Casiotone for the Painfully Alonge – Etiquette (Tomlab)
I’m pretty sure this is my favorite album of the year so far. Casiotone…’s formerly small, homemade-sounding pop music is now big, colorful, and even more addictive, without losing any of its charm or personality.
Willie Nelson – You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker (Lost Highway)
Another of my 2006 favorites so far, this is jewel of an album, featuring well-crafted country-western songs from the past, lovingly and thoughtfully sung by Nelson.
Old 97s – Wreck Your Life (Bloodshot)
Hearing Rhett Miller’s hard-to-bear, self-conciously ‘lovable’ new solo album, The Believer, has made me head back to this early Old 97s album, to re-experience the rougher, more rebellious, and much more affecting demeanor Miller’s music once had.
Two Gallants – What the Toll Tells (Saddle Creek)
Dynamite outlaw American music is still being made, in that general country vein (albeit with a real punk raggedness and attitude). Extreme murder ballads, they tear through them in a visceral way.
Beat Happening – Dreamy
I watched the K Records documentary The Shield Around the K for the first time recently. I found its disjointedness and vagueness a bit disapointing, but its focus on Beat Happening in its earliest scenes got me remembering how much I love their music.
Various Artists – Pop the Question (Book Club)
A great melody-packed indie-pop compilation with a unique slant, featuring only bands that have married couples as members.
Kind of Like Spitting – The Thrill of the Hunt (Redder)
I like this quiet, sensitive yet complicated album from Kind of Like Spitting even better than their other new album, the more eclectic (and also quite good) In the Red (Hush).
Acid House Kings – “Keep Your Love”
My favorite sing-along song lately is this rebuke to a would-be lover, spiteful yet sung with so much joy and energy.
Cinderella Man (PG-13)
This movie was so much better than I expected it to be, really riveting though I care nothing about boxing. When it comes to big-budget, cheesy, aimed-at-mass audiences but quite entertaining Hollywood films, I’m thinking Ron Howard has a better track record with me than many directors of similar stature (I’m thinking of Ransom, Ed TV, and A Beautiful Mind, at least).
Jim Thompson – After Dark, My Sweet (Vintage)
I’ve been starting to investigate the mystery authors of the past who I haven’t read, particularly those ‘hard-boiled’ crime writers not named Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. Right now I’m on this lean, mean Jim Thompson novel from 1955, which so far is fantastic.
