Our Rams to Admire at the Natural History Museum of LA County photo by frogafish Okay, last week new release list was a wasteland, but this week's collection of new albums will be kicking your wallet's butt. Just take a look at Largehearted Boy 's list. Big names are Spoon and Interpol, of course. Can't get out of the store without those. But what about Nick Drake's collection of rarities, Family Tree ? Or a long time coming but well worth the wait Buffalo Tom release? The [...]
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I've collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their "song obsessions of the week." Quite often it's easy to explain why the song is good; it's much hard to explain why we're obsessed. Maybe you'll become obsessed with one of these. Lots of people are moving and changing various things in their life this week so it's a small selection this time. [...]

Oh, I was so lucky to get to spend Friday night seeing Feist . She is a completely charming and talented performer (not just a musician, as my friend Leora noted --"Are you gonna quote me on your blog?"-- after the show). Feist really knows how to engage and enchant the crowd, but she also wields that guitar fearlessly, gets her vocal loops going, dances around in bliss to the crashing drums, and manages to be fashionable all at the same time (brown mini dress, hot pink tights). The new songs [...]

Pitchfork tipped us off to Jason Isbell's upcoming tour with Centro-matic . I wanted to hold off writing anything about Jason Isbell until his new album was closer to release, but teaming up with Centro-matic for a tour is too good to ignore. Jason also has some solo dates lined up, including tomorrow night at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago. Jason's album, Sirens of the Ditch , will be released on July 10th courtesy of New West Records . As an aside, this guy's myspace profile [...]
Jason Isbell's solo debut, Sirens Of The Ditch, is finally seeing its release July 10th on New West Records. We've been looking forward to this one for a long time, and after spinning the former Drive-by Truckers advance all weekend, it's proved well worth the wait. Fans of Isbell's DBT contributions, and Muscle Shoals leaning southern [...]

this is some very cool news. the day after his show at the 40 watt on july 9, jason isbell will be throwing the record release party for his solo debut, sirens of the ditch, at the earl in atlanta on july 10. from there he's got a shitload of dates spanning the country so check out his new site or myspace page for further details. one of my favorite records of the past couple of years is black mountains self titled debut. black mountain is [...]

if you are in the atlanta/athens area and plan on making your way over to athfest '07, 6.20 - 24, make sure you stick around until sunday to check out the drive by truckers who are playing on the main outdoor stage at 7 pm. check out the lineup for this years edition. in other dbt related news, jason and his band the 400 unit will be playing at the 40 watt on july 9. his debut sirens of the ditch is being released the next day on new west records [...]

Authors Note: I am getting out of Florida for a few days to do some mountain biking up in North Georgia. Regular posting will resume on May 22nd assuming I get through the weekend with no major injuries. Last month I posted the rejected songs to this comp. To paraphrase: I am a member of the International Mix Tape Project a global community of music-oriented souls that exchange monthly compilation tapes and CD-Rs. You can visit the site at www.InternationalMixtapeProjec t.com , then click on Rules to find out [...]

The Drive-By Trucker's are currently out on their The Dirt Underneath tour . The shows are all acoustic and are not coming anywhere near me here in Florida. Fortunately, the Truckers are a taper friendly band so I cruised over to the Digital Panic forums to grab me a copy of one of the shows. I ended up with a copy of the show they did on 04.28.07 at the Georgia Theater in Athens, Ga. I so wish this tour was making it to Florida. They sound great and are playing around 7 [...]