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Chicken has been a muse to many great musicians. Me, I don’t get it. Even back when I ate meat, chicken ran a distant third to the other land-based meats.
The popularity of chicken songs might have more to do with the socioeconomic status of the folk and blues musicians, who probably couldn’t afford to have [...]

I guess I can blame not knowing about the new Antony And The Johnsons EP on the fact that I was out of the country, but that doesn’t excuse me not telling you about it, dear ones.
If you haven’t heard their 2005 album I Am A Bird Now, I beg you — please do. And [...]

I can’t even begin to describe my love for these tipi-loving hippies.
Vielleicht you have to be in just the right mood, but once that mood and this music come together, dear hearts, I will see you later.
Locals will find them at the Du Nord in a week or so. I’ll be on the other side [...]

My favorite songs on Blitzen Trapper’s first album Wild Mountain Nation had that feel like they weren’t brand-new songs — they felt like they’d always been around, and Blitzen Trapper had just helped them to surface.
Furr has that sound start-to-finish. Like when you finally get around to listening to a “classic” album — familiar, new, [...]

It had to happen sooner or later — the Jazz category. I wouldn’t say it’s the jazziest jazz, but Ronny Jordan counts as jazz so jazz it is. (Jazz.)
I’ve resisted delving deeply into jazz for fear that once I dive in I will never come out. (I’m saving that for my 50s.) So I only [...]

It’s one thing to start it with a positive jam, it’s another thing to see it on through
Stay Positive finds The Hold Steady completing their unlikely yet somehow inevitable transformation from great shouty indie band to Great American Rock & Roll Band. (Turns out all it took was a little singing.)
Is anybody anywhere having more [...]

As long as I’m on the subject of artist-compiled mixes, here’s something that good ol’ Annie told me about on her entry in the DJ-Kicks series, which is a really screwed-up album (in a very good way).
Who knows? Without Annie, maybe I would have gone my whole life without knowing that there was an entire [...]

In late 2002, I needed to go to New York for a friend’s wedding. The first thing I did was get plane tickets. The second thing I did was check to see who was going to be playing. I was stoked to see that Moistboyz was going to be playing at a converted peepshow establishment [...]

Rest peacefully, Eddy.
Eddy Arnold - Cattle Call from whichever compilation you like — allmusic recommends the 1967 RCA collection The Best Of Eddy Arnold (amazon / itunes)

Following the explosively talented (and shockingly cute) Dodos on stage is a difficult task, but that was Les Savy Fav’s lot at the Great American Music Hall Sunday night.
Frontman Tim Harrington is explosive and shocking in his own right, and although his band couldn’t quite equal the Dodo magic, it certainly was not for lack [...]