Avett Recycle

I'd write something new, but really, this about sums it up. And I'm lazy. And it's also kind of nice to have written and documented proof that you were keen on the next big thing before they were big. The nasty elitist in me rears its head.

Chech the technique, doubting Thomaseseses.



11/2005

On Thursday night, at The Patio of all places, I kept thinking of Harold Bloom.

The Patio is not the sort of venue where high-fallutin’ Ivy League professors/critics usually come to mind, much less when a alt.country bluegrass act is going to appear. But, while waiting for The Avett Brothers to come to the stage, Bloom’s theory of “The Anxiety of Influence” kept running through my brain.

I won’t bore you with the details of the theory, but in a nutshell it says that no matter what an artist does, the artists that came before them will perpetually influence them. Whether they embrace their forebears or reject them, improve on what came before or tear it down, every artist is influenced by their predecessors. It is only the great ones that can overcome this anxiety to make a real mark on their genre and create something authentic, new and vital. Nov. 17th at The Patio showcased a group in the Avett Brothers that have wrestled with that anxiety and come out on right side of the fray to bring some compelling and sometimes transcendent music to the table.

...

The headliners, The Avett Brothers, made an impressive splash at this summer’s Midwest Music Summit, stomping a big hole in the Monkey’s Tale. The jostling Patio audience this night had, by 11:00 PM, quaffed a few and was clearly hankering for a dose of these feller’s brand of bluegrass-roots sound. A bona fide string band, the group is made of guitarist Seth Avett, his brother and banjo player Scott Avett, and upright bassist Bob Crawford. Spare percussion comes in the form of a small high hat and mini kick-drum, each stomped in time by Seth and Scott. The brothers shared vocals in equal parts, showing off spectacular harmonies that are just as round and unforced onstage as they are on record.

While they have an obvious reverence for their country and bluegrass ancestors, this band is not afraid to throw in a glass-breaking heavy-metal scream, like the call and response shrieks in “Nothing Short of Thankful.” Most of the material this night came from the band’s latest LP, “Mignonette.” Though the image of bucolic charmers with Carolinian accents might be one’s first impression of the singers, it belies the artistic and academic pedigree evidenced in their mock post-modern titled series of songs, “Pretty Girl…,” found throughout their studio and live records.

Each of the Avetts possess an accomplished grasp of their instrument, but the performance never devolved into banjo noodling or self-indulgent solos, just loud foot-stomping crowd-pleasers. In songs like “At the Beach”, they showed a command of Mediterranean rhythms and pop lyrics, punctuated by a Motown “Bah Ba Bah Bop” chorus, yet free of the derivative feeling of a Jack Johnson song. Other highlights were “Love Like the Movies,” “Signs” (a song written and first recorded by their father, thirty years ago), and “Matrimony,” a mournful tune of love gone wrong which will appear on their upcoming album, “Four Thieves Gone.”

The song most emblematic of the band’s sound and aesthetic, however, was “Swept Away.” Imagine the Carter Family and Jay Farrar singing a Willie Nelson lyric and you kind of get the feel for the song. This is a song so timeless and tuneful that it sounds like it could’ve been written 60 years ago and will still hold up as a true Americana 60 years in the future. They capped off the show with a bottle busting rendition of their “Traveling Song,” a number with the theme of “ramblin’ and moving on” that has found its way into every great blues, folk and bluegrass artist’s catalog since Mr. Johnson went down to the crossroads.

There was no encore, perhaps because they wanted to leave us wanting a little bit more in February when they come back to town as openers for BR-549. The band was especially kind to Kit Malone, as well as Rev. Peyton and The Big Damn Band and Otis Gibbs, who were in attendance, thanking them all for their support.

The Avett Brothers could be plunked down in the hills of North Carolina in 1900 and their sound would fit right in. But they have also incorporated bits and pieces of different middle-to-late 20th century influences, which gives a sonic depth and modern presence to their music other “Nügrass” artists don’t necessarily have. The influence of musical ancestors and even recent peers can often crush a band that tries to reach back in time for their inspiration. Not so with The Avetts. They are tremendous live performers whose expanding catalog represents the best in roots music that doesn't pale in the shadow of the large tree above it. Go see them next time they are in town. Just be sure to wear the appropriate footwear for toe tapping and foot stomping -- maybe a pair of your granddaddy’s boots.

