The road to hell

The truth is I have way more music to recommend than time or inclination to write about it. So some of the tracks I'm about to post would, in a better world (one in which I didn't have a job that sucked the love of words right out of me), be accompanied by insightful, incisive prose, prose that made you not only hear the song in question differently, but music, hell, all sounds, in an entirely new way. Really! When I choose to be, I am that powerful.

Anyway, understand the following as a list of my good intentions:

The Left Garden - Born Heller
Originally slated for my unpatriotic July 4th post (I didn't even bother to wish anyone a happy Independence Day, but only because I totally forgot). In the sense that Josephine Foster, with her avian chirps and warbles, is a wonderfully eccentric vocalist, inclusion in that post would have have thematic logic in its column. But if you listen to this track ... it's an English folk song, isn't it? Not literally, but can't you just imagine Vashti Bunyon singing it? Still, too pretty not to share. From the self-titled album (US, UK).

Cuckoo - The Archie Bronson Outfit
Even though I posted one of their songs a few weeks ago, I intended to write a record review of The Archie Bronson Outfit's Derdang Derdang (US, UK). Truly I did. I was planning to talk about the fact that the band shares a record label (Domino) with Clinic and that its shared sympathies (60s garage rock, stalking guitars, spit-stammered vocals, general creepiness) with its higher-profile labelmate probably does it no favors. But that ultimately the comparison is unfair because Clinic is obviously about death and TABO is inarguably about sex. For whatever reason, this record still hasn't been released in the States (looks like July 25), but it's one of the best of the year.

Surrender - Aaron Hill & The Crimson Guard
I was raised to be a gracious hostess, so far be it from me to contradict one of SYF's guests. But when David included "Misanthrope" on his personal list of one-hit wonders and I went to Aaron Hill's Web site and downloaded another little swoon-worthy bedroom disco number, I had to speak up. Or I guess I should say, I should have spoken up. Or, um, I'm saying something now. I think. What was my point? (Incidentally, I only realized later after visiting Hill's Myspace that we appear to share an alma mater. No undue influence, I assure you.)

Hail Mary - Shearwater
I meant to berate people earlier in the week. Shearwater played The Beat Kitchen last Saturday and nobody came. WTF Chicago? Hey, I know it was a holiday weekend and that Shearwater was co-headlining with a band that, uh, let's just say, isn't worthy of sharing the bill with them. But the place was virtually deserted. Not that I'm going to complain about getting nice and close to the stage or about the fact that their set included many of the songs off the most beautiful album of the year, closing with "Hail Mary." I've sort of cycled though loving various songs on Palo Santo (US, UK), but that's my current favorite.

Spoiled - Sebadoh
Not that I was going to say a lot about the fact that Sebadoh III is being reissued. But it is. And I was surprised it had ever gone out of print, being a personal watershed and all. "Spoiled" is still chilling in its cool ambivalence. If you don't already own this album, ink August 8 on your calendar.