It appears I have a different version of slowcore monger than the one LooGar reviewed a while back. I'm not complaining because this is pretty great. Might be the best mix you've ever sent me. So here goes:

1. Greg Brown - Small Dark Movie 4.5/5

I like just about everything about this, and am wondering why I know nothing about him. You're off to a great start here. Tell me more about him and what I need to pick up.

2. Trespassers William - Lie in the Sound 4/5

Another strong song. There were so many female led folk pop bands in the 80's that were enjoyable to listen to but were so easily forgotten ten minutes after listening to them. This ** sounds a bit ** like some of them but its not forgettable. There's something here that were lacking in those bands. It might be the piano or the slight twang or both, but I'm digging this. I've seen their name around as playing around LA alot lately. I'm going to have to catch them.

3. Bob Schneider - 2002 3.5/5 I like this album alot but this isn't one of my favorites from it. Has he ever done anything remotely as good as Lonelyland? I bought a few other albums of his or projects of his and they were pretty bad.

4. Chris Mills - Don't Be Crushed 4.5/5 I have three of his albums which I like but don't love, but not this one. I like this a lot more than the ones I have though. One of my biggest turnoffs about a lot of the current indie rock is how overly crowded the instrumentation is. I'm really attracted to the sparseness of this with the light piano and just the right touch of orchestral effects. Is the whole album this good?

5. Oh Susannah - Billy 4/5 Wow you're really on a roll here. Again, I love the understated piano. The thing I'm loving about this mix so far is how well the music suits the vocals.

6. NQ Arbuckle - The Autumn Leaves 4/5 I dig it. I have a feeling this mix is going to be a very costly one. You're going to have to warn me if you've pulled some great tracks off of any so-so albums.

7. Hadacol - Drive All Night 4/5 This is one of the few songs from the mix that I already owned. Hadacol are very underrated. I just don't get why stuff like Old 97's and Ryan Adams is popular but this isn't. Its so much better.

8. Dog's Eye View - Dodge 3.5/5 I started this one out at 4/5 and downgraded it to 3.5/5. I'm not sure whether its the whistling that I'm not crazy about or whether I'm just tired of typing 4. Still I like it. Where the hell do you find this stuff Radcliffe?

9. Slim Dunlap - Nowhere's Near 3.5/5 I would have thought Slim was the one Replacement whose side work I could safely ignore. I guess not. I suspect that I like this more in the context of the mix though than I would on its own.

10. The Bicycle Thief - Its Raining (4AM) -5/5 - I really really like this one. The guy's voice is great and the harmonies are fantastic. Best song so far. I was briefly excited thinking I may own this and had just unfairly ignored it but I checked my collection and it was a band called "Bicycle" not "Bicycle Thief" that I have. This is a band you're a big fan of right? I just ordered this, but What else do you recommend by them?

11. Thelonius Monster w/ Tom Waits - Adios Longue - 4.5/5 A great follow-up. I don't know much about Thelonius Monster but I like this. I'm just wondering if I'd like them without Waits. I guess I don't see why not. Strangely enough as I was ordered the bicycle thief on half.com, it recommended a thelonius monster album to me.

12. Robbie Fulks - Real Money 3.5/5 This is my first exposure to Robbie Fulks. I like it. Nice organ and guitar on this one.

13. Steve Wynn - The Blue Drifter 4/5 Nice sax. Steve Wynn's a guy that I usually like all the song parts for, but just don't think they coalesce together into great songs. That's not true here though. I really like this. Sadly, I looked to see what album this is one and found that its from Kerosene Man that I onced owned and traded in. Did I make a mistake?

14. Art Bergmann - Sleep 4/5 This sounds very familiar, yet I'm quite sure that I've never heard it before. Either way, I like it. Again, nice understated piano.

15. Throneberry - Nectarine 5/5 I recognize the name throneberry but I think this is my first exposure. I like just about everything about this - the singer's raspy voice, the understated hooks, the bluesy guitar, the organ, and most of all how it all fits together so perfectly. Tell me more.

16. Deadstring Brothers - Where Are All My Friends? - 5/5 Rollicking good alt-country. I hear traces of The Band, early Wilco, John Strohm and Dolly Varden. This is pretty great. What's the track from...looking at AMG, I see two albums neither of which have this unless my skim reading is letting me down again.

17. The Walkabouts w/ Mark Lanegan - 4.5/5 Another one I like a lot. This is such a better fit for Lanegan than the Isobel Campbell pairing. I also dig the organ here a bunch. I have the Walkabouts "Ended up a stranger" which didn't make much of an impression on me. I'll have to pull it out for another listen soon. This seems much better. Is this the only track lanegan guests on? Is the whole album as strong?


A lot of great songcraft on this mix. Slowcore monger or just the beauty of simplicity. Scary thing is I think this mother is going to improve with age. This is a rare exchange mix that works both as a great sampler/introduction to some great lesser known artists and a strong cohesive listen on its own merits. I think this one is going to be in the billy g rotation for a while. Thanks again Radcliffe. I still haven't listened to the other one yet sent but I'll get on that one soon too.

BILLY, this looks like a combo of Slowcore Monger Vols. 1 and 2

That Deadstring Bros is from Bloodshot Comp "A Decade of Sin"
Their album "Starving Winter Report" is getting lots of board pub from me and Dumpjack.

yeah I remembered seeing someone pimping the deadstring bros but never read the threads.