Underrated - F sharp

I want to knock out the F's. When you've got momentum, best to seize it. Plus, the G's will probably take me ages. I don't even want to think about the M's.

Faces - "Stay With Me," A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse

Spin did a very fun debunking of various rock and roll myths, particularly the one concerning Rod Stewart and a stomach full of...how shall I euphemize...baby batter.

In the article, they talk about how Rod Stewart went from working-class English rock hero to fancy-boy with a supermodel wife, thus becoming fodder for rather vulgar urban myths about sailors and stomach pumps.

Indeed, Stewart's progression to super-stardom is interesting to think about. He started as the vocalist for a group named after a guitarist, The Jeff Beck Group. Moved from there to Faces, and sang some spectacular blues and rock songs with Ron Wood and Ronny Lane. And finally, ends up becoming a mega-star with disco-schlock songs like, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and ersatz Billy Joel, "Some Guys Have All The Luck."

Surely one of you, my loyal readers, will throw solo Stewart's "Maggie May" in my face. To which I will say, "Great song. Faces song." He didn't record it with Faces, but it reeks of everything Faces did. Subdued mixtures of Folk and Blues, themes of women as beckoning sirens of beauty and turmoil, all very much what Faces did rather successfully.

Honestly, Rod Stewart's later career doesn't trouble me nearly as much as some other truly offensive stuff: Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne, Anne Murray...wow, apparently I hate Canadian women. But I do think Stewart's subsequent success has left Faces a vastly underrated band. And "Stay With Me" shows off Hot Rod at his best, long before he discovered synthesizers.

Stay With Me - Faces

Freestyle Fellowship - "Cornbread," Innercity Griots


Really this track is an Aceyalone song, but it is on a Freestyle Fellowship record. West Coast Rap in the '90s is usually described as some monolithic genre with everyone sampling Parliament and Funkadelic and rapping about chronic and drive-by's. While I won't dispute the fact that Cali has been ahead of the curve on sipping extraordinary herb, the homogenized term "West Coast Rap" doesn't hold up.

Listen to "Cornbread" and you'll hear the essence of Black American wordplay, a lighthearted, irreverent approach to the English language, combined with a profound gift for weaving narrative and novelty. Aceyalone, who is one of the more underrated hip-hop artists of the last two decades, juggles schoolyard jump-rope rhymes and comic book tales of fighting King Kong, Godzilla and Rodan, while interspersing statements about ethnic and personal pride, "Used to be a peewee, now I'm full grown/Not a shufflin' jiggaboo, I'm hard like stone."

Most importantly, the song is fun and perfect for playing loudly in your car on a hot summer's day. And it's definitely underrated.




Fiona Apple - "Fast As You Can," When the Pawn Hits...

She kinda set herself for mockery when she gave her second album a ninety word title. I'm not going to take up space printing it here, just google it.

Her first record, Tidal, sold well. It probably didn't hurt record sales that the video for "Criminal," the #1 single from the album, was just this side of teenage porn. This side being Calvin Klein ads, the other side being Ron Jeremy.

But this second album was a different animal. Jon Brion, who has produced numerous other singer-songwriters, influenced Apple's sound dramatically, and helped create an album that was as much vaudeville as it was Tori Aimless.

All of a sudden, Apple sounded as if she welcomed the criticism she had previously been so deeply affected by. She wanted your scorn, so that she could pity you and your need to find fault with her. In the rhythm and sped-up meter of "Fast As You Can," she made it clear that she was flirting with crazy. In fact, she sounded ready to fight, and I loved it.

She warned us.

Fast As You Can - Fiona Apple

Underrated - E is for "Am i a little too lo-fi Emo today?"

I feel a little sad that there is only one underrated E artist. And, really, it isn't even an appropriate alphabetical categorization. For those of us who've spent too much time in libraries or fooling with databases and bibliographies, iTunes' method of alphabetizing can be maddening.

