Fruit Bats and Dry Spells

Been really, really busy with work stuff lately…sorry about the lack of creativity in posting. I do have two new reviews up at Dusted today, one of the Seattle alt.country-ish Fruit Bats (whose songwriter, oddly enough, is also in Factums) and the other of a mostly female folk rock band called Dry Spells, whom I might have mentioned before. Both pretty good.

Here's Fruit Bats "The Ruminant Band"

And Dry Spells "Lost Daughter"

Now back to work.

Stevie Nicks unexpectedly reappears in my life

Okay, I'll admit it. I wore out at least one cassette copy of the Stevie Nicks solo album during college...never bought into her fashion aesthetic, but I really liked "Leather & Lace." But, really, I was pretty sure I'd put all that behind me years ago, lives ago, along with Tommy Tu-Tone ("for the price of a dime, I can always turn to you") and (eek, embarrassing) Phil Collins. Then last week Madame shawls and cowboy boots made a surprise return visit to my music-listening life.

First, I started listening to the Dry Spells, Too Soon for Flowers, a really wonderful acid folk debut from a band made up mostly of the female contingent from Citay. They end with a cover...it's "Rhiannon." Which isn't one of the free mp3 giveaways, but here are some others:

"Lost Daughter"

"Batwood"

And also, I began to consider Lightning Dust's Infinite Light, and it occured to me that the only real reference point for Amber Wells' vibrato warped contralto was, you guessed it, Stevie Nicks.

"I Knew"

"Never Seen"

I'm reviewing both records for Dusted, though nothing will go up for a while.


In more legitimate news, I am really, really liking the new Dinosaur Jr., my kitchen recorde of the moment, nothing new here, but who plays else plays the guitar like that?

Also, I'm probably going to see Bowerbirds/Megafaun on Saturday, if I can get away. My son's in "As You Like It" all weekend long, but I think we're going to see the Friday show, not Saturday. Mission of Burma is playing a very low-key show in Northampton the night before, which I can't get to, but hope it means new material.