After hosting (or, co-hosting, as it were) that Monkey Mix I, true to my word, loaded up on a lot of suggestions.
Here are my super brief thoughts:
Elliott Brood – Mountain Meadows – Excellent. Death Country. High energy. Like …and You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead, only with melodies and a point of view. Get it.
Brian Borcherdt – Coyotes – Minimalist to a fault. This very quiet and dark album from the Canadian Borcherdt is better served to our mood. This is NOT light Sunday driving music. However, if you’ve just lost a loved one, or killed a loved one, or are driving all alone on a lonely highway in the middle of the night, this might be the perfect album for you.
Jon-Rae & The River – Knows what you Need – Holy Hell! This is a barn-burning, gospel tinged, big rock, barn-burning great time rekkid!
There isn’t a clunker on this beast. If you like a little country-tinge in your rock, but a little fire in the belly and a lotta fire down below, this is the album for you.
Get it. Get it now. (my facebook review)
The Whigs – Mission Control – Fan-flipping tastic Indie Rock. No, not that Twee shit you think of when you hear Indie. This stuff really pounds.
Final Fantasy – Has a Good Home – Terrible band name. Melodic, if precious violin-centric music.
The Thermals – Now We Can See – Not as good as their previous outing but still pretty tight. If you start here you won’t be disappointed. But you should start with The Body, The Blood & the Machine.
The Veils – Sun Gangs – Might be my new favorite. Moody, almost dystopian at times. Unrelenting.
Tinted Windows – Tinted Windows – Uninspired power pop from 4 people who could do a lot better.
What the…? – You Have No Idea – Neat little 3 chord power pop from Georgia. A rollicking good album.
No links. I got most of this from eMusic. Some from iTunes. Some from elsewhere. You should seek it out yourself. If you get one, make it the Jon-Rae & the River. Or Mountain Meadows. I’m in a roots rock mood.
Looks as though I am going to have to go cd shopping posthaste! First step will be checking out the Veils, the Whigs and the Thermals. I strongly suspect that they will hit the spot with me, based on your very astute reviews of the albums that I already know.
Like it or not, you are now one of my go-to people for music analysis. Great reviews!