In the worlds of library science and file clerking, artists who use their given name as their stage moniker should be alphabetized by their last name. It is simply how things are done if we wish to keep order in our lives.

However, Steve Jobs and his minions are not interested in truly making our lives easier, they just want to sell episodes of Battlestar Galatica and the new Lady GaGa. And so, rather than an appropriately organized mp3 library, I get Elliot Smith categorized with the E's and not the S's.
I know my blog is hardly an exemplar of proper APA, MLA, or Chicago, but for real, fix yo style manual, Steve.

At any rate...

Elliot Smith - "Happiness/The Gondola Man," Figure 8

I am hardly a expert on Elliot Smith, much less a fan. It's not that I dislike him, a few of his songs scored Thumbsucker, which wasn't a great movie, but for some reason, I absolutely adore it. Likewise, Good Will Hunting.

But his music can make one feel very claustrophobic. His vocals often sound like he recorded them in a dark hall closet with a thick down comforter covering both him and the condenser mic. The songwriting is very good, the overall structure, the lyrics, the dynamics, but after awhile they start sounding so small and thus, they make me feel a little small. Like you took Paul Simon and put him inside a jewelry box.

It is telling that the song I picked feels a little more expansive--at least it does until the last movement/alternate song "The Gondola Man," where Smith reverts to his tiny and tinny sound. It is also maybe a little too hipster-ironic that the song is titled "Happiness," when the artist died in one of the most unhappy and excruciating ways imaginable.

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but overt and earnest pleas for happiness make me uncomfortable and sometimes make me snicker. Infomercials from motivational speakers come to mind. "All I wanted was to be happy, and Tony Robbins showed me how." Oprah and her best life. Joel Osteen. The list goes on. But at the same time, I am confronted by my own hypocrisy, because I frequently lament the fact that Americans seem unable to appreciate their lives and find contentedness. I blame TV, the Internet (I know, right?), Calvinist Christianity, the Native American genocide, Slavery, and James Madison for that inability to simply be happy with what you have.

So here is Elliot Smith-- a textbook tortured soul, no matter what Tolstoy tells us about unhappiness--asking to be happy. And he melts me. Makes me weep almost every time I hear the song, but also makes me feel bigger. Unlike the rest of his songs, I don't have the ceiling pressing down on me. I know that Smith, broken and battered psychologically, probably never found the happiness he so deeply desired. But the rest of can listen to the chorus of this song, totally free of pretense or cynicism, and hope for a moment. Hope that maybe we can find a bit of happiness for you and me.

Can't we?

Happiness/The Gondola Man - El...

Underrated - D part Deux

DJ Shadow - "Building Steam With a Grain of Sand,"
"The Number Song," "Midnight in A Perfect World," - Endtroducing...

DJ Shadow made a whole lot of hip-hop records without a single rapper on them. Eventually he moved on to U.N.K.L.E. and his Hyphy project that incorporated rappers, but he reminded quite a few heads that despite the MC-centered nature of the rap solar-system, the music mattered. In fact, DJ Shadow made it clear that a milk-crate-diggin' vinylphile could create hip-hop music that was indisputably Art, with a capital A.

His entire Endtroducing... album is atmospheric and dense, full of stutter steps and twists. Chances are, you've heard at least one of the tracks employed as background music in film or television, and indeed, the songs are good mood music. But they are equally rewarding when actively listening to them. The dark corners of each drum beat, the bits of space and silence, tiny crackles and slightly out of tune pianos. I can't pick just one, so here's three. (His LaLa page won't link the three best tracks, so I guess it's their loss if nobody buys them from blog links.)








Doves - "Caught By the River," The Last Broadcast - Once again the entire album The Last Broadcast is highly underrated. If you like British rock of any colour--shoegaze, chamber-pop, mid '90s second invasion-style, or any other pigeonhole--and you don't have this album, go get it.

"Caught By the River" is near the top of my list, which I'll write someday, of perfect songs for accompanying the final moments of a film. This particular song would be a perfect fit for a melancholy, yet ultimately triumphant tale of a boy coming of age in an era of extreme upheaval. He doesn't get along with his parents/family and makes a grievous error that he must overcome, but not before he loses a loved one on the path to redemption. Or maybe I just stole the narrative thread to the song and made a movie out of it. Doesn't Bruckheimer always do that, too? Wooo-hooo, I'm gonna be rich!

