in particular, i'm looking forward to albums by ali roberts, deerhoof, low and bill callahan in the next couple of months... see my other thread for gigs

The Hold Steady are an above avrage bar band if you think early Springsteen is bar band stuff too. I've not heard the last album but Seperation Sunday is very good.

i bought the hold steady album this week after hearing nothing but good things about it and i was massively disappointed.

i'd much rather listen to springsteen than springsteen pretenders!

Hold Steady aside...if you're looking for new releases check out Rest's Operation:Impending Doom and Beangrowers' Dance Dance Baby (even if she does pronounce dance as donce...)

Not too up on a lot of new tunes, but some quality old stuff i've been getting into lately

American Dance Orchestras of the 1920's - Thats What I Call Sweet Music (This is awesome, it features "doc cook and his 14 doctors of syncopation" how the hell can it be bad!)
King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
Rory Gallagher - A Bad Day For The Blues
Django Reinhardt - Guitar Genius

and for a jaunt down gypsy lane, Taraf De Haidouks

Hey Stephen!

Have you heard of a Dutch band called Solbakken? Wondering how well known they are in Europe. Their album Klonapet has some moments that remind me a bit of Whipping Boy, but more laid back.

You might like Jenny Lewis w/the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat. Sorry if it's already been talked into the ground here, I haven't visited in a long time and I'm still catching up on the board traffic.

Granted there's been no high-publicity wowmegamusicbuyitbuyitbuyitoryourfriendswon'tlikeyou releases yet, like Arctic Monkeys or Strokes in years bygone, I think it's been a better 2007 than 2006 could ever have hoped to be. Go check out Of Montreal's newie ("Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?") for a start. I'm not a huge Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! fanboy, but some of the second albums a weebit fantastic. Then there's Deerhunter's "Cryptograms" and Deerhoof's "Friend Opportunity". Bloc Party? The Good The Bad And The Queen? Arcade Fi....Oh...We have to be legal about things here I guess...

But that list should at least have you humming through to the start of Spring

You have got to hear Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance. - http://www.johanagebjorn.info/sally.html

It's melancholy Swedish pop wrapped up in a glitzy Italdisco wrapper. Yes, Italdisco, like Giorgio Moroder, don't be afraid indie guitar types, Pitchfork says it's ok.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/40331/Sally_Shapiro_Disco_Romance

This is already a cult sleeper hit. Just try getting your hands on an actual physical CD copy of it anywhere though, after trying several sites a few days ago and finding it totally sold out, I ended up buying and downloading and MP3 version from beatport - https://www.beatport.com/

Wonderful stuff.... thanks guys.

Am intrigued by Sally Shapiro and Montreal. I am also happy that my fellow CLUASers are not offering accolades to Hold Steady. I've been an avid UNCUT reader since issue 1 but I seem to be regularly disagreeing with their choices. I am, for example, finding the latest Lamchop a little melancholy, I've already mentioned Hold Steady and their insistence that Americana is a scene that's continued to produce quality records is becoming less and less convincing.

I wouldn't find the Hold Steady unlistenable, per se. Some of the early stuff in particular (Charlmagne in Sweatpants) is quite *pauses for thought* catchy. Resoundedly catchy, and not a whole else more. The Boss rip is so blatant you have to wonder how they've garnered so much press though. Perhaps it's all because of that one great line: "Tramps like us, baby, and we like tramps" That earned them a couple of hours on my audioscrobbler.

Americana is a scene I've never quite dived into the deep end of. I think the music coming from the Old Maple has been better than the British and American scenes combined these past few years. The Allied forces have been churning out a steady stream of rehashes, replays and reminders that the 80's wasn't THAT great, but so many records from Canada have been inspired, cockle-warming, stuck-in-yer-CD-player (or Shuffle list, whatever) affairs.

There's still Elephant 6 mind

What exactly qualifies as Americana? I wouldn't call the Hold Steady Americana. To me, Americana is Neko Case, My Morning Jacket (anything that uses a lot of reverb!) and maybe 16 Horsepower.

For me Americana is about inspiration. A band like the Replacements or Uncle Tupelo sang about where they were from and drew upon country and rock and the bar to come up with a dense sound that just sounds... American? I admit that Hold Steady hold more than just a flame to Springsteen (as has been mentioned above) but, to me, Hold Steady aren't that far removed from Richmond Fontaine. All that's missing is the twang...

screw Americana, Belgiana is where it's at... (country music with added EBM) :o)

Played with them recently on their tour, really tight band from Malta and really sound aswell.
Cathchy tunes, they ended the set with Advantage McEnroe, dont think its on their myspace but its on their album.

The "donce, donce" thing is quite amusing, a bit of a quirk i think.

Played with them recently on their tour, really tight band from Malta and really sound aswell.
Cathchy tunes, they ended the set with Advantage McEnroe, dont think its on their myspace but its on their album.

The "donce, donce" thing is quite amusing, a bit of a quirk i think.