Junkyard Speed Ball: Left Lane Cruiser. Guitar/drums duo that smokes the Black Keys. Much dirtier and more original.
Hauschka & Hildur Guonadittur: Pan Tone. Out quasi-classical ambient acoustic cello/piano+ recording.
Earth: Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light Do you know how hard it is to get that beautiful, rolling distorted guitar tone? Very hard is the answer.
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears: Full on rock/soul onslaught. Best soul band in the nation, imho.
Bing Ji Ling: Shadow to Shine. A 1970′s KCsunshine-EarthWindFire-SlyStone smoothie. The recording sounds great.
Sorry Bamba Volume 1 1970-1979: I love the guitar driven African music.
Strong efforts:
Agesandages: Alright You Restless. Creative music for cubicle dwellers. Part Broadway musical, part jam band.
David Lowery: The Palace Guards. Buy this instead of those Wilco records. Literate American music.
Deerhoof: If you dig the basic precepts of indie music (which I don’t) then you have to have this record. Quirky as shit and creative and musical.
