The Best Thing I Heard This Week-Middle Brother

Rarely are side projects worth listening to, much less the best thing I hear in a given week. By their nature they are secondary to whatever the main project may be, meaning they're done with less stress, less effort, and more fun. Unfortunately, said fun often fails on translate to the actual record, but for Middle Brother, whatever combination they have going works. Middle Brother consists of Deer Tick’s John McCauley, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, and Delta Spirit’s Matthew Vasquez.

The Best Thing I Heard This Week-Motopony

I must admit that I almost didn't listen to this record because the band calls itself "Motopony." I was harboring under the illusion that I would not like any band that started with the prefix "moto." Well, we all make mistakes, I guess. Motopony's self-titled debut is pretty fantastic. It's polished but not cheap, and deftly manages a mid-tempo pace without falling into a malaise.

Goodnight, Irene

Best song about Irene?

My favorite version:



The Leadbelly original:



Photo by Leah732

The Best Thing I Heard this Week-Chris Bathgate

I am a sucker (or perhaps an enthusiast) for great first tracks. As I say this, it seems so overly obvious that it shouldn’t be stated--rather, who isn’t enthralled by a great first track?** Well, years ago, the answer was probably no one. Now, however, I don’t think the answer is quite as obvious. Seemingly, more of the public listens to one or two tracks from an album that they like, and either dismisses the rest of the record or never bothers to hear it in the first place. This is by now not a new phenomenon, but one that has been going on for more than ten years I would imagine. Which is a long-winded way of saying that having a great first track only matters to people who listen to whole albums, and not the track that randomly gets posted on their Facebook wall or that they hear on the radio. I am one of those people, Chris Bathgate’s Salt Year is one of those albums, and the first track, “Eliza (Hue)” is one of those great openers that only comes around every so often.