We're trying a little experiment here: A podcast, which will hopefully become a weekly event featuring discussion with my Courant colleagues Stephen Busemeyer and Eric Gershon (and others, as schedules allow) about worthwhile new albums. In the first, posted below, we talk about Son Volt's new album "The Search." Future episodes will feature the Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem and more.
We're calling it Sound Check for now, after the name of my column in The Courant and this blog. Feedback is welcome, either in the Comments section below, or e-mailed to me.
Thanks for checking it out.
I've seen SonVolt several times and was blown away each time. Jay Farrar lets his music do the talking which is something I appreciate as a music fan. He's an exceptional lyricist, he doesn't repeat the lines of others even though the sentiments may be similar. Music should be more about what you are hearing and less about what you are seeing. I'm not a huge fan of Wilco. I find alot of their songs to be painfully underwritten. Wilco is a much more commerically successful act than SonVolt is, however, J Farrar is far more intellectually satisfying to listen to than Tweedy could ever be. J Farrar is a classic songwriter and to echo the words of Danton he is in my opinion as well one the most important songwriters around today. I haven't heard the new record yet, but the little tidbits from the podcast sound great. I definitely won't feel bad about purchasing a Son Volt record. A guy like Farrar is underappreciated because he isn't flashy. Which says a lot about how flawed we are as a society. The things we tend to put value in, especially in art, are so fucked up and misguided. J Farrar deserves to be making records. Hat's off to the inaugural podcast.
Posted by: Bali | March 17, 2007 at 10:20 PM