It's their loss, quite frankly...
'A lot of people have been asking us about the new album so here is the deal: Following the recent purchase of DreamWorks Records by Universal, Hem have been released from their contract with DreamWorks. Consequently we are looking for a new label to release Eveningland.'
With the prevailing epidemic of Norah Jones-ness you'd have thought even the loftiest of moguls could've sussed the potential of this group's sepia-tinted coffee-table twang. It's only a matter of time before they find a new deal but the album's now likely to be an autumn baby, unlike...

..Prospect Park, second album from Brit folk-popster James William Hindle which finally gets a UK release this very week. Scoring at no.6 in this blog's Best of '03, constant repeat plays since it's August US release have only served to confirm what a warm little cracker it really is. An engaging modesty pervades this full-band set as do great tunes and feel; don't let it get away this time round...
Track&Field | Come down slowly mp3

...and if you like that you'll also want the album that topped out reallyrather's '03 list, St.Louis five-piece Nadine's deeply pleasing Strange seasons. It's the first release proper by upstart LA label Trampoline Records and they're one of several label affiliates who feature in a specially-recorded live video session just up on the RealMusicGuide. Needless to say, they're casually fantastic...

Hey, it's my list and I'll go on about it if I want to:

-'Whipping out all the big guns, they deliver a mesmerizing, truly astonishing pop masterpiece' - review site InMusicWeTrust catches up with no.4, Wheat's Per second, per second, per second..every second

-And what of the runner-up? Well, imagine this blog's surprise/delight/bemusement on turing to pages 22-23 of this past weekend's Observer Music Monthly and finding a huge photo-portrait and accompanying mini-essay, 'The startling rise of an American visionary'; Sufjan Stevens your time is surely now. Given that the proportion of those readers who will have had any idea who this guy is must be microscopic, in it's own way it's quite a stunning development and reallyrather's hat is duly tipped to the editors behind it. For anyone looking to know more about the man and his music, check out a 2-hour radio special devoted to the guy earlier this month and archived over at WNYC. There's an extended interview, many tracks from last year's masterful Greetings from Michigan and a live banjo session featuring songs from the latest album, Seven swans...

Seems that reallyrather is presently the only soul in the whole of Googledom interested in the news that Andrea Maxand has at last found a home for her second album. Where the words go will appear May 4 via Ghostweed Press and the sample tracks they offer suggest that she's buffed up the chimey, edgy alt-guitar of '01 debut Angel hat most excellently. Death Cab's rhythm section, Jason and Nick, add heft to Andrea's silvery vocal sound thoughout and their prescence gives you a bit of clue about what's in store. Fans of, say, the dense guitar stirrings of Pedro the Lion might also want to step this way...
Andrea Maxand | GhostweedPress | The shape of hands mp3

'Marching to the beat of my own drum machine'

Aah, those perspicacious Swedes. Denison Witmer's fine last album, Philadelphia songs has finally been picked up by a European label, the playfully named Bad Taste Records in Lund. Released generally on April 19, look for some UK promo dates in May where Witmer's pencilled in as opener on the Charlemagne tour...

...who? 'Charlemagne is a man, not a band,' explains nascent label Winterlander. 'Charlemagne is Carl Johns [of NoahJohn, er, fame]. For the most part, Charlemagne is pop, sometimes borrowing elements of upbeat folk, roots-rock and droning psychedelia. Nevertheless, the songs have a certain sensibility and structure that shares a common lineage with country. For live shows Johns employs a full band filling out the sound with keyboards, drums, bass and a pair of backing vocals.' What they don't say is that this record is already sorted for Europe, being released by Loose in April...

...and it's a busy old time for NoahJohn completists(?!) as bass player Lisa Hinzman has also just sneaked out a side project release under the name MaeRae...

Also from the aforementioned Loose in April (5th) is Mary Lou Lord's Baby blue. This actually get's released in the US today via Rubric Records who simultaneously launch a new album from...

...Gingersol! Eastern is the third album from Steve Tagliere and Seth Rothschild and continues to mine their rich seam of regular yet distinctive melodic pop-rock. Though more conspicuously produced than either Nothing stops moving or Trainwreck, with sound warping and sampling adding new textures, their hallmark careworn vocals bouyed by luminous tunesmithery remains intact.
No messing, the guys are up and at you from the start, smashing down a couple of quick aces in I tried and Blink, spry, fizzling guitar pop. Call it power pop if you must but there's nothing stale or cheesily derivative here. Great chords, driving arrangements and wibbly synth sounds in neat sub-3 minute packages, just how we like it. These are at least matched further in by the banjo-flecked The longest word, a Wilco/Cure-type cracker, Great day for a war and Dunce cap which is underpinned by some chunky heartland riffage.
If there's a degree of inevitability about the verse melodies in the calmer flipside of the classic Gingersol sound it's equally certain that an unavoidable socko chorus is just around the corner. And as if these hooks weren't enough there's all those telling little instrumental motifs catching the ear. You and your clouds, None of my friends, Empty canteen all do sterling mellow duty.
Around eight minutes long, the last-named represents the acceptable face of milking a chord sequence whereas None of my friends (even with lines as good as Like a razor / Like a black box / Can I trust you / Do I need to? and the one up top) doesn't quite justify it's 7mins+. In fact, the whole album might have benefitted losing about ten of it's 53 minutes. Let's see: cut 2 or 3 minutes from NOMF, lose I did, grant Please let me go it's wish (sorry, Seth) and hey presto!, the optimal dimensions they nailed so perfectly first time out.
In the course of the band's move from the West to the East Coast, Gingersol have shaken off any desert dust that laid over that earlier record but there's nothing typically 'New York' about them now either. They've staked out their own little territory somewhere in between; Gingersol-land - it's a good place and you should go there...

There's a big interview with Gingersol in the latest Momzine and the guys may be over for European dates later in the year. Currently they're on the road aiding and abetting Mary Lou Lord: '"It's funny, I barely know these boys, and I feel like I'm the older woman. Five years ago, I would have freaked out, but it's sounding great."' And, in another coincidental collision of reallyrather favourites, their show in Minneapolis was opened by the lovely Haley Bonar...

...some of whose work covers similar moody terrain to a New York act playing debut London shows in the next few days. Check out the singular lap-steel led sounds of Megan & Nat aka The Last Town Chorus [site] at the 12 Bar on March 11 and Brixton's Windmill on the 13th...

From the Whaddyamean You Still Haven't Bought'em Dept.:
- Pitchfork this week remind everyone why they really ought to own the latest Norfolk & Western
- and for pure pop throwaway thrills you still won't do much better than that Wheat record, Per second, per second..: 'It may not be revolutionary, popular, or even well-named, but Wheat has made a great album here. Put this one on the list. Trust me, it doesn't suck'...

And neither does this from the Drag City debut of alt-harpist Joanna Newsom though not everyone's smitten: 'One can only poke oneself in the ear with a knitting needle so many times before unconsciousness sets in'. Ouch...