Born Ruffians - "Sole Brother"

My grandfather is a bit senile and will often call me up and just start singing. Huge long songs that have no discernible consistency, no melody that I can follow, the one thing they are for sure is impenetrable. He barely takes a breath, there's no room to speak on my end at all. So after a few minutes of singing, I will get bored, and either join in, or just talk over it, shout over it, anything to try and break through. He often just sings on oblivious, but one time I was shouting so loud and so boldly that he went quiet, a hush on the line. I paused, listened, nothing. So again I started screaming and he hung up. [Pre-Order]

The Howling Hex - "Apache Energy Plan"

Found, half-buried in dirt, near a tree, a tape with the title "MEGA N JAMS". Unsure if this title means "mega and jams" which could be the names of the people who made it or a misunderstood deeper meaning, or possibly a poorly kerned "Megan Jams" which would probably be Megan's jams. In any case, the tape starts with a voicemail from a nurse saying, "We need to inform you that you are suffering from an unnamed infection and we need you to call to make an appointment". Then "Apache Energy Plan" kicks in, and so starts the greatest tape I ever found. It has a weather report predicting sunny for the next 5 days (tape was recorded on a Thursday) it has what sounds like a dog breathing for about a minute, and an Agent Orange song that starts skipping halfway through. It has Paul Newman singing from Cool Hand Luke, that drum solo from Taxi Driver, and the first three songs from Jesus Christ Superstar. Then it finishes with "Tracks of My Tears", literally the song reaches exactly to the end point of the tape. For something so haphazard sounding, it was really well planned. [Buy]

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Saw Adam & the Amethysts tonight, they played with a fire and class that I heartily enjoyed, despite having had two guitars stolen. And after them, Little Scream. Little Scream is hands-down the best live act I've seen since Tune-Yards almost three years ago. She is working on a recording now, but let's all join hands and anticipate the next great record for this year.

(image via Patricia, Ruffians via Sean, Hex via Tom, thanks all!) (have a great weekend!)