Caught By The River - Doves

Underrated - Throw some D's on that...

Trying to circumscribe this endeavor to be about underrated songs is getting silly, and I'm only on the fourth letter. (Anybody who actually follows this until the end will have endured a marathon of vacillation, vagueness, and ever-shifting axioms.) The reality is that nearly every artist who is on my underrated list merits mention not because of just one song, but because they appear to be more accomplished and marketable than their sales and/or popular familiarity indicate. The body of work matters as much as the one perfect tune.

The D.O.C. - "The D.O.C. & The Doctor," No One Can Do It Better - Fate and foolishness intervened right when The D.O.C was poised to become a more commercially viable Ice Cube. Having played an important creative role on two seminal Gangster Rap albums--N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton and Eazy E's EZ-Duz-It--The D.O.C. released his solo effort and had kids in Raiders caps listening, as well as the programming directors for radio stations.

Most importantly, The D.O.C. had the attention of the producers at MTV. This track got a significant amount of video play, despite the fact that there was virtually nothing controversial in the video itself and the recorded lyric needed absolutely zero editing to be fit for consumption (Impressive, since he helped write two absurdly filthy records and was being judged by 1989 standards.) The D.O.C. had clearly decided that as a solo artist he wasn't going to be a lightning rod for anything but club remixes. His target audience seemed to be white kids who wanted to act hard and sing along with aggro rap lyrics, without having to go silent every third line because there was an N-word. His business plan was prescient, as this demographic ended up buying, ooohhh...a couple of rap records.

After Ice Cube acrimoniously parted with the N.W.A./Ruthless Records crew, The D.O.C. was the obvious choice to supplant him. But a 1989 car crash left him with damaged vocal chords and his long-delayed follow-up record lacked the punch of his previous work. He wound up making significant contributions to future Dr. Dre projects (See - The Chronic) but never made the impact as a solo artist that everyone expected. His track, "It's Funky Enough" still gets play from time to time, but "The D.O.C. & The Doctor," was one of the best purely braggadocious rap songs of the era. And twenty years later, it still sounds like a top-level studio recording. The drums alone are underrated.

D.O.C. AND THE DOCTOR - D.O.C.

The Detroit Cobras - "Right Around the Corner," "Shout Bama Lama," Love, Life, and Leaving

The Detroit Cobras play cover songs, acceding to Harold Bloom, they decided that they can't do better than that which has come before. Not to say that they don't put an original and authentic spin on their arrangements. Every song they play, they treat with the care artists usually reserve for their own compositions.


Live, they can be spectacular and saucy; other times, they are belligerent to fans and blithering onstage. Sometimes they are all of these. But if you want to start a party, pump up your work-out, or just have a good time while you wash the dishes, I defy you to find a band more able to grasp the best parts of an old song and squeeze the fun stick until you just gotta dance.

Right Around The Corner - The ...

Shout Bama Lama - The Detroit ...

Underrated - C's

So all this underrated talk (to myself primarily, sometimes walls, other times wood sprites) has me wondering if underrated is the right word. Is under-appreciated the more correct concept? Many of these songs were lauded by obscurist music critics, which thus prompted me to investigate and purchase the record in the first place. However, underrated suggests a more objective standpoint, as in, "You should listen to this song not because I like it and feel it is under-appreciated, but because it is an objectively good song, but has been neglected by audiences and critics for any number of reasons."

In essence, all I'm trying to say with any of this is if you generally enjoy a wide variety of music and you haven't heard these songs, it is my belief that you will like them very much, perchance even love them. If you have heard them before, but did not find them particularly interesting or good, give them another shot.

On to the C's:



The Commitments- "Treat Her Right," The Commitments

The movie is up there in the pantheon of great independent/arthouse Irish flicks that turned into phenomena in the states: Waking Ned Devine, In the Name of the Father, Billy Elliot, The Crying Game, Darby O'Gill and the Little People....But in the case of The Commitments, the soundtrack is what we all truly remember, blue-eyed soul and impeccable covers of the best Stax and Motown songs.

