Sonny & The Sunsets

San Francisco's longtime local legend Sonny Smith is just now starting to make national waves with his outfit Sonny & The Sunsets. These guys couldn't be coming into the spotlight at a more perfect time. Though they may seem to be riding the wave of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes and have similar musical qualities to them, Sonny & The Sunsets are able to keep their own unique identity to their music. On their debut release Tomorrow is Alright the band jangles their way through songs while Smith douses them with his razor sharp lyrics, "Too Young To Burn" is evidence of that. However, The Sunsets certainly know how to get their kicks, "Planet of Women" is a hazy and often comical sci-fi love song. My favorite song off of Tomorrow is Alright has to be the six-minute plus album closer "Lovin' On An Older Gal." This song sounds like it could have been a B-side off of The Velvet Underground's Loaded.

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Lovin' On An Older Gal

Steve Young

Steve Young should be considered right up there with Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard when it comes to Outlaw Country legends. This guy can really craft a great song. "One Car Funeral Procession" is pure Americana with layered instruments casually plucking away, whereas "The White Trash Song" is a blistering hell-raiser of a country song, with a great trade off of electric guitar and banjo solos. This is country for people who hate country. It's a shame that he's not a household name, but fortunately his albums are still floating around out there. Special thanks to The Rising Storm for the discovery.

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One Car Funeral Procession
The White Trash Song

Horse Feathers

I recently came across the folk group Horse Feathers' cover of Nirvana's "Drain You." I always love it when bands cover a song that is completely opposite of their genre, it is often a hard feat to accomplish but when it is done correctly that band can make the song their own. "Drain You" will always be associated with Nirvana of course, but I'd like to think Horse Feathers made this version entirely unique to themselves.

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Drain You (Nirvana Cover)

Girl Talk

Girl Talk is absolutely a shameful guilty pleasure for me. While he is not my favorite mashup artist (that would be The Avalanches) he makes a great party mixtape. This morning I woke up and learned that he released his new album All Day for free download. You could get it from his website, but it seems the entire world is trying to download it at the same time, so I uploaded it myself. He certainly is talented, I will give him that, and is the ultimate college artist at the moment, but I just wish he didn't remix shitty music. Where Girl Talk succeeds however is when he is able to put together two songs from complete opposite genres and make them seamless like mixing Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" with "Move Bitch" by Ludacris as well as Daft Punk with Missy Elliot. This doesn't work all the time, at one point he tries to mix Cream with Ke$ha which is a painful thirty seconds. However, if you're throwing a rager at your frat house and you want to play every popular song from the past ten years you couldn't do better with All Day, it's a party album that won't let you go.

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Girl Talk - All Day

New Drive-By Truckers Album!

That's right! Hot off the heels of their most successful record to date The Big To-Do, the Truckers will roll out another one in February of 2011 called Go-Go Boots. Where as To-Do was primarily a rock record, front man Patterson Hood said this one will feature more country-tinged murder ballads. That sounds great by me, some of Hood's best songwriting comes out when he plays down tempo a bit. If "The Wig He Made Her Wear" is any proof of Patterson's uncanny ability to write gruesome and chilling songs, an album chalk-full of murder ballads could be extremely promising.
Check out a little in-studio video they made featuring a new song off of the album titled "Used To Be A Cop"

Drive-By Truckers "Used To Be A Cop" from Jason Thrasher on Vimeo.

Grinderman 2

I am a budding Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fan. To me, Cave is one of the most prolific and apocalyptic songwriters alive today. Not too long ago he released the 2nd album from his gritty Grinderman project. Though there isn't one song that lives up to the epicness of "No Pussy Blues," I would have to say that as a whole Grinderman 2 is far more impressive than their first record. The album's cover I believe is a perfect image for what this record sounds like, a fierce wolf in a white room. This album is sleazy and dangerous, and I would not be surprised if this winds up on many critic's end of the year lists. Well done Mr. Cave.

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Heathen Child

Smith Westerns

Smith Westerns were one of those many lo-fi bands that splashed onto the scene last year. I thought they had a lot of potential, but I'm very particular when it comes to lo-fi. Luckily, for their new release Dye It Blonde they upped the production quality and cleaned up their sound. With their new single "Weekend" I predict big things will happen to this band. This song is so sweet but with a killer T. Rex like riff. Oh, and happy weekend.

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Weekend

The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark

 

  This album though not extremely popular is one of the most quintessential albums to own if you are looking for the roots of alternative-country. Folk-rock legend Gene Clark of The Byrds fame and bluegrasser Doug Dillard of The Dillards teamed up for two albums in the late 60s. Together they beautifully blended the two genres together creating an album full of emotion and landscape. This is an absolute must have for your record collection.

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With Care From Someone