Alina Simone - "Prettier in the Dark". Simone's debut EP, Prettier in the Dark, is only two-toned, but those tones are silver and black. While she's got all the longing of Chan Marshall, these songs match that teary wistfulness with a snap and snarl. This approach has mixed precedents - PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, - but in her best songs, Simone succeeds utterly. There's something ephemeral that separates one kind of singer-songwriter (good) from another (bad): songwriting, or presence, or probably just spirit. When the drums pick up, the second guitar chimes in, when Alina Simone is singing a snatch of notes that she really loves, well - all that stuff's here. This is the music to shake up a melancholy night, to maybe shake it somewhere better. (via songs:illinois)

[alina's website / buy]

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Gareth Auden Hole - "Drink Up". It's tricky when I have friends who are musicians. And I do. A pal shares his or her stuff, knows about Said the Gramophone, and this sort of expectation hangs in the air. And while I've stuck to my guns here, never posted anything that didn't meet the quality expected, sometimes it's tense, tough, grim.

My friend Gareth makes it very, very easy.

"Drink Up" is fantastic. The song's been hammered, been torched, been hammered again. Its metal has been stretched, its gleams extended; the song's substance has been worked until it's long and deep and intricate enough to bear the music's feeling. And no more. Evoking The Microphones, Jim Guthrie, Calexico, Micah P Hinton, even early Smog, "Drink Up" moves slow, stares slow, cracks its chest open for a look at its longing. But it doesn't stop there. At the end of the second minute there's something else - there's passion. There's movement. There's the kisses, the birds, the space and the bliss. There's mandolin, there among the guitar and the words and the keening pedal steel. "For the wind may blow us off our heels / and the bird may drink us off our wheels / and the stars be safe from falling down." It's exciting, it's brightly sparkling. A desert's birdsong (literally). And then back to the dry, dry, dry life.

Gareth's not got anything to buy. He'll soon have a website thing I'll point to. He is newly arrived in Ottawa, however, and is looking for people to play music or start a band with. Share your comments or get in touch here.

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I am loving what Jose Gonzales (a sweet fellow) is doing with his new band, Junip. mp3s at the ever-essential catbirdseat.

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A mysterious source (Gramophone has "mysterious sources" now! Cool!) tells us that StG-faves Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! are signing to 4AD, and will later this year be touring Japan with The Pixies. You heard it here first (and perhaps last).

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Early notice - I'm going on holiday to Slovenia on Saturday (for two+ weeks), and will have patchy-if-at-all email, so please get in touch soon if you need to talk to me about anything. Cheers.