"Treat Her Right" is by no means a canonical '60s song and, chances are, few people born after 1965 could tell you that Roy Head and The Traits did the song originally. And even on this record, "Treat Her Right" doesn't grab the listener as quickly as "Mustang Sally" or "In the Midnight Hour." The lyric doesn't get to the chorus for nearly ninety seconds and for the first minute you might not know what song you're listening to.

But when the chorus hits, you know exactly what song it is and, good gravy, it takes real effort not to shout right along with the song. Get a group of ten or more people together, feed them a beer or two, and everyone will be "Hey Hey Hey-ing" before they even realize what's happening. After which you can all do this

until everyone passes out or pukes.

Treat Her Right - The Commitme...

Crooked Fingers - "When U Were Mine," Resevoir Songs EP

Here's where things get tricky. There's very little chance that this song would have ever been popular, and the historical evidence bears this out on several occasions. Prince wrote the song and put it on Dirty Mind in 1980, but didn't ever release it as single. Mitch Ryder tried to make a comeback with this as his lead single (Mellencamp produced the record), circa 1983, and of course we're all still listening to Mitch, right? Later in the '83, Cyndi Lauper murdered it with extreme prejudice. From the album cover of Dirty Mind (Prince wearing only a bejeweled duster and a thong), to the content of the lyrics--a guy lamenting his relationship with a group-sex enthusiast, who wears all of his clothes and doesn't change the sheets after all of his friends come over and "meet"--this was never going to be a mainstream hit.

Why this song is underrated has everything to do with the fact that Eric Bachman and Crooked Fingers are a very good band--great live and on record-- and the fact that I own a copy of Mitch Ryder's comeback effort, because my uncle played keyboards on the supporting tour.

The Crooked Fingers Resevoir Songs EP, which contains "When U Were Mine," is a haunting little recording, made up solely of cover songs. Selections range from Springsteen's "The River" to Bowie's "Under Pressure," all performed with very peculiar arrangements--check the spooky Appalachian banjo on this track. I love this song, particularly Crooked Fingers' version, and hope that this freeky-deeky elegy to love lost grows on everybody else.

When U Were Mine - Crooked Fin...

Underrated - B Cont'd

So continuing the clarification/obfuscation battle with underrated songs, I think underrated songs fall into three general categories:

1. Songs that are very good, verging on all-time greats, but that have not received the appropriate attention from the media or fans in relation to how good the particular song is. A song can fall into this category regardless of whether the artist is bigger than Jesus or an anonymous schlub toiling away in dimly lit bars.

2. A genre song that is so well-made and engaging that it should be popular with fans outside of its predefined fan-base. Usually very poignant or very danceable. Prince may have pioneered this category.

3. Songs and artists that are so under the radar, that while they may not be on any greatest-of-all-time lists, they are good enough that one could imagine casual listeners of any genre appreciating the song and wanting to hear more.

A Venn diagram of any or all would probably overlap a lot. And I'm sure more than fifty-percent of my choices fall outside of these parameters.

Clarification/Obfuscation. I did well on the SAT verbal section, but not well enough to avoid contradicting myself all day long.

Bruce Springsteen - "Seaside Bar Song," 18 Tracks, Tracks(multi-disc set) How could anything Bruce has done be underrated you ask, you throngs of readers? I know it sounds absurd. On most fronts he is the single most overrated artist still recording today. Not because he isn't one of the best songwriters and performers of all-time, because he is. He is overrated because there is a certain segment of the population (I myself am on the fringe of this group) who are so vociferous about Bruce's greatness and so goddamned intolerable at his concerts (Could you please not sing along with the piano solo, NJBossFann76? Thanks) that it makes people who might enjoy Bruce otherwise, want to punch him in his tight jeans.

