Belladonna

Image: Nesta

Half an Apple - Hospitality
Despite a "you" address, this song is an internal monologue, a desperate reach for fleeting thoughts and places buzzing by -- wading boots, pennies, traffic on the bridge, half an apple to eat while you wait. With flesh not brown and grainy like that of every other cracked-open pomme in this world, but as white and crisp as the second you sliced it on a scarred wooden board at half past eight this morning. In all the blur and flux, this half apple is a still point, a portal. And the song...it could be a Woolf novel. It could be from anytime in the last 60, oh 70 years.

You can download a few more Hospitality songs at their Myspace.

The Gift of Song in the Lion's Den - The Lord Dog Bird
Within every noisy psych-art-rock guitarist is trapped a 4-track bedroom taper. Meet Colin McCann, also of Wilderness. Here, his playing, the production, is appropriately humble, but his subject and melody strain at the leash, yearning for the volley of reverb, the fury of drums, a big booming mania of vocals. Within every 4-track bedroom taper is trapped a noisy psych-art-rock guitarist.

The self-titled album will be released in August (pre-order from Amazon). And if you don't already own it, pick up a copy of Wilderness' first record (Amazon, eMusic). It's phenomenal.