batch of modern spiritual soul jazz – with a classic sound that reminds us a lot of the 70s work on labels like Tribe or Strata East! The New Composers Ensemble is led by vibist Paris Smith, an underground Chicago jazz artist who cut a few very enigmatic albums on his own – and he's working here with a group that includes guitar, piano, percussion, and bass. All the tracks on the CD are originals written by the players on the record – and most of them are strong modal grooves, with a spiraling strident sound that's filled with joy and life, but also a hint of darkness. The interplay of the instruments is unlike anything we've heard elsewhere, and it's the kind of underground treasure that you'd die to find on a rare 70s album – somehow even cooler that it's cut by an obscure group who are working in our generation! A few tracks have a vocalist that's a bit off-beat – and she also reminds us of some of the more spiritual contraltos that would show up on the Strata sets from the 70s – but her contribution to the record also kind of grows on you nicely after a while.
The Iguanas - Superball
The Iguanas sound like what Los Lobos might sound like if they were from New Orleans rather than East LA. It's a great musical stew of R&B, Roots Rock, Cajun and Tex-Mex styles. Dave Alvin guests on guitar here and Chris Gaffney and Alex Chilton provide some guest background vocals.
Chris Murray - The Four Track Adventures of Venice Shoreline Chris
AMG Wrote:
singer and guitarist Chris Murray hunkered down in his living room with a cruddy four-track cassette recorder and made one of the best ska albums of 1996, an extremely catchy and good-natured half-hour of snappy tunes and sonic sludge. It sounds as if he used plastic buckets for drums -- and he plays some of the basslines on the low strings of an acoustic guitar -- but to be fair, the sound isn't that much weirder than the one Lee "Scratch" Perry was creating at the height of the Black Ark period. And those songs! "Ex-Darling" is guaranteed to stick in your skull and drive you crazy for weeks; the rudeboy anthem "Sammy Come a Jail" is the most perfect imitation of late-'60s Jamaican ska ever made on the North American continent; "All-Nite Dinah" is a delicious, greasy, organ-based instrumental; and "Cooper Station Blues," which closes the album, recounts the difficulties Murray had convincing Moon label head Rob Hingley to release the album.
Here's "Ex-Darling":
Richard Davies - There's Never Been A Crowd Like This
Pretty good chamber pop
