Excellent, trashy indie rock with a waltz beat from North Carolina’s own Spider Bags. This recording sounds as unpretentious and natural as a few guys bursting into song at a bar, but it’s also meticulously arranged and well performed. I love the talky-singy approach here, and the lyrics are superb. It’s a perfect marriage of professionalism and reckless abandon. And the chorus is glorious.

Spider Bags
“Que viva el rocanroll” (mp3)
from “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World”
(Birdman Records)

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The Mountain Movers hail from New Haven, Connecticut, which is under mountains of snow right now, so I guess they have their work cut out for them. A friend recently described their record “Let’s Open Up the Chest” to me as “hipster church music,” which sounded promising but I wasn’t sure exactly how. Pleasantly surprised I am – what we have here is big, wide open country rock, with shades of Camper Van Beethoven / Cracker as well as a bit of Cake and Mother Hips. Going back further, this actually sounds a lot like The Band.  On the single “When I Die,” a massive Hammond organ grows tornadoes around a miles-deep-in-the-pocket bass and drum groove, with rootsy guitar and piano accompanying sublime, chill vocals like a sunset over calm seas. Quite lovely.

The Mountain Movers
“When I Die” (mp3)
from “Let’s Open Up the Chest”
(Safety Meeting Records)

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In the best tradition of modern Americana, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada’s Ox delivers an unhurried, wide as the sky ode to futility. The guitar work here is stellar, shiny and stark, accompanying a delicate lyric that could fall down so easily in one misplaced word, but it never does. Gorgeous harmonies and a full, superb lead vocal, lift this from a simple lament to something far more glorious. I don’t often find myself in the mood these days, for sad country music, but when I do, it has to be this good.

Ox
“Burnout” (mp3)
from “Burnout”
(Weewerk)

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Easily mistaken for a “jam band” at first listen, The Mother Hips are on closer inspection a tight, country flavored rock unit in the tradition of The Band and other 60′s and 70′s masters of song arrangement and organic, live combo playing. Plopped as they were by fate in the early 90′s, the Hips’ sweet guitar serenades and soulful harmonies were in contrast to the flood of Nirvana sound-alikes which came to dominate the airwaves then. Signed to Rick Rubin’s American Records for a while, then back to indie life, these generous and talented musicians remained true to their art through it all, never straying from their vision nor trying for to fit into any style but their own. Commendable, but more importantly, their music is gr8. This single, “One Way Out” is from their most recent album, “Pacific Dust,” and it’s a gem.

The Mother Hips
“One Way Out” (mp3)
from “Pacific Dust”
(Camera Records)

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I swear if Paul Westerberg were born in the Appalachians instead of Minneapolis, he would have started a hillbilly band and recorded this song. Or I could say, if Bill Monroe were a young New Yorker, he might have done. These are compliments to all parties, if there’s any wondering. Curtis Harvey, at the time of this writing, has a whopping 47 myspace friends for his brand new solo outing, in which he emerges from a respectable run as a multi-instrumentalist with Rex, Pullman and others, to take the leading role. Listen to the beautiful guitar and banjo arrangement, and picture perfect lyrics of the single “Oldertoo,” and I’m sure you’ll agree this was an idea whose time had come. A gr8 new music find, folks, from a brilliant under-discovered artist, on the visionary Fat Cat Records label. Enjoy.

Curtis Harvey
“Oldertoo” (mp3)
from “Box Of Stones”
(Fat Cat Records)

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Virtuoso acoustic guitar jam fer daze. Perfect find for the slow autumn drizzle that descends like fine mist on this SuperFan’s Oaksterdam home today. “Today is forever, now that we are through” is the haunting refrain that frames this instrumental exploration of steel string slide guitar, furious pluckin’, and one suspects, a little blood.  Mad @ The Live Creek? Or Live @ The Mad Creek? Take your pick. Mad flatpickin’ from a talented solo artist on the ever lovin’ ItsAboutMusic label.

The Lew Jones Act
“Today Is Forever” (mp3)
from “Mad @ The Live Creek”
(ItsAboutMusic.com)

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With a voice that reminds favorably of Steve Earle and Bob Dylan, Wisconsin’s Graham Lindsey has an arresting way with words and a painfully clear gaze on the human condition. His minimal, elegant accompaniment seems to draw as much from European folk musics as it does from more distinctly American forms. This song grows with repeated listens – on first pass I was moved, by the third time I was convinced this is major. What a magnificent, smart, and poetic lyric. I get angry when I discover artists like this, who deserve a lot more exposure than they are likely to get during this age of corporate ersatz musik. But b4 I get on that soapbox again, let me just say: TWO MONTHS TO GO! I have posted a song a day for all of 2009, and I am proud to share and shout about each and every one of them. Give this mp3 a spin, and if you like it as much as I think you will, do yourself a favor and pick up the perfectly titled album – “We Are All Alone in This Together” on SPACEBAR Recordings. I bought it after posting another Lindsey gem called “Old Roger” back in August. A gr8 record from an artist who merits our support. Thanks, getting off soapbox now! Love, SuperFan

Graham Lindsey
“Tomorrow is Another Night” (mp3)
from “We Are All Alone in This Together”
(SPACEBAR Recordings)

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“Like boots or hearts, when they start, they really fall apart,” sings Grady. Excellent lyric. Add grit-swallowing, gut-churning, soul-vomiting guitar work, and some damned to sh!t wicked sexadelic southern rawk vocals, and, well, I’m diggin’ it. I think you will too. Tha’s wha’m here fer! Enjoy with Jack and Coke or similar. As eclectic Texas music vet Gordie ‘Grady’ Johnson Gordie Johnson puts it, “This record really is the byproduct of the musical environment we live in. Cowboys, metalheads, rednecks and punk rockers all congregate around us. Someone actually described us as ‘shredneck’ which of course brought gales of laughter.” Makes sense when you hear it. This track is killer. That’s all.

Grady
“Boots Or Hearts” (mp3)
from “Good As Dead”
(C12 Records)

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Occasionally we’ll hear someone refer to an artist or work of art as “sick and wrong,” but seldom do we encounter a vendor of filth so deserving of that distinction as one GG Allin, rest his deranged soul. Named “Jesus Christ” by his abusive, insane father, legend has it the name “GG” came about because his brother couldn’t pronounce “Jesus Christ” and it sort of came out “jeejee” and it stuck. Enough has been said about Allin’s shocking antics. What is not as notorious is the fact that he actually created some good songs along the way. Here’s an anthem of sorts, of a man living on the “Outskirts of Life” and you can be sure he lived every word of. Don’t try this at home, kids. He did it so you don’t have to.

GG Allin
“Outskirts of Life” (mp3)
from “Carnival Of Excess”
(PONK Media)

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Ah, the travails and adventures of a good motorcycle road trip. Somewhere between a Bob Dylan yarn and a Lynyrd Skynyrd cautionary tale, we find Nathaniel Street West seeking help from a stranger, sleeping under a stove and running for his life. I won’t tell ya the rest, that would be a spoiler. But I am delighted to present this honky tonk, rock and roll, blues-y fried number for your listening pleasure.

Nathaniel Street West
“Motorpsycho Nightmare” (mp3)
from “Light Out For The Territory”
(Puffin Records)

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