Music

Once again I find myself with a stack of CDs waiting to be reviewed. I'll try to knock off a couple right now.

One thing I noticed when I started to listen to Boot Liquor* was that certain songs and certain artists get played a lot. One song that kept coming on (although, come to think of it, I haven't heard it lately) is a live version of "Robot" by The Devil Makes Three. It is an unbelievably catchy song—so much so that I found myself downloading the single from Amazon. And then I bought their self-titled studio CD(which doesn't contain that song). The band consists of two men on guitar and a woman on stand-up bass. That's it. The sound is "a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n roll," with plenty of punk attitude throw into the mix. I can't get enough. Apparently their concerts are big-time fun, and I think it's safe to say that I'd love to party with these three. You can hear a few tunes here.

I really miss Salon's Audiofile feature; I even stopped being a premium subscriber when they discontinued it. (I'll show them!) One song I fell in love with there was "Sycamore" by Bill Callahan (you can download it for free—legally—here). I'd never heard of him, but it turns out he is the artist formerly known as Smog. (I still never heard of him.) I ended up liking it so much that I got the whole CD, "Woke on a Whaleheart." (Any thoughts on what that title could possibly mean?) So far none of the songs has resonated with me quite as much as "Sycamore"—although, to be fair, I haven't had a chance to listen very much yet—but I'm enjoying it overall. I really like his voice and the kind of twangy guitar sound.

*And, not for nothing, but they promised to post a photo of me wearing my SomaFM T-shirt; I've sent it twice and still haven't seen it yet. Wah.