In praise of purple bears...

Over the course of this blog's existence probably no release has scored a higher
length of record : length of review ratio than the 26mins of Happiness discussed here back in Feb 04. This was debut music from The Weepies, a singer-songwriter combo of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen [go]. They've since been signed to Nettwerk in North America and the follow-up to Happiness, called Say I am you, will drop March 9. And look there's no escaping the fact, 'they're nice people who write terrific songs and seem to really like each other,' [InsideBayArea interview Jan 13]. But will you like them?, that's the question. Well, here's the new album's cover art which is characteristically lovely and here is Steve last week describing for SFGate readers where they're coming from musically: 'A song is like a picture in a child's coloring book. The outline is there, and probably the bear is going to be brown, but he could be purple.' So now you know. Actually, Say I am you is available for download right now if you like tho' reallyrather is content to wait, spread the goodies out a bit, why not? Especially since January see's the...

...Rilo Kiley-related double whammy of The Elected's Sun, sun, sun and Rabbit fur coat by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. Rather brilliantly Ms Lewis is gracing just about every music mag out there at the moment including a double page feature in UK's The Word. The Independent yesterday echoed Uncut in pinning a maximum 5 stars [!!!] on the record but Mojo could muster only two, dismissing RFC as mere dilettantism. Hmmm, this from the same mag that declares Richard Hawley's superficially seductive period stylings to be 'genius'! Meanwhile, 'masterpiece!' is Magnet magazine's verdict on Blake Sennett's side project The Elected's second effort. Which probably means its very nice.. for the most part.. we shall see. Anyway, here's a plan: zip over to this blog's favourite online retailer CDUniverse where you can pre-order both releases (out Jan 24) for a total of £15.50 in p&p and with you likely inside a week. Un-beatle-able, really...

'I'll speculate that Holy Fuck might cause people to utter their name in a live setting, as they're a remarkably tight unit chock-full of rhythm,' says someone at Pitchfork this week and this blog is happy to confirm the accuracy of his musing. This Canadian quartet rivetted a crowded Camden Barfly last month when they opened for Wolf Parade with their hard-nosed anthemic dance noise and wacko industrial machinery. However, the review [of their s/t debut album] ultimately concludes that 'they may want to consider some rehearsal before their next recording date...'

So what else is coming? Well, there's the M. Ward-curated I am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey on Vanguard in Feb. This features Sufjan Stevens, Fruit Bats, Devendra and Matt himself among a host of indie-folk luminaries. Some sample tracks and background info on the project available over here...

...and then there's Breaking up, the overdue debut from twinkly lo-fi trio The Research. 'To fully enjoy it the listener would have to be a sugar-crazed fruit loop with the behaviour, attention span, and learning ability of a four year old chocolate junkie,' says Disorder. If this is you, you can get your fix on Feb 27...

...further down the line there'll probably be The Pipettes' debut and overdue second releases from Haley Bonar (Lure the fox) [go] and maybe even The Good Ship (listen to the langurous chamber-folk of The Eggleston Guide from their debut and hear what you missed back in '03) [go]. Finally,...

...and most surprisingly, enigmatically of all...

...there's this: Everyday i said a prayer for kathy and made a one inch square. Woo, not too say, hoo!