The Blow - Paper Television - True Affection

I'm not sure what it is about this song today, except that a couple of years ago I lost a longstanding argument with a dear friend about whether anyone was truly "out of my league." Sure, not everyone is for everyone, and there may even be broad based "types" to which and by which one may be attracted, but ultimately she convinced me that no one was out of my league, per se. This has since gone well for me. The end.

The Be Good Tanyas - The Littlest Birds - The Littlest Birds

My journey around the edges of country music continues thusly:
I first became familiar with this song as a Jolie Holland tune off the original 89.3 The Current sampler. I always kind of liked it, and was seriously intrigued by Jolie Holland. I listened to more of her stuff, but I always had the feeling that her best stuff was around the next corner, you know?

And then finally, years later, I discovered The Be Good Tanyas. I'd heard the name before (one of my all time favorite band names, not that I'd ever given them a listen) It turns out they're the band that launched Jolie Holland. It turns out on the Current album she was just covering her old band, and I finally found what I had been looking for all that time. Maybe she's like Garfunkel: a fascinating voice, but without the guidance of those who got you there, it's just not the same.

This apparently original and vastly superior version of this song makes me want to dance naked in the woods late at night, though preferably without much of a crowd.

Emmylou Harris

Occupying the space next to Alison Krauss on the edge of country music (and on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, a bit more literally) is Emmylou Harris.

Nick Hornby here (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/01/13hornby.html) called her "the best harmony vocalist in the history of pop music," and in the context of Ryan Adams' Oh My Sweet Carolina, I can scarcely disagree. Lovely.

She demonstrates the same on a strangely-difficult-to-laugh-at version of the popularized-as-an-awful-junior-high-slow-dance classic "Love Hurts" with Gram Parsons, which according to Wikipedia was recorded the year before Nazareth's more famous (#1 in Norway! Thanks, Wikipedia!) version.

Anyway, she blends well at least. I'm less convinced by some of her solo stuff, particularly her unfortunate "No Regrets (Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien)," a mostly-English cover of the Edith Piaf song. Her French pronunciation deteriorates throughout the track until I find it unbearable.

Still, for all the bitchiness contained above, I think she's worth exploring. I'd like to hear her sing more hymns; "Wayfaring Stranger" is my favorite of her solo tracks thus far. Still, I suppose I say that about every artist, so take it for what you will.

Alison Krauss

So I've been listening to the edges of country music lately, trying to figure out what it is that makes some of these country sounds so damned appealing to me. I've waxed on about Patsy Cline and Neko Case enough, but I needed to point out Alison Krauss, whose voice is the most purely sweet that I've ever heard. Hers is the voice of every girl I loved when I was a child, if that makes any sense. Besides her well-known work on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, her best-known song is the cover "When You Say Nothing at All," and she just reminded me of the simple beauty of her voice in a track called "Get Me Through December."

All Girl Summer Fun Band

After Peter mentioned his pledge to marry them, I gave 'em a listen and decided they deserved their own proper recommendation. Listening to this band makes me feel sexy like roller derby does, or maybe it just makes me want to play dress-up.

PS- Last.fm describes them as 'twee'. I'd idly wondered what 'twee' was, and if this is twee, then count me in. Except the word 'twee' makes me feel vaguely dirty, at bit like the time that 19 yr old derby girl in a tube bra flirted with me at the bar before she punched the bartender. dirty.

Mates of State - Team Boo

Synth+Drums, husband and wife duo.  I told a friend at work that I didn't know anything by them, and the next day I had a stack of cds on my desk.  I explained that stack to someone else, and she said, "Peter, I have failed you." 

This album: The first song had the same dual vocals as Sleater-Kinney, so I thought it was nice.  Then at 1:25 I thought it was great.  Then at 1:45 I was in love with this album.

"This is the blood that we're made of
So tell it like a chronicle
Who's dancing all around?
Let's give it to me, give it to me now"

Then the second song starts in 3.  And it's great.

I would marry Mates of State, if they were not already married to each other.  And if I had not already pledged myself to marry All-Girl Summer Fun Band.

Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild Soundtrack

I've never been that into Pearl Jam after Ten.  I really dug it in high school.  Nothing else has hit me as an entire album, though i have liked many individual songs in the meantime.  This album however is complete and feels like it really belongs in the movie every time a song pops up.  Fantastic film, fantastic songs.  The best song is Hard Sun and features the chick from Sleater Kinney.  Very cool.

Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller

got an album at the library because of some songs on Pandora.  Really like it.  Library CD's are the best!

Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

Wow.  This album is fantastic.  There were no shows all winter except this one.  At the time, I didn't know much about them, liked the few songs I had heard, but it didn't make an enormous impact on me... and now i'm kicking myself about as hard as I know how for not going.  This album is amazing.  It kicks off with Is There a Ghost which is about the most powerful first song on an album for me since Sleeping Lessons by the Shins. Check it!

The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas

A guy records songs on a boombox.  Sometimes you can hear when he hits the stop button.  Sometimes the sound in one channel cuts out.  And ohmigod it's beautiful.  Let me direct you to the song "Jenny" on this album:

We were the one thing in the galaxy god didn't have his eyes on,
Nine hundred cc's of raw whining power
No outstanding warrants for my arrest
Goddamn, the pirate's life for me.

I've loved this guy for years and had no idea.  A while back I listened to the album "Protein Source of the Future...Now!" and was kind of taken.  Then I forgot about him.  My bad.