Mourning the Payphone

Been a long time since I spent a dime on a CD, but last night I spent close to fifty bucks. Picked up:

• Drag the River – Hobo’s Demo
• Jon Snodgrass – Visitor’s Band
• The Takers – Taker Easy
• Two Cow Garage – Please Turn the Gas Back On

from the folks over at Suburban Home Records. For five bucks a CD how could I go wrong – and there was enough free mp3’s on the site of the bands there was no way to go wrong anyway. Suburban’s latest post notes they have had a tough year, like a lot of small businesses, so if you have five extra dollars and are looking for something new, click on the link and head over.

Also picked up both Fox Hunt CD’s, one from CD Baby and the other from Big House Records.

Not sure what changed exactly. A little more time for listening and a little more time for digging into the dark corners of the alt country community on the ‘Net maybe. Either that or the stream is getting boring ;-)

Anyway, I threw in some Jeff Buckley on the stream till the new CD’s show up.

Anyone that listens to the Live365 stream I run can probably tell I am –still– a huge Replacements fan. Probably notice the heavy dose of Drag The River lately as well. So when Suburban Home Records is nice enough to leave a cover of the Replacement’s Can’t Hardly Wait from Drag the River available on their site, well, you can expect a mention here. You can get a copy here though while you’re at it best check out their whole summer comp.

I have not heard a lot of songs talking about what the recession has done to folks. From foreclosures to unemployment lines, it seems like there was dead silence. Then I discovered I had just been listening to wrong stuff. Ok, maybe nothing that bad… but I did find some interesting stuff on the No Depression podcast. Doop and the Inside Outlaws MFNJob alone makes it worth the listen and a little snooping will get you to an older album by them called Blood River. The title track on that one makes it worth the listen – hard when a man turns on himself just trying to make it all work.

Nine Bullets also checks in with a review of Fox Hunt’s latest. Listening to Bigger Man gives you a different framework for thinking about heroes in hard times. Also makes you want to go out and buy everything they have out.

You can download the entire album here. Just started listening to it and I really wish I could have seen these guys live up in Boston the last time they were here this summer. Not sure I will get another chance any time soon.

I added some punk to the stream. Youth Brigade’s “Where are all the Old Man Bars” and “Let Them Know” along with the SwinginUtters’ “Angels Pissing on Your Head”. I have to think “Where are all the Old Man Bars” is one of best rants about the loss of the local watering hole I have ever heard (The Bosstones do the other one – “I Want My City Back”). Band is on tour again though I have no idea if they still do the song live. Willing to bet they do “Let Them Know” though. Check out the tour dates here.

Listening to the August podcast from over at ninebullets.net. Can’t really describe the feeling it gives me to hear Adams House Cat version of Nine Bullets. That is what radio should sound like – not the horrible stuff I hear pretty much everywhere but WMVY and college radio. New music mixed with good music and local bands all mixed up in the podcast. None of the same old same old classic rock in it . This classic rock disease has even started to infect college radio. Last week I heard Grateful Dead’s Truckin’ on a local college radio station. Don’t get me wrong – I know college radio has always been a friend to the Dead – but Truckin’ I can four-ten times a day further up the dial. Baah …..

Anyway give the podcast a listen and meet some new bands, new music, etc. Get it here. Then look at the rest of the site and wish you could make it to as many shows as they are…..