This Nation's Saving Grace

Well, political bloggin is annoying me right now, I can't find a good way to talk about the mix of dismay and satisfaction I feel about certain things... plus the whole 'cutting up a guy's balls is a State Sekrit" thing makes me want to eat a bullet, so on to better stuff...

eMusic is refreshing to me, because not only are they an affordable source of digital music, the people running it are quite obviously music lovers. I have long been accustomed to being able to read a review and get a pretty good feel for whether i would like it or not, and have few reservations about spending money on music based on words I trust. I met the Mekons that way, among others. The new World, where you can actually hear snippets of these songs before buying and downloading is just that much better.

3Bulls, for all their weirdness and strange ways, have sent me on several such excursions. They are, FWIW, more reliable than Pitchfork.

As are the reviewers at emusic. I got an email recently, talking about best new releases so I checked a few out.

And this one knocked me on my undead ass.



It sounds like Yo La Tengo jamming with the Hold Steady. After stealing Eleventh Dream Day's guitars. This song hits a VU groove from the first bars, and just builds off of that.

It's low-fi, but there are some fine subtle touches like the near-steel guitar underlying counterpoint. The vox are the kind of thing I just love, probably because it sounds like the kind of thing I could sing. I am all about the DIY. OK, maybe I couldn't do the higher range vocals, but I could strangulate them.

I haven't had too much of a chance to check out the rest of this album yet, because this song makes me feel sad and lonely and strong and stubborn and ready to beat my head against the wall until the wall falls down and if I listened to it first thing in the morning every day I would be a better more realized person.

If I could write songs, I think this is what they would sound like.

Recommended. Go get it.