Looks like it pulls more from monger 2 cause I was going to just bump your review thread from #1 but there was only two songs in common.

The monger theme to the mix hasn't fully hit me. I've only listened to it twice so I'm thinking as the lyrics really start to hit home this thing is going to take on a new life.

And reading your review now, I also can totally relate to that 4am wired and tired at the same time feeling with the start of a hangover before you even go to sleep. You know that its going to be a bad one and are very tempted just to keep on drinking to forestall its effects but know at the same time that's going to just eventually make it worse and that if you do continue its going to be on your own because its 4am and everybody's asleep. Even at my advanced age, I too often still don't possess the wisdom just to go to sleep.

mine's different than yours too, billy... (shakes head as she realizes she has many mixes yet to review)

Wow! Thanks for the review, Billy - that was a great read.


Yeh, I took off a couple songs from the "official" slowcore monger II mix because I figured you probably already had them (I think it was "Heavy Heart" by You Am I and "Plane" by Scott 4, maybe another one as well) - and I substituted tracks from the original slowcore monger mix (that Loogs reviewed).

This might be a good time to admit that nobody received the exact same mix from me in this exchange. I just can't seem to commit to a final mix. It's a weakness, a quirk, a fatal flaw in my character. That, and there's too many good tunes out there.


I don't know a hell of a lot about him either. I do know that he started out as a children's entertainer - and there's a whole catalogue of his music to avoid unless you're starting a new family. I've got two "adult" albums by him (Slant 6 Mind and Further In) and they're both equally great. He's backed up by Bo Ramsey (who's since been poached by Lucinda Williams) on them, and sounds like a cross between Dylan, Van Morrison, and early Tom Waits. This song is from Further In.


As far as I know he never got anywhere close to Lonelyland, although his latest album has had some lukewarm reviews that mostly complain about it being too eclectic, so maybe it's worth a listen. I've never seen it though.


Yes. The album is called Silver Line and it might be one of the most criminally ignored albums to ever come out of Chicago. "Don't Be Crushed" is a cover of a Hawksley Workman song.


I put this album (Last Supper In A Cheap Town) on my '05 top 20, but that really only says how few '05 releases I actually heard. It's got about a half dozen songs as good as this one and an equal amount that don't quite scale the same heights.


This one came from Sweet Relief II - A Benefit for Vic Chesnutt, one of the better tribute albums out there (not that the competition is too stiff). I would've used the Vic original, but the sound levels were too low to make an easy transition - plus it's always driven me crazy how Vic screws up the wording on his own chorus.


I've got two Slim Dunlap solo albums, and they're both as good as anything Westerberg has released post-Mats (but that might be damning him with faint praise). Slim has that lazy just-behind-the-beat Keith Richard-style riff down cold, so if you like that sound the albums are worth picking up. Just don't expect more than a 3/5 though.


The Bicycle Thief disc is a solo album by Bob Forrest, who is the frontman/singer/songwriter of Thelonious Monster. I think he's only managed to scrape together enough money to put out the one solo album - but I hope he shoots for the moon one more time at least. I think he's one of America's finest living songwriters, and it's tragic that he makes a living by waiting on tables. His most recent release was the Thelonious Monster reunion album California Clam Chowder (there's a thread about it somewhere on Obner) - and that might be their best album overall. "Adios Lounge" is from Beautiful Mess, which is aptly titled (but contains some absolutely killer moments - and would probably suit the billy g tastebuds best).


Wynn reminds me these days of Chuck Prophet, in that his albums seem unimpressively conventional until that one day when I'm in the right mood and then BAM - it hits me - and I think "how the fuck did I not hear this?" Kerosene Man has some great stuff on it - though not much matches "The Blue Drifter" IMO.


Art Bergmann used to be described as Canada's Iggy Pop (the main difference between the two these days is that Iggy makes a living in music and Art paints houses). He was the mainman of the Young Canadians (nee The K-Tels), whose song "(Let's Go To Fuckin') Hawaii" was on that early Radcliffe Vancouver mix.


There was an Obner thread that mentioned these guys and it made me dig out the album again. They were signed in the post-Nirvana major label frenzy and always reminded me of the Afghan Whigs. I don't know what happened to them after this album (Trot Out The Encores) commercially fizzled - but they just disappeared.


LooGAR got it right. That Bloodshot sampler is pretty great.


This came from Satisfied Mind, which is the Walkabout' covers album. Lanegan is only onboard for this Charlie Rich track. They also do Nick Cave's "Loom Of The Land", Robert Forster's "River People". Gene Clark's "Polly", "John Cale's "Buffalo Ballet", Mary Margaret O'Hara's "Dear Darling", Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side Of Town", Patti Smith's "Free Money (with Ivan Kral on guitar), and the title track. All of 'em done in that Walkabouts style of gothic Americana. Yeh. It's worth a purchase.


Awesome. Glad you're liking it, Billy. And I'm also glad it's intro'd a few bands to you - I was worried that wouldn't be possible.

Just a note: I still havent listened to Slowcore Monger II nearly enough but I've been listening to Vol. I quite a bit in the last week and it still floors me.

I gotta get a copy of "Tower of Monger" from Loogs.