What I am Listening To (Because You Care)

Mid Year Music Update

Sooooo it is midyear and I have been listening to a lot of new things and not sharing it with anyone. I am such a shit. So in a bout of boredom with a healthy dose of self loathing let me tell you about some fun stuff out there, some of it new, some....not so much. iTunes is evolving or devolving the way I sample music. I follow two music sights on Twitter, Pitchfork and No Depression and I save the tweets with certain references to new bands. My tatstes as you know lean towards the twang but occasionally I venture out. Anyway, I get a tweet about a band, I go to iTunes and sample a song and if I like it I download a few of the most popular songs by the band. In so doing I have found some good stuff. the problem is that I do not always go back and buy the whole CD and so am probably missing a lot. These thoughts plague me at night.

Blind Pilot: "Three Rounds & A Sound": This band sounds like Bon Iver on steroids. if you do not get the reference don’t worry about this one. Download the song "The Story I Heard".

Cracker: "Sunrise In The Land": More funny well written songs with Johnny Hickman tearing it up on guitar. Adam Durvitz of the Counting Crows and Patterson Hood formerly of The Drive By Truckers assist on some songs. Countrier then some their stuff. The song "Darling One" sounds like classic Tom Petty. Creepy.

Rhett Miller: "Rhett Miller": It took him till his 3rd Cd to make one named after him and there is a reason he put his name on it. It kicks ass. It is too pretty for most people but the bot knows a hook, knows bad relationships and has a voice that I could listen to while he sang the phone book. Buy it. The whole thing.

We Were Promised Jetpacks: "These Four Walls": Furriners from Glasgow Scotland they are funny and rock a little. It is not quite as pretty as the band The Frames but is amped up more. The band name makes me smile.

Levon Helm: "Electric Dirt": More great, gritty performances by the former drummer of “The Band”. He does a cover of Randy Newman’s “Kingfish” but every song is good. It is late night music. Play it quietly and drink bourbon so you can sing like him.

Elvis Costello: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane: More great work by a genius. Once again in a country vein but the title track, “Changing Partners” and him covering his own song “Complicated Shadows” make it his best in several years.Buy it for yourself. Buy it out of respect for the artist, but buy it.

One song download necessities: William Elliot Whitmore: "Hell or High Water". Joe Pug: "Hymn 101".