In no particular order:

Grant Lee Phillips - Virginia Creeper
Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
John Vanderslice - Cellar Door
Lali Puna - Faking the Books
Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
Madvillain - Madvillainy
90 Day Men - Panda Park
Superpitcher - Here Comes Love

I'm still on the cusp with a number of new released so my list hasn't changed significantly, but Modest Mouse _Good News..._ has definitely moved into the ranks of my 2004 Faves.

I would also include The Real Tuesday Weld's _I, Lucifer_, though I think it might have been issued in Europe in 2002. Anybody else familiar with it?

Now Playing: "Dancing With the Past" Bill Lloyd _Back To Even_ (New Boss Sounds)

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Originally posted by LinnTate:

I would also include The Real Tuesday Weld's _I, Lucifer_, though I think it might have been issued in Europe in 2002. Anybody else familiar with it?

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My local music pundit recommended this. He said it was a mixture of 20s jazz, bossa nova, Broadway and 80s synth. Then, he namedropped influences, such as Tom Waits, the Divine Comedy, the Dandy Warhols, Astor Pizzolla and Matt Bianco. I was starting to think it might be worth checking out when he said it was appealing like a less-cheesy Taco ("Puttin' on the Ritz.") [I prefer Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle's version in "Young Frankenstein."] So, LT, are you guaranteeing I'm going to go for it?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mark f,

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Originally posted by LinnTate:
You meant overlooked, right PE?

Next time I'm in St. Louis, which isn't infrequently, I'd admire to buy you a pint or two of what your drinking, pick your brain, and listen to you tell me about the 6,000 or so great shows you've seen.

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Wow, that was a slip. I CERTAINLY meant overlooked.

Any time you're heading to the STL, drop me a line. We can hit any of the hundreds of fine dive bars in town. My "locals" are Fred's Music Lounge and the Black Thorn, but as long as the beer is cold, I don't complain.

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Originally posted by mark f:
My local music pundit recommended this. He said it was a mixture of 20s jazz, bossa nova, Broadway and 80s synth. Then, he namedropped influences, such as Tom Waits, the Divine Comedy, the Dandy Warhols, Astor Pizzolla and Matt Bianco. I was starting to think it might be worth checking out when he said it was appealing like a less-cheesy Taco ("Puttin' on the Ritz.") [I prefer Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle's version in "Young Frankenstein."] So, LT, are you guaranteeing I'm going to go for it?

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I guarantee only that "he's going to be very popular."

I pretty much agree with your local music pundit's description, though I would name drop Leonard Cohen as well. To further name something it resembles, I would suggest the soundtrack to last year's animated film The Triplets of Belleville. And, like that soundtrack (IL is intended as the sountrack to the novel of the same name?!!), I am always on the edge of feeling like I'm missing some kind of reference listening to it on it's own. Like Randy Newman's excellent _Faust_ (which is, to say the least, thematically similar) there is some music that really stands well on its own here, but the CD taken alone is only part of a larger whole.

Perhaps I should track down the novel, but I still like this album a lot.

Now Playing: "Sun A.M." Moonbabies _The Orange Billboard_ (Parasol)

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
My "locals" are Fred's Music Lounge and the Black Thorn, but as long as the beer is cold, I don't complain.

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We're of a mind about that one. I'll regale you with stories of some of Freddy Friction's early spoon "gigs." In particular, a night at Dressel's when the patrons and the members of Chamber Jazz got a bit more than they bargained for letting Fred sit in.

Now Playing: "Over My Head" Moonbabies _The Orange Billboard_ (Parasol)

1. devendra banhart rejoicing in the hands

2. loretta lynn van lear rose

3. nellie mckay get away from me

4. felix da housecat devin dazzle and the neon fever

5. animal collective sung tongs

6. sondre lerche two way monologue

7. scissor sisters scissor sisters

8. jason forrest the post 1979 disco crash

9. miss kittin i com

ps. I can't wait for the new Bjork album 'Medulla'!

Updated:

Penelope Houston - Pale Green Girl
Abra Moore - Everything Changed
Patti Smith - Trampin'
Indigo Girls - All That We Let In
Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin
Wilco - Ghost Is Born
Corrs - Borrowed Heaven
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
A.C. Newman - Slow Wonder

Sounds like good ones coming in July include albums from Sarah Hudson, Maria Mena, and surprisingly Ashlee Simpson - so this list could change soon.

