You know that this attitude and your "feelings" are exactly what turns a lot of women off, right?

There really is zero certainty of that.

Twilightkid, here ya go.



Gordon Gano's Army - S/T (2008)

Jangle-punk from England.

One of the great country harmonica players, Raney also qualifies as as one of the most important harmonica players in the history of American pop, as he was one of the first musicians of any sort to fuse country and blues. This 16-cut collection in effect functions as a best-of, including the big hits "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me," "Lost John Boogie," and "Jack and Jill Boogie." Despite what the title might lead you believe, it's not exactly rural country-folk--it's hard-driving early country boogie with a decidedly urban influence. With the Delmore Brothers on backup, "Jack and Jill Boogie" in particular sounds like proto-rockabilly, with lengthy back-and-forth guitar exchanges that are about as close to White rock 'n' roll as anyone got in 1948. Despite the no-frills package (even a bit of historical information and liner notes would have been nice), it's the best available anthology of this somewhat overlooked country and pop pioneer.

Box of Baby Birds

I didn't play on this album or the ensuing ep, but i did play on the ep after that, and he really knocks me out with his loving attention to detail in both writing and recording. Gary Calhoun James is no joke, at least in my book. If you like later Beatles psychedelia and with a folk pop Iron and Wine/Bon Iver sensibility, i think you'll dig this.

I dled pagan love and am digesting while i work. Sounds like Ben Hur meets West Side Story over a plate of spaghetti ala Lady and the Tramp at a Tiki bar on Gilligan's Island so far. I'll write something real after I listen more than a few times. I do love the tones they got on the orchestra. Recordings just don't sound like that anymore.

i was either going to recommend you the anna calvi album or royal bangs flux outside.

i'm down for anything.

i haven't heard either. i'll take both.

let me think for a minute.

In a world swamped by hyperbole, it’s often difficult to separate true artistic ability from well-orchestrated spin. Enter Anna Calvi, lazily touted as the ‘new PJ Harvey’, whatever that means. Despite only a handful of live shows to her name, Calvi was readily championed by Brian Eno and invited to tour with Nick Cave’s Grinderman. Three years in the making, her debut arrives fully-formed and it’s an instantly engaging body of work. Opener ‘Rider To The Sea’ teases the listener with its dreamy extended intro before Calvi’s evocative voice is heard for the first time.

The album’s key strength is honest, raw power. Calvi’s songs are poetic, free-flowing, often incorporating multiple styles that frame her distinctive and kaleidoscopic vocal range. Her exceptional talent is best appreciated on ‘The Devil’, a sparse cut, which sets her intense vocal delivery against howling guitar. A gifted musician, possessor of a unique voice and writer of inimitable songs, Calvi is already primed for greatness.

Flux Outside, the third LP from hyperkinetic Knoxvillians Royal Bangs, goes off like a wind-up toy, rattling through 50 genre-eradicating minutes before collapsing into a heap. Matching the spastic rush of math rock with the heft of 1970s arena-fillers and a bit of Tennessee-born Southern boogie, the Bangs' shapeshifting whiplash-prog certainly gets the blood going. And this surging LP is their most spirited, sense-assaulting work to date.

Every sound on Flux Outside-- and there are many, coming in from all angles-- gleams, buffed to an electroid sheen. Frontman Ryan Schafer, who produced the Bangs' previous LPs, turns over the production duties to ex-Sparklehorse member Scott Minor, with indie superproducer Dave Fridmann handling the mixing. Minor and Fridmann help deepen the band's drums and tease out some alluringly glitzy new textures without altering the dynamic scramble that powered 2009's fine Let It Beep. For all the instrumental bombardment, the Bangs manage to maintain order, never veering too far off course even when they're taking sharp curves at 100 MPH. The record's got a constant forward motion, and its 50 minutes seem to zip by in double-time.

The Bangs' greatest strength isn't so much the almost mechanistic turn-on-a-dime cohesion of their future rock, but how they manage to wrangle their pristine assault into appealing shapes. Highlight "Silver Steps" zig-zags its way into a rousing straightahead chorus, and while "Bull Elk" comes on like a tornado, Schafer shouts out its hook from the eye of the storm. For all its alien textures, Flux Outside is a generous, sweaty, markedly human record, powered as much by groovy southern-rock melodies as the steely synth shrapnel that seems to jut out from everywhere. It's a rare thing indeed to hear a musical unit nail that midpoint between those frequently oppositional tendencies time and again. Still, there are times when the fast-moving currents in the Royal Bangs sound cause them to barrel through their hooks, lessening their impact and causing the distinctions between one ripcord track to the next to blur a bit. But the Bangs seem to place every drum stutter, keyboard whirr, and Schafer howl on equal footing, a nice testament to the tightness and democracy of their musical unit, so pushing the songwriting further to the forefront could come at the risk of toppling the delicate balance the not-so-delicate Flux Outside achieves. May they never learn to sit still.

My chasing of a mighty conger eel caused me to miss out on this. Could i reserve a place if you have a second round, please.

Regardless I'm checking out the Honky Tonk! record.

roach, you up for teaming up with Dumpjack? you guys can recommend stuff to each other.

For Fryxell:

Huckleberry Flint - Good Night Darling

I don't really know anything about you or your tastes, so I chose an album I'm almost positive you nor no one here knows, because it is from a "local" band from when I went to college. They're an amazing band though. It's old timey string band music, collection of originals and covers, but whereas a lot of these string band revivalists try to basically do "rave ups" or really play some tough edge, Huckleberry Flint is pretty gentle and well...pretty. I love the vocalist, especially and think the band deserves wider recognition. You can be the judge though!

Thank you.

Have you heard the new Fucked Up record?

When their debut Five Roses came out in 2007, Miracle Fortess were still a largely unknown group. In fact, they weren’t even a group (yet), but rather the solo project of Graham Van Pelt, a member of Montreal dance-pop group Think About Life. Nevertheless, the album quickly struck a chord with the press, making its way onto the Polaris Prize shortlist mere weeks after its release. It struck a chord here, too: Five Roses is, without hesitation, one of this writer’s favourite albums, ever. Its feedback-drenched guitars and '60s pop melodies combined to create something truly special.

So, naturally, after such a long gap between albums, any fan would be apprehensive about something new. Thankfully, despite taking what seemed like forever to come out, Miracle Fortress’ new album Was I The Wave? was worth waiting every second. Whereas the first album owed much to Brian Wilson, the new batch of songs takes more from another Brian. Yes, Brian Eno’s imprint is all over this album, whether it’s one of his vocal works like Another Green World (which Van Pelt takes cues from in the brilliant sequencing of the record, with songs split up by lovely instrumentals), or ambient affairs (opening track "Awe" sounds like a lost cut off of Cluster & Eno).

While Five Roses had more straight up pop songs, Was I... satisfies in other ways. As mentioned before, it's obvious that a lot of care went into the album's song cycle. The album's most challenging (but excellent) songs make up the first half of the album, while all the real earworms start on Side B (think of it as the opposite of David Bowie's Low). Still, it's an effective strategy. As soon as it's done, you're going to want to flip that record and start over, guaranteed.