1/31/12- Dr. Dog - NPR Tiny Desk Concert

Last day of January and another 60+ degree day in KS. Enjoy a few tracks by one of the most solid bands in America today. Anyone in the KC metro/Lawrence area should head out to the Granada to hear these boys live Thursday night. I was perusing the Team CoCo website earlier today and found this free stream of Dr. Dogs new album "Be The Void". Give it a listen- its available today only! Also (if you didnt already know about this) this video can be an introduction to NPR's Tiny Desk Concert. Great live recordings by great bands.

1/30/12- Trampled By Turtles- Wait So Long

Are these guys bluegrass or what? Crazy breakneck speed of playing, non traditional playing style (check out the banjo player playing it like a guitar!) These minnesota natives are definitely worth checking out if you love bluegrass.

1/28/12- Surfer Blood- Swim

Oh man the opening 30 seconds of this song are just gold. Epic and beautiful then direct and forceful. These guys bring back the Weezer Blue Album sound that anyone who grew up in the 90's love. They also nicely sprinkle in some island like sounds and rhythms (Vampire Weekend influence for sure) that push the dynamics and variety in to a place that Weezer didn't. This is a debut album by a young bang, I am looking forward to seeing what they do from here. There are some nice live performances on YouTube that are very much worth a watch.

1/27/12- Taj Mahal- Queen Bee

First of all, I really like this video. It looks like it was originally recorded on a VHS off of the TV. Second, this is a super quality song by a man who reshaped the blues world using world sounds and rhythms. enjoy.

1/26/12- Beachwood Sparks- By Your Side

A Sub Pop label group that have had an in and out type of career including a variety of side projects also worth checking out. Their albums from early 2000 have a melodic country-rock roots quality to them harking back to Gram Parsons, The Band, The Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield. They have a new album due out this year- be sure to check it out.

1/25/12- James Hunter- People Gonna Talk and Baby Don't Do It

Two stellar songs for today- all in one great video of one of my favorite musicians today. This fairly under the radar british blues musician is revitalizing the great 1950's and 60's R&B stylings of Ray Charles, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and Smokey Robinson to name a few. His recordings have that vintage live quality about them that we love in all of those old recordings. I would highly recommend checking him out! a great place to start is with this NPR concert.

enjoy!

1/24/12- Oysterhead- Oz Is ever Floating

One of my favorite super groups, what a solid album The Grand Pecking Order was. Can we get some new tunes from the guys in Oysterhead?