"Seaside Bar Song" is the exception to all this annoyingness. It was never on an official album, but on a set of demos and B-Sides that got released as "Tracks". This tune has all the standard Springsteen fare: muscle cars, boys with leather jackets, girls who are staying out too late, saxamaphones...you know the drill. But it is just so gosh darned fun and totally without pretense or melodrama, you can't help but wanna swing your hips, rev the engine, grab your lady and roll, roll, roll. You might stop hating people from the Jersey Shore as a result of this song, it's that good. Almost.

Seaside Bar Song - Bruce Sprin...

Built to Spill - "Sidewalk," Keep It Like a Secret

I won't try to write comprehensively about Doug Martsch, the singer/songwriter for Built to Spill, because I don't know enough about him to do it well. I know most fans prefer Perfect From Now On to Keep It Like a Secret, but I do not. Several songs on Keep It... are great, well-crafted pop tunes, several are the meandering guitar-heavy ruminations that endear Built to Spill to metalheads and indie-rockers alike.

"Sidewalk" is one of the few BTS songs that leaves me feeling happy at the end of it. Not that all of Martsch's songs are sad or depressing, but "Sidewalk" makes me look at the future in front of me, full of thousands of daunting choices, and realize that the first step is the most important one. Getting out onto the sidewalk is the first step to being happy and doing things you enjoy.

It is simple as hell, the musical equivalent of someone reminding you that we all put our pants on one leg at a time. But it works. And it almost makes you want to dance. And this song is underrated.

Sidewalk - Built To Spill

Underrated - B

I probably don't really have any business bandying about the word 'underrated' as some of these artists are probably very appropriately 'rated' in terms of quality and the current tastes of the populace. However, things I like, everyone should like because I'm a solipsistic egotist like that. As far as fun music writing goes, Chuck Klosterman takes on the "Overrated/Underrated." Klosterman is very good at what he does.

On to the B's.

Big Wreck - "The Oaf," In Loving Memory Of...

When I think of 1997, the first thing I recall is that "Sex and Candy" song and wanting to knock the mush-mouthed singer right off his coffeehouse stool. That's what having a song become so popular and inescapably ubiquitous does for a band--it makes otherwise reasonable music fans want to do you violence. Better to be underrated, I say.

Underrated that year was "The Oaf," which upon first listen sounds derivative of sources so numerous they are impossible to catalog. But dig deeper and there is an original voice here, one strong enough that the song sounds viable and modern thirteen years later. Anthemic and broad, Big Wreck still conveys an intimate understanding of twenty-something anxiety. When Ian Thornley sings about how his "luck is wasted," and that he is "on the run...somewhere," I knew then, and I still know, exactly what he's talking about.

Video Here:
Big Wreck - The Oaf


Billy Bragg & Wilco - "Secret of the Sea," Mermaid Avenue Vol. II -

Lyrics by Woody Guthrie. Apparently ol' Woody had quite a trove of song lyrics for which he had never recorded music. So English folk-singer and rabble-rouser Billy Bragg got together with Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, and the other fellers from Wilco to set Mr. Guthrie's words to song. Volume One contained the almost hit "California Stars." Not long after this project, Wilco became alt.country.pysch.rock.whatever giants with their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, finding success and attention as a result of the major label drama that accompanied the release of the album.

Volume Two wasn't quite as punchy and novel as the first Mermaid Avenue, but "Secret of the Sea" could've and should've found its way into regular rotation on any adult-alternative station. Purists prefer the Bragg-centered tunes, but Wilco absolutely hits it on the sweet-spot with this song. It is an exceptional pop composition--perfect verse, chorus, bridge--short enough that it leaves you wanting more and full of beautiful imagery courtesy of Woodrow Wilson Guthrie.

Secret Of The Sea - Billy Brag...

Black Star -"Definition," Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star - I won't try to catalog all of the myriad connections Mos Def and Talib Kweli have with the stars of the hip-hop galaxy, suffice it to say that even before they became relatively well-known they were Kevin Bacon-esque in their degrees of separation to nearly everyone with a sequencer and a Technics 1200. This song blew them up with every hip-hop head packing a sharpie and a set of chunky headphones plugged into a discman. Remember those? Twelve years later track is still hotfire on an iPod or in a club. And while the single charted at #3 in '98, it still never quite got them the attention I thought they warranted with this truly smart and danceable song.

