Ride Your Bike

"When I come back with the whiskey, I think you'll thank me."

Deep Elm always does right by me. Always. They could step it up a bit with their promo efforts, though. Ride Your Bike came out of the woodwork. Had I not only just found out about them, I would have been shouting their praises from rooftops a long, long time ago. The band, who hails from Fort Collins, is undoubtedly the best new thing to fall upon these ears in the past month. Praises, praises, praises. Their debut is called Bad News From The Bar - I'm sure we call all relate. Wait for the little horn breakdown in "Faster." It's my new favorite thing by far.

Ride Your Bike - Faster (highly rec'd)
Ride Your Bike - Dug In Deep

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The Cake Sale

"My weakness knows no subtlety."

Finals: I've spent the last 12,584 hours with my face glued to a textbook. It's a glamorous lifestyle. It leaves little time for music banter, unfortunately. But, if you're up for a quick fix...I could wax poetic about Glen Hansard. He gives me that floating-a-foot-off-the-ground feeling. I guess you could call it LOVE? He's phenomenal. His movie Once hits shelves next Tuesday I believe...just in time for Christmas. Buy it for someone. Maybe your significant other? It just makes sense. ANYWAY, I just came across a new track that he recorded for the charity compilation disc called the Cake Sale. All proceeds go to the Make Trade Fair campaign. And you simply can't argue with fair trade. The disc contains tracks from a lot of other notable Irish musicians, as well.

Glen Hansard - Too Many People

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Maps & Atlases

"We danced, shoes on shoes, to the sound of the spinning machine."

I'm at war with my iPod. It's far past its prime. Despite our disagreements, that magnificent little machine is essentially my lifeblood...I'm sitting on my own little goldmine. There are probably at least 100 new and/or promo albums loaded up that have yet to go into rotation. My long city bus rides down to campus are usually the time in which to explore. In one such instance I happened upon Maps & Atlases. They play over the top, experimental, discordant music - which, as I'm describing it, probably sounds like a disaster. I don't listen to disaster - so rest assured, its not. The band resides in Chicago (which makes me like them even more), and released their most recent EP, Trees, Swallows, Houses, back in 2006.

Maps & Atlases - The Ongoing Horrible
Maps & Atlases - The Most Trustworthy Tin Cans

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