1: Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
2: The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows
3: Air - Talkie Walkie
4: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
5: Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days

1.Beulah "Yoko"
2.Scissor Sisters "Scissor Sisters"
3.Ron Sexsmith "Retriever"
4.Of Montreal "Satanic panic in the attic"
5.The Von Bondies "Pawn shopped heart"
6.The Magnetic Fields "i"
7.Sondre Lerche "Two way monologue"
8.Jude "Sarah"
9.Franz Ferdinand "Franz Ferdinand"
10.Phoenix "alphabetical"

01 Ghostface – The Pretty Toney Album

02 Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose

03 Madvillain – Madvillainy

04 Fiery Furnaces – Blueberry Boat

05 Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News

06 Courtney Love – America's Sweetheart

07 Gretchen Wilson – Here for the Party

08 Los Lonely Boys – s/t

09 Kanye West – The College Dropout

10 Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans

Hey, Dirk. I really like your list as well as your list of favorite bands who are active as of this moment, so I wonder if you can help me out what something.

You like Los Lonely Boys. Lots of people like Los Lonely Boys. Given their roots and credentials I should LOVE Los Lonely Boys. Why don't I like Los Lonely Boys? I've listened to he album several times and 1) I can't stop comparing it unfavorably to Los Lobos, which is unfair because they're really only similar on a superficial level, 2) The albums just seems to lack any heart or passion to my ears.

I know, these aren't exactly questions you can answer easily on somebody else's behalf. I'm just wondering what you (and an awful lot of other smart people) hear in them.

Now Playing: "Cinnamon" The Long Winters When I Pretend To Fall streaming on Seattle's KEXP

A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder - Yummy Yummy indie pop/rock.
Butterfly Boucher - Flutterby - Good Ol' sophisticated pop music the way that it should be written, played and produced. She wrote all her songs and played all the instruments.
Jem - Finally Woken - what dido would sound like with a little more hip hop flare
Ilya - They Died for Beauty - Wonderful sophisticated "trip-hop" music. If you've seen the Revlon Commericals that are suppossed to be mini movies, you've already heard one of their tracks.
!!! - Louden Up Now - fun

Kanye West - College Dropout is my favorite and I actually kinda liked the Murphy Lee cd!

Psychobabble, have you heard and do you have any opinion of The Butchies' Make Yr Life?

Now Playing: "Good Morning Heartache" Ella Fitzgerald Happy Birthday Newport: Fifty Swinging Years (Sony)

A more complete list

My top ten, again

architecture in helsinki - fingers crossed
tamion 12 inch - let's suffer
mclusky - the difference between me and you is that I'm not on fire
craig taborn - junk magic
ac newman - the slow wonder
espers - espers
el-p - high water
clouddead - ten
tv on the radio - desperate youth, bloodthirsty babes
loretta lynn - van lear rose

everything else, not in order:

sufjan stevens - seven swans
oneida - secret wars
liars - they were wrong so we drowned
xiu xiu - fabulous muscles
murs - murs 3:16
stereolab - margerine eclipse
ghost - hypnotic underworld
busdriver - cosmic cleavage
deerhoof - milk man
madvillain - madvillainy
daedelus - of snowdonia
tortoise - it's all around you
blonde redhead - misery is a butterfly
walkmen - bows and arrows
animal collective - sung tongs
yesterday's new quintet - stevie
black dice - creature comforts
air - talkie walkie
secret machines - now here is nowhere
gd luxxe - from zero to eternity
goudron - raw voltage
jim guthrie - now more than ever
fennesz - venice
fred anderson and hamid drake - back together again
dave douglas - strange liberation

If it's from 2004, and it's not here, I'm not digging it or I haven't heard it

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Buck "Sweetie" McGuck,

My favorites of the year thus far:

1. Electrelane: The Power Out
2. Modest Mouse: Good News For People...
3. The Hold Steady: Almost Killed Me
4. Wilco: A Ghost Is Born
5. Mirah: C'mon Miracle

Eagerly awaiting the release of the Mendoza Line's Fortune, which could topple Electrelane.

Kanye West with College Dropout!! Everything he says means something! He dosn't just rap about guns, sex, and drugs!!!

Kanye West takes my vote

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Originally posted by Brian:
Kanye West with College Dropout!! Everything he says means something! He dosn't just rap about guns, sex, and drugs!!!

Kanye West takes my vote

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Yes, but he does rap about drugs and sex, though, doesn't he? And not necessaily in a negative light, either (see "Get 'Em High").

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Psychobabble, have you heard and do you have any opinion of The Butchies' Make Yr Life?]

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LinnTate I have not, but will now check them out.