AKA That To Which I Have Been Listening!

Greg Laswell, Take A Bow Following a Twitter tip, I started to Google "Greg Laswell" and the third auto-completed result was "greg laswell married." Yeah, after hearing "Take Everything" a few times I was ready to marry him, too. The songwriting is knife-sharp but it's the arrangements that hold my fascination. Taking notes on this one.

The Solvents, Forgive Yr Blood I don't understand how this happens. How does a local band -- a critically-acclaimed, blogger-beloved, KEXP-endorsed touring band, no less -- exist for years right under my nose and I'm only finding out about them now? There's something here that reminds me of how I felt after listening to R.E.M.'s Reckoning, where you just don't get it at first, but you listen again, and again, and by the fourth or fifth spin you realize just how effortlessly good it all is but you don't really know why.

Pete Yorn, Pete Yorn I have this pet theory that PY records are like the classic Star Trek movies, every other release is awesome and the ones in between -- not so much. I've come to enjoy all of PY's releases, eventually, but this one feels a little bit like leftovers from Back And Fourth. (That said, I have yet to hear Break Up.) I suspect this one will grow on me with repeated listenings.

Andrew Norsworthy, Big Picture Blues When I moved here in 2003, Andrew was one of the first Seattle musicians I stumbled across online. I didn't know at the time that his former band, Crystal Radio, had also included Pat and Josh from Explone, or that Andrew had sung on the first Explone record. Strange times!

Anyway, Andrew is a talented guitarist and probably the most gifted lyricist I've ever met. His album is free at Bandcamp. You should grab it.