"Definition" was a transitional moment for "conscious rap" for lack of a better term. The chorus mourns both Tupac and B.I.G., laments the forces in the rap world that led to their deaths and offers that hip-hop must be a more responsible art-form, without sacrificing the gotdamt fun. Outkast -Aquemini, Common - Like Water for Chocolate, The Roots - Things Fall Apart, all followed the release of this album and single. I gotta believe they all benefited.

The Kweli/Def counterpoint creates a compelling dynamic of two artists trying to simultaneously work together and outdo one another. Def begins dicing rhyme schemes, "from the first to the last of it/delivery is passionate/the whole and not the half of it/vocab and not the math of it," Kweli counters with a bit of intentional dichotomy, "Brooklyn, New York City where they paint murals of Biggie/in cash we trust 'cause this ghetto fabulous life look pretty..." This song should have outsold No Limit and Cash Money by double, but then I'm just a white dude with a computer.

Definition - Black Star

Or if you want sexy splash page ladies, check the video:

Underrated - A is for Apple iTunes

Trying to write more.
I have a novel working right now. I speak of it like it is a patty melt at a short order joint, so as to imbue it with a less daunting vibe.
In the meantime, figuring out why I gravitate towards music that is not as popular as it ought to be.

I like popular music. I just don't buy it until it is way past it's expiration date. Usually right before it becomes vintage or vinegar.

(When I say popular, I mean strong sales and high consumer traffic.)

I don't end up begrudging artists their success when or if they do become popular, but my attention tends to drift if they do start receiving the kudos I feel they deserve. Maybe subconsciously I fall into the crowd that wants to keep good, undiscovered music to themselves? Hopefully, this will be an effective way to subvert my inner hipster music-elitist.

In no particular order, except alphabetical, so yeah, in alphabetical order:

Adam and Dave's Bloodline - "Aftermarket Blues," Adam and Dave's Bloodline. These guys recorded two stellar albums as members of Marah and released this record on the Bielanko's label. The entire album is full of some good songwriting and strong performances from young artists. Nobody outside of Philly or the Marah circle has heard of these guys. But a song like "Aftermarket Blues" displays a clear savvy for marketable tunes written for fans of straigh-ahead Rock and Roll. They have truckloads of potential and a few very good songs, but they will probably never receive a ton of attention from the rest of the world.. Boilerplate underrated.

Atmosphere - "Panic Attack," You Can't Imagine How Much fun We're Having - Atmosphere got loads of attention from backpack wearing kids at all-ages venues all over the Midwest and Atlantic Coast and he's probably overrated in that demographic. But while Marshall Mathers got tagged as the Caucasian sensation, Slug (the primary MC/creative force) quietly continued to deliver intellectually complex, but still accessible, rap songs that spoke to the suburbs without exploiting anyone living in section 8. And some of his tracks are so simultaneously biting and catchy that late-model Dylan acolytes and REM fans should feel right at home. "Panic Attack" speaks to the large number of Americans who are dependent on their SSRI dealer. Check your WebMD, sucka.

Panic Attack - Atmosphere

The Avett Brothers - "Pretty Girl from Cedar Lane," Mignonette - These dudes are about to transition out of the underrated territory. Rick Rubin (Run DMC, Johnny Cash, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers) just produced their latest record, I and Love and You. That kind of pedigree means that everybody who ought to have heard about you has, and they bought the t-shirt. But I saw these dudes just three years ago, toiling away in a sweaty smokey bar on a Wednesday night with 48 people in the crowd. And they played like they were going to win the lottery if they sweat hard enough. There are better songs on this record, which is an extraordinary Country recording - we could go on and on about what is actually Country, but let's just play the "I know it when I hear it card." Despite their bucolic pedigree, they have a whole thematic series of "Pretty Girl" songs that spans their entire catalog, a fact which makes them super modern art cool. Marcel Duchamp meets Ernest Tubbs. They will remain underrated emeritus even after they go platinum.

Pretty Girl from Cedar Lane - ...

I've got like sixty of these things, so I'll try to get to the B's tomorrow.