Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category.Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells more like the Kinks than Neil Young. [Editor's note: That's why we put it on our indie-rock list.] We likewise discarded Shearwater's near-masterpiece Rook, despite the fact that the album'
David Sedaris' publicist asks Unreal to bend the space-time continuum. Plus: the blog of a former Cards hurler, and an obituary for Jim Igoe, the Delmar Poet.
Unreal works up a sweat over B-list celebs' military records and plays with anthrax in Forest Park. Plus, a local blogger does his gay part on a hallowed gay day.
When I spoke with Jay Farrar a few months ago, he mentioned that the Jack Kerouac-inspired project he recorded with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard was "in the works, and it could possibly come out in the fall, like around October."
Good estimate: A press release just landed in my inbox stating that the collaboration, One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur, is due October 20 from F-Stop/Atlantic Records. The collection's twelve songs feature lyrics based on the prose of Kerouac's 1962 n
Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard are playing four shows in October, to celebrate the release of their Jack Kerouac-inspired collaboration, One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur. The closest tour date is October 26 in Chicago at Lincoln Hall -- and judging by the band backing the pair, a road trip might be a no-brainer: The band features Jay Farrar (Son Volt), Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service), Nick Harmer (Death Cab for Cutie), Mark Spencer (Son Volt) and Jon Wurster (
No matter how many people he knows at a St. Louis Son Volt show, Jay Farrar will always be the guy who played a big part in creating the "alt. country" genre. Twenty years after Uncle Tupelo's heyday, Farrar and the current Son Volt line-up stay true to their roots without being strangled by them, presenting a set that sometimes rocks, sometimes twangs, and always remains heartfelt and honest.
Son Volt's Friday night show opened with the twang-free "The Picture." Without the horn section from
