Recently in New Music Tuesday Category

On And On, Jack Johnson's second album, was not a bad one. On the whole, though, the songs were shorter and more compact than on his debut, Brushfire Fairytales, and that to me was not necessarily a good thing. I loved Brushfire, so to me, an album that maintains the same feel and sound as that one and yet still progresses musically is going to be a fine achievement. In Between Dreams is such an achievement.

The songs are longer; the lyrics have the usual depth and rhythm that you'd expect from Johnson. The melodies are instantly catchy and infectious, and it seems there's no shortage of single material here. This will be a great album to pop in as the weather gets warmer; it just seems like the perfect CD to listen to while cruising with the windows down. I dig it, in other words. Give it a look-see at the link on his site.

Meet the Barenaked Ladies. Meet BNL on their second album, Maybe You Should Drive. I am a completist when it comes to bands I love; I usually don't stop until I have every album they've released that's still in print. For some odd reason, this entry into BNL's catalogue escaped my clutches until late last week. The circumstances leading up to the purchase were two-fold: I have been listening to a lot of live BNL lately, and I needed something else to go with my Amazon purchase to score the free Super Saver Shipping. That leads us to today, when I popped Drive into my CD changer and gave it a listen. So this is where all those other songs on Rock Spectacle came from! It was cool to hear the original versions, and I was duly impressed. BNL is a band of guys that don't care to be goofy when the mood strikes them, but they can also craft some really intricate and clever songs.

In short, pick yourself up some Barenaked Ladies at once.

... In other news, you gotta love guys in funny hats. Wesley Innertube Water Polo is kicking butt, with two more wins tonight. Simply outstanding!

I've got a short selection for this week's new music, but it's from one of my favorite "sleeper" bands, one that I tried out on a whim from Borders and have loved their stuff ever since.

The Old 97's - Drag It Up Available July 27

The Old 97's started out being what you would call alt-country, and I discovered them in their Fight Songs album when I was in a phase of buying stuff I'd never heard of to see if I liked it. And I did, quite thoroughly. Though they were even more country in their albums previous to Songs and 2001's Satellite Rides, which was basically summery pop, I believe they've returned to form on this effort. Try it out, or try out one of the albums I already mentioned. They're in my collection, and Drag It Up soon will be.

I bumped the Tuesday music discussion to today to make way for the final installment of the Hershey story. Also, I couldn't find a whole lot being released this week that I was interested in, but after some digging, I came across one that should be pretty interesting:

Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch, Fats Kaplin - You Can't Save Everybody Available July 20

I used to watch CMT a lot, while I was still big into my country music phase. This was back in the middle school days, mind you. But back then, they had their own version of MTV's 120 Minutes, called something like CMT Jams or the like. This was where CMT could get away with playing alt-country videos from the likes of Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, and even the occasional Jimmy Buffett tune. Like its MTV counterpart, it was on at a very weird time - I'm wanting to say late Saturday night. It was watching these videos that got me introduced to alt-country-rockers/singer-songwriters Kieran Kane and Kevin Welch. I don't remember much about their history, other than that they co-founded Dead Reckoning Records and the Dead Reckoners. I may indulge in finding out more about them during the next few days, but my main point here is that some of their singles from those videos I watched years ago still ring in my head today. They wrote some really good songs for a mid-90's guy like me to enjoy.

As it turns out, these two have now teamed up for a new collection of songs. I know little to nothing about this album, but if nothing else, seeing their names on a new release has reminded me of that span of years in the 90's when I was first expanding my music listening. I may have to give this one a try, or at least try to pick up some of Kane and Welch's back catalog.