They're gonna loosen you up...

Some time in the distant past this blog fantasized about the perfectness that might emerge if ever M. Ward were to get his hands (so to speak) on the Be Good Tanyas. Unerring pop melodicism meets unadorned female folksy harmonizin', how good would that be? We're unlikely ever to find out, of course, but that may not matter so much now that the debut collection from LA's The Living Sisters is almost with us:

Given the way She & Him has turned out, that's not too far off, I'd say. Love to live is out March 30...
[the living sisters]

Collectively at least, new material or activity of any kind at all from the Tanyas themselves is nowhere on the horizon but but but...Frazey Ford does have a debut solo album ready to drop on Nettwerk. There's a song called Like you better available to hear here, its slinky vibe and distinctive vocal inflections being instantly seductive...

Festival line-ups coming thick and fast. To Latitude again or not? Tuesday's launch announcement has been impressively leak-free but it can't be any worse than last year music-wise, surely? This blog's only committment so far is the End of the Road in far-off September which is already encrusted with more alt-folk-rock cred than is strictly necessary. rr has been lobbying for some decent pop to lighten the mix. The aforementioned She&Him would be a screamingly obvious main stage selection but this blog might even settle for a distinctly less feted cute actress/husky singer-songwriter combo:

But if reallyrather was a betting blog its money would be on these guys turning up in the Tipi Tent (sometimes being crushingly obvious is very OK):

[peter wolf crier]