I’m playing it heaps and just loving it. The highlights would be ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ and ‘Do Me A Favour.’ Over and out ;)

Elliot Smith
New Moon

I have no problems plugging a posthumous release. It’s just a sad thing ain’t it. Strangely the dead are best aren’t they? Hendrix, Morrison, James Brown, Jeff Buckley, etc. Not a perfect list but you get the gist.
I never really got in to Elliot Smith, I listened from a distance. Thankfully it’s nice to be a ‘late’ fan. I didn’t have the musical attachment when he died, so I can’t get too critical of the later music. ‘New Moon’ is very folk listen-able. I believe it’s his distinct voice that turns (turned?) some people away. None the less, this guy was a brilliant artist and this CD demonstrates that sweetly.
Even if you have no interest in the artist, this album could make cool background music for some random occasion. In comparison most of the Jeff Buckley releases have been cringe worthy! But I was one of many to play the Grace Album to death.

The Elliot Smith on line scene is pretty deep. Just cast your eye over www.sweetadeline.net to see what I mean.

The Bees
Octopus

Album Of The Month is The Bees ‘Octopus’. I like the variety in The Bees music, this album is just a bit too short the end sneaks up quickly. So you just have to play it again and again :)
They have some dub-ish groovy tracks on the latter half which I really dig.

If you’re lucky enough to see The Bees live, you’ll find they are the real deal. They’re a solid group, excellent musicians. We saw them at the Corner Hotel earlier this year. At gigs we usually get drunk and forget to take a photo… the usual happened that night.
However I did find someone blogging about The Bees and they have photos. Ventnor sounds interesting, I should check it out one day. Btw, I stole their album image. Yes officer I did it.

If you listen Octopus and you’re not sold have a listen to the previous album ‘Free The Bees’. You’ll probably recognise the slightly annoying Chicken Payback.

Now last month I did myself a dis-service, by not linking off to a bunch of sites you could easily find anyhow. This month I’m not going to let me down.

The Bees have a new site, which frankly is a shocker! It looks a bit like Myspace, enough said. I liked the old site, it had the less is more feel.

Cya

Wilco
Sky Blue Sky

Firstly I’m biased. It’s been a Wilco month for me. I saw them play twice in my home town, both nights were awesome. They played a lot of the new songs and they play so so well live. Not to mention I briefly spoke to Jeff Tweedy and got a poster signed. There’s a lot of feeling in this album it’s, um.. beautiful. It’s fun too, a lot of Wilco in short to medium length songs with brilliant change ups. Rocking toe tappers and heart string pullers, all at once.

For some reason I want to encourage Pink Floyd fans to try this album. That does neither band justice. I am not saying they are anything alike. There’s something in the music this time around. I don’t know enough about music to explain it. I’m just going leave it at that. Ner ner.

Wilco have a top notch community / network / scene going on. All the web stuff they do (shows, downloads, etc) is a tiny piece of Wilco. It’s not some throw away web crap. They humble their fans with top notch performances and material, new listeners are blown away everyday.

Go buy Sky Blue Sky it’s a decent record.

If you want to try before you buy, have a listen at WilcoWorld.net. Wilco are taper friendly, so if you want to hear some homebrew live recordings try bt.etree.org or others.