Some Bands

I’ve got 3 potential new bands to add to my good list.

The other night I was driving home and listening to XM-12– the mostly but only in a real middle of the road kind of a way alternative country, Americana station on XM. I listen to it a lot, mostly because I can’t map out the difference between Lucy, Ethyl and Fred (Lucy seems to be the best, but only on some days- it’s very confusing to me). Anyway, they had this live show thing on and the band was Cigar Store Indians. They were recorded, as far as I could tell, playing live in XM’s studio in front of little or nobody. Anyhow, they were really good. And then they played a “love song” the singer wrote to his kids that really blew me away. Two things: (1) having written songs for both of my kids, I dig songs about kids, and (2) this song (his, not mine) is a damn fine song. The first time I heard the line “You’re gonna try to live your life kind of like a script, like you’re in a movie, like your watching it,” I literally teared up. So I bought the record from CD Baby (sorry, baby, but only because Amazon didn’t have it- I dig the Prime). I sampled some of the other songs and they sound really good. I’m a little worried about the rockabilly references, but the sound was more alternative country than rockabilly and that’s what I’m hoping for.

I also heard a really good song by a band called Bucktown Kickback on XM-12 the other day. So I bought their CD too. More on both after they arrive in a week or so (more than the 2 days it takes to get stuff from Amazon thanks to the Prime). I really dig the Prime.

CD Baby, here’s what you do. Get some shipping thing like the Prime going, and then allow me to download MP3s of the records I buy. That and the pay by Paypal option would lead me back to CD Baby. Also, get better servers- your site is slow, slow, slow. But you’re supporting the starving artists and I’m one of those, so you’re still good with me.

Finally, I got exactly the kind of email an artist should send if he or she wants me to listen to their stuff.

I got an email from one of the guys in Chuckanut Drive. First of all, the email had a link to a page where I could hear full versions of all of the songs on their new record. Second, he described the band as “a mix of Exile Era Stones/Gram Parsons with the Byrds and a touch of Stax Soul thrown in for good measure.” So either he’s been reading my blog and has condensed my musical taste into 22 words, or this is my kind of band. I listened to a few of the songs, and they are very, very good! My favorite so far is Pittsburgh (I put it on my server to keep the location provided to me private and so I wouldn’t be stealing bandwidth). This is a mighty good song that will be in the Rancho Radio rotation next time we update. It might even get on the upcoming City Names edition of our RanchoCast. I’m looking forward to hearing all the songs over the next few days.

As a songwriter, musician, sometimes entertainment lawyer and Grammy voter who has an internet radio station and does a podcast, I get a lot of music sent to me. Most of it is of less than Uncle Tupelo quality (to put it delicately) and some of it is too hard to access. Within about 3 seconds of reading this email, I was listening to some mighty fine music.

Anyhow, check out Chuckanut Drive. I’m going to.

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