That's Two Cow Garage, Columbus' own cowpunk heroes. I suspect they will never appear on MTV's Total Requests Live. It's okay.They are part of my Best of 2009 Playlist As It Now Stands (yes, there are four more months left in the year), but I strongly suspect that no one is going to knock them off. That's because they write killer ragged Americana, all grit and heart, and still manage to sound like slumming poets:
She wore a Led Zeppelin T-shirt
A Virgin Mary tattoo
On her left shoulder like a badge of honor
Fading green to blue
For the record, the first three songs prominently feature the work "fuck." Praise God. I don't know why. It just worked out that way. There's a bit of everything here; raw rock 'n roll, weird freak folk stuff, New Wave retro throwbacks, power pop, raunchy blues, lounge music from the Holiday Inn on Pluto, a psalm featuring a guy who wails at the top of his lungs, some hip-hop, and some latter-day prog rock. Here's who is on the list, which just barely fits onto one 80-minute CD:
- California On My Mind -- Wild Light
- Love Ire & Song -- Frank Turner
- Car Bomb Times -- Gretel
- Party To Survive -- No Through Road
- To Ohio -- The Low Anthem
- Preacher Blues -- Dave Perkins
- Sadie Mae -- Two Cow Garage
- Norman Bleik -- I Was a King
- Shreveport -- The Gourds
- Channel -- Joe Henry
- Quest for Noah's Ark -- Southeast Engine
- End in Flames -- Strand of Oaks
- The Dethbridge in Lethbridge -- The Rural Alberta Advantage
- In Babylon -- Aaron Strumpel
- Stream (A Well Dried Up) -- Gasoline Heart
- Cooperstown -- The Felice Brothers
- The Heartbreak Rides -- A.C. Newman
- This Goes Out -- Will Gray
- Amazing Thing -- The Receiver
Thanks. Always great to follow your "year's best" lists, especially since they inevitably include songs from earlier years.
ReplyDeleteGlad that all but two of these were on Rhapsody (which finally uploaded Dave Perkins's album) and one that wasn't (Car Bomb Times) was on lala. Gasoline Heart's Stream isn't on lala or Rhapsody so I'm out of luck unless I want to pay iTunes. (But I'll skip it: it's a 2006 song anyway...)
That's odd about the Gasoline Heart song, Ted. I have it on an album called "Cumcumber Riot," released spring of '09. Researching further, it appears that that one was a compilation album featuring both old and new songs. Apparently I picked one of the old ones as my favorite.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. I'm searching Pandora for the songs I have yet to hear from your list. Sounds like a great mixtape! (I still use that term, since mix-cd has absolutely no ring to it.)
ReplyDeleteWow, Andy, I literally do not know a single one of those songs. I made a "top 10" of the year so far the other day, and it was filled with electronica type stuff (ie Passion Pit, Phoenix, and Paper Route as the primary three). I don't know what that means about me.
ReplyDeleteI have three of these on recent mixes and another on one that's in progress. Of course, I immediately trembled with a, 'I picked the same songs as (here the tremble in the voice) Andy....'
ReplyDeleteThen I realized I had heard of 3/5ths of the music I listen to these days because you had mentioned it. I guess its not my superior natural taste in music...or maybe it is....