LIFTER PULLER: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifter_Puller
The best band in history of which you've never heard. The Hold Steady before The Hold Steady, basically--but with vaguely post-post-new-wave/pre-new-new-wave (rather than The Hold Steady's classic rock revivalist) riffs, a few keys, and a continuining, surprisingly dense narrative whose end is subtly given away in one of the first songs they ever recorded, only to come back and hit you like a bullet between the eyes, when you finally get to the last song on the last record..."The Flex and the Buff Result," from
Fiestas + Fiascos. One of the greatest bands of all time. "Mission Viejo" is the best song Springsteen never managed to write. Unbelievable. Get introduced to Juanita, Katrina, Nightclub Dwight, The Eyepatch Guy, and the rest of the gang, and then thank me, when your life changes forever.
Karmella's Game: www.karmellasgame.com
www.myspace.com/karmellasgame
The Baltimore scene really is as rich and diverse as you've been made to believe. Great stuff is happening, over there.
Titanic Love Affair: www.myspace.com/titanicloveaffair
Jay Bennett's old band. Proof, too, of what a hack Jeff Tweedy really is.
The Ike Reilly Assassination: www.ikereilly.com
www.myspace.com/ikereilly
One of the best songwriters currently kicking around. His latest album,
We Belong to the Staggering Evening, is one of the best I've heard all year, and easily his best, so far. I already tried to start a thread, but found myself reprimanded for being too enthusiastic. Whatever. He's worth it.
Chikita Violenta: www.chikitaviolenta.com
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=35636022
Fantastic Mexican band which recently hooked up with none other than Dave "I'm-The-Best-Active-Producer-Outside-of-the-Greater-Hip-Hop-Community" Newfeld to produce one of the year's finer records--the painfully-titled
The Stars and Suns Sessions.
Zumpano: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumpano
These cats are, of course, long-since gone, but that hardly makes them any less awesome. Before making solo records and fronting one of the world's five best bands, in The New Pornographers, A.C. Newman was kickin' ass and taking names with his homeboys, Zumpano. Great stuff.
By Divine Right: www.myspace.com/bydivineright
I guess that people probably know these dudes up in Canada, where they and everybody else help out in the BSS collective/commune, but mo'fuckers sure as shit don't know 'em, back in Chicago (nor does anybody from any other, non-Canada country, as far as I know). Fucking fantastic. "Stella Heart Ocean," from
Good Morning, Beautiful, is everything the summer is supposed to sound like. ...And, now that I think about it, they got a shout-out in a New Pornographers song, from
Electric Version. What's not to love, you know?
One could only imagine what their second effort would have been like.
