The Antlers – Hospice – From French Kiss Records. Songs begin quietly with nice buildups and intensity threaded in. Not bad but I can’t imagine when I would ever listen to this again.
John Fogerty – The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again – A real enjoyable country album from the dude from the guy who gave us the Bayou swamp. Fiddles, peddle steels, the Eagles and Springsteen – what more could you want? All kidding aside, Fogerty is pretty underrated as a songwriter and artist between CCR and aspects of his solo career. The dude can write a song with the best of them (and play them). I’d venture that he’s in the top ten best living songwriters. But ironically this album is mostly covers including songs by John Prine, Delaney & Bonnie, Buck Owens, John Denver and one by the Everly Bros which Springsteen is on.
Sharon Van Etten – Because I Was In Love – pretty folk album with well written songs. I just checked her website and noticed she has recently played or is playing shows with some artists I really enjoy (Meg Baird, Speck Mountain, Great Lake Swimmers, Alela Diane, Hanne Hukkelberg).
Sparklehorse + Fennesz – In The Fishtank #15 – The In The Fishtank series is a pretty cool thing. It usually pairs together two or three groups who combine their superpowers to make magical music. Some previous pairings are Low + Dirty Three, Isis & Aereogramme, The Black Heart Procession + Solbakken, and Willard Grant Conspiracy + Telefunk. Tortoise, Sonic Youth, and Karate have also particiapted. Fennesz is a laptop dude and Sparklehorse is Mark Linkous. #15 like a few other volumes is fun because you can listen and try and discern which artist did what and to whom. The results here are pretty trippy.
Monsters of Folk – S/T – This is Jim James, M Ward, Mike Mogis, and Conor Oberst. The music is what one would kind of expect: a blend of the styles of these guys. I don’t like these guys being billed as the Traveling Wilburys part 2 which I bet is not the fault of the band members but the music press. If your telling me anyone in this band is this generation’s version of Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Tom Petty or Bob Dylan please kill me. I totally respect Jim James and feel he has a ton of potential but he’s not at the level yet. Maybe one of the other guys in Monsters of Folk is Jeff Lynn from ELO. I don’t know. You decide but that comparison to the Wilburys has to stop.
