Edith Frost - "What's The Use". "I gotta be a man / about it," Edith sings. She's not very happy about this. And while the song canters along, plum notes and a plum melody, like a plum all round, a plum a horse might eat, well Edith sings drily. She's so unamused that the only response is a joke. She's got a country blues but ain't gonna waste time thinking about it. No - here's the problem: You. Me. We.*

* Yes, that is a title of a movie. But it's also the name of the look Edith will give you if you try to do that again. Or the look she will give her horse, the one with the plum, when she's standing at the edge of town and a streetcar screetches past and she decides that She Must Go.

[pre-order, read edith's weblog, and/or grab more mp3s]

The Baptist Generals - "Diminished". I am tired and my head aches. Maybe it's a toothache, maybe it's dehydration. Maybe it's heartburn, or heartache, and I'm just confused. Maybe I grind my teeth when I sleep. Maybe I'm allergic to Martha Wainwright, even if I was just at the show to review it. I don't know. But in late 2005, on the nights when things are wrong, on the mornings when things are wrong, at dawn or dusk or the early afternoon, "Diminished" is the best song in the universe. I say this with only the tiniest flicker of exaggeration. I think the best thing about growing older is that you discover old songs and then realise the world is wider than you thought, that there was a song somewhere living in parallel with you.

While I sat waiting for the metro last winter, eyes closed, listening to Final Fantasy's "Please Please Please" because it was the best I could find, this song was weaving through cornfields on its way to me. On that afternoon six years ago when the sky was purple-pink and I yelled, just yelled at someone on the bus, this song hadn't been recorded yet - but in someone's mind's eye, in their sad-sack heart, it was pacing through an empty green village, looking at the old gravestones, the closed grocer's shop. It was there for me, had I but known it.

Of all the bands who I fell in love with for the first time this year, the Baptist Generals are the only ones who didn't release anything in 2005. Or in 2004. No Silver No Gold is from the heady days of 2003. (Popsheep introduced them to me in May.) You might hear Okkervil River or Neil Young, Herman Dune or Will Oldham. Or maybe a little Daniel Johnston. Or none of the above. The optimists can listen to "Going Back Song", but tonight I'm an acheing pessimist who wants to listen to "Diminished": to the bass-drum thump and the singer's humble words, to the organ's heartbreaking sigh, and yeah, to the bass. The upright bass that's got its heart broken and picked itself up, that's got its heart broken and picked itself up, that's got its heart broken and picked itself up and is now walking hand-in-hand with its pals, the ones who are still picking themselves up, because the upright bass is the kindest friend in the world.

[buy]

Kathryn has promised me that they are working on an album - but can I believe her?!

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Apparently Jordan's computer has died. We are all hoping that this will prove to be a mistake and not a calamity, but it may be a calamity. Pour out a drink for him, this evening.