Keep Me Here

So far I pretty much liked everything Meg Baird came up with a lot, be it her work with neo-folkies Espers, her acoustic solo output, or her role as the singing drummer in Heron Oblivion. Not so sure  about her new collaboration with harpist Mary Lattimore yet though. Too ethereal perhaps? Too vague? Here's hoping it's a grower.

Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore - Painter Of Tygers

At The Heron House

Pay attention, my followers of chaos. San Francisco's Heron Oblivion is a band to watch alright. All members, of which the lovely Meg Baird of Espers fame is probably best known, did their time in the underground already, so we're talking something like a true indie supergroup here. If out of control noise-folk sounds like your thing, lend them your ears.

Heron Oblivion - Your Hollows

...And Queens

"Playing with the queen of hearts, knowing it ain't really smart..." As I tend to keep my promises, here's part 2 of a royal megamix. Enjoy and buy some albums if you like what you hear ok?

Dave Edmunds - Queen Of Hearts MP3

The Birthday Party - King Ink MP3
Sparklehorse - Homecoming Queen MP3
Cannibal & The Headhunters - Zulu King MP3
Palace Songs - Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow MP3
Elvis Costello - King Of America MP3
Julie Brown - The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun MP3
Espers - Dead King MP3
Tav Falco's Panther Burns - Tina, The Go-Go Queen MP3
Junior Byles - King Of Babylon MP3

One Bird, Two Lists

If Americana, alt-country or whatever you may call it is your thing, do head over to the Bird List, where thirty of the ´web´s leading aficionados of twanglike music´ picked the best albums of the year. I participated as well, but my list didn´t make much of an impact on the final outcome I guess. Oh well. Maybe I´m just not twang enough.

For the record, here´s my personal top 15 of 2009 as submitted to the Bird List´s totally cool politburo. On the whole, I wasn´t too impressed with what I heard this year to be honest. Quite a few great songs, but not too many consistently great albums. Cool with me though, as that gave me the time to discover tons of amazing older stuff to keep me busy. More about that in a later post.

For The Sake Of The Song´s fave albums of 2009:

1. Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
2. Bonnie Prince Billy & The Picket Line - Funtown Comedown
3. Bob Dylan- Together Through Life
4. Son Volt - American Central Dust
5. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - s/t
6. Molina & Johnson - s/t
7. Espers - III
8. Port O´Brien - Threadbare
9. King Creosote - Flick The Vs
10. Drive-By Truckers - The Fine Print
11. Iron & Wine - Around The Well
12. Simon Joyner - Out Into The Snow
13. Bowerbirds - Upper Air
14. The Western States - Bye And Bye
15. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

Which brings us to the moment you´ve all been waiting for: today´s soundtrack, featuring a few choice cuts from my personal hitlist.

Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2 MP3

Molina & Johnson - Twenty Cycles To The Ground MP3

Espers - Caroline MP3

Drive-By Truckers - George Jones Talkin´ Cell Phone Blues MP3

The Western States - The Water Remembers My Face MP3