Top 09 things I'm not looking forward to in 2009

So it's the last day of the year and many a time, people consider ways they want to improve on the previous year. This is largely a waste of time, which got me thinking about all the time I've wasted in 2008. The result of all this thinking produced the following list: "Top 9 ways I wasted my life in 2008," or more aptly, "Top 9 ways I'm going to waste my life in 2009."




9. Playing video games by myself.

Look here at this thing I've been doing since 1984. Playing Nintendo is more real to me than human relationships. I wish there was more to life than this, but who knows?

8. Quitting my job.

I had a job that I loved, but I quit because people told me I wasn't making as much money as I could with my degrees. Well I showed them! (By not getting another job) So far this has been a big waste of everyone's time.

7. Trying to write.

If you're an idealistic person who has a pronounced (though likely visceral) command of the English language, then perhaps you too have thought about writing a book. I have writ and writ and writ, only to destroy it all come morning . I don't even really want to get into it, other than to say that each incident was a little waste of my lifetime.

6. In a Wal-Mart.

I've gone to the store so many times, not really knowing what I was looking for, wandered around for a bit trying to imagine myself owning this digital picture frame or that 18" poseable Spider-Man toy, but nothing sticks and I leave empty handed. (Image courtesy of the Division of Vector-borne Infectious Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

5. Not listening to music.

Sometimes Silence is Golden. But I don't think I've listened to nearly as much music as I could have. Thanks to dean-bags I've come to know just how much of my life has been wasted not listening to music, and I sadly anticipate the continuance of this trend on the morrow unless Paco posts his Top Secrets of 2008 list.

4. Playing Fantasy Football.

There are two ways to play Fantasy Football, one of which involves wanting to win.

I wanted to win this year real bad. I found all kinds of nfl news websites and fantasy football forums, all of which were browsed by yours truly for much more time than necessary for coming in 2nd place. Do I want those 2008 hours back? Not necessarily. Not sure what else I'd do with them.

3. Thinking.

This probably should be number one, but I don't want you to get the impression that thinking is a waste of time. But you know what I'm saying. Thinking doesn't always have to lead to inaction. Sometimes thinking can lead to good works! If you think about all the ways that thinking has got us to where we are today, you'll be really amazed! But if you think about it for too long, then you won't be helping us to get anywhere tomorrow.

"Wait... who says we're going anywhere?" (<-- see what I mean??)

And just to promote further thought: mad cred for the person who determines the connection to the image above.

2. On a couch.

Don't get me wrong. I'm in love with couches. I love what they have to offer. When I think on what article of living room furnishings I want to be most like for the sake of my brethren, I most definitely want to be a couch for them.

But just like with food and exercise, too much of a good thing can kill you. I hope to continue my love affair for just a while longer, though. Hopefully to at least the end of the current baktun.

1. Playing Hearts.

Look, I don't know the age group here, so pardon my language.

F*ck Hearts.

In college I had to delete the scourge from my hard drive. Too bad it was backed up in the Windows folder. Whenever I get close to doing something productive, Start button, click, programs, click, applications, click, games, click, hearts...

It's not even Internet Hearts! I'm not even playing against real people! I'm playing against the North, East, and West!! Or Pauline, Michele, and Ben for you Windows Millennium Edition users.

I don't want to estimate the amount of time spent wasted on Hearts in 2008 because I don't want to get depressed about my 2009 just yet. There's so much life to live here yet still for a while and there's no need to see how much of it is going to be wasted just yet. I've got to come up with some way of eliminating Hearts from my life, but it's like deciding when to gouge out my right eye because it's making me sin. There never really seems like a good time to do it.

My hope is that all of you live life as you see best fit for all the years we have still to come. I would like to share also that some time wasters of Christmas Past, like, "watching tv" or "smoking" or "talking to friends" have completely disappeared from my life. This goes to show that not all time wasting habits are eternal. Let this snippet of hope guide the biddings of you and your loved ones in this great future year of 2009.

taco bell fourth meal list of 12/27

Sometimes, you are hanging out. and then, those times, you might get hungry. and when it is so late, there's only one solution to the problem.
FOURTH MEAL!

Below is the list i found in my purse -- the order for really late on saturday or really early on sunday.. depending on who you are!

4 Crunch wrap supremes (one w/out tomatoes)




beef and potato burrito without the beef but with beans

1 supreme chalupa

1 double beef burrito (the 89c one)

2 soft tacos w/out lettuce

1 cinnamon twist





2 cheesy bean and rice burritos

mild sauce

Paco's Top 56 Albums of 2008: 45-35

I forgot to mention on the last list that, for no apparent reason, this list excludes compliations. Therefore, although there were lots of good comps out this year, I didend putem 'ere. Perhaps, I will make a sweet comps list if I have time. But also maybe not...

This is where things start to get really good. And to be honest most of the selection from here on out could probably be in the Top 10 on any other day. That's how good this year was! Booyah!

45. Drip House - 1 and 2 (Night People) : Did I mention tapes, the Night People label, or Raccoo-oo-oon yet? Daren Ho of said dudes first solo releases. Both of them are equally good and about equal length ('round about 12 minutes). Get' em while you can.

44. Windy & Carl - Songs for the Broken Hearted (Kranky) : Drone/Ambient Masters (finally!) return with a new full-length album. If you are familiar with the ambient couple (think about being married making drone together! what a dream!) then there is nothing much new to report. It's more of the same good stuff, although perhaps with the emotion ratched up a notch. If you didn't care about them before, you won't care about them still. But they are definetly dedicated.

43. Abe Vigoda - Skeleton (Post Present Medium) : See, I like indie rock still! Presumably named after Abraham Charles "Abe" Vigoda, Abe Vigoda are pals with trendy Pitchfork loved (but also good) bands like No Age, Health and other LA rockers who play at The Smell. While still kinda lo-fi/punk, they are a lot more straight forward (less shit-gaze/lo-fi sounding) than many of thier friends, as well as darn catchy. For some reason everywhere on the innernettes referes to them as "Tropical Punk Rock." I don't know about that but they've got some nice lix.

42. Sparkling Wide Pressure - Touching Pasture (Students of Decay) : Enough with Night People what about Students of Decay! They are cranking out the his. I have no idea how to classify this aside from quiet, hazy, awesome, and free. The album art picture there kind of does it as well as any words could. Frank Baugh is certainly a student of decay.

41. Dan Friel - Ghost Town (Important) : “Electronic noise and catchy melodies totally have raging boners for each other, and have since the ’60s,” he says. “Think about Hendrix, Sun Ra, Velvets, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, etc. I’m just following their lead, and reducing it to all simple electronics.” (Did you know that Friel also released a tape once on Night People? haha!)

40. The Foreign Exchange - Leave it All Behind (Nicolay) : I'm still disappointed that there is only one actual rap verse on this followup to perhaps my all time favorite hip-hop album (2004's Connected). It seems like all the rappers don't like rapping no mo. Well, in any case, Phonte is not actually that bad at singing and Nicolay is still dropping unstoppable beatsmithery. Matt will be happy to note that this is exactly the kind of neo-soul album I would have hated about 5 years ago. My how times have changed. Still, this is should have been closer to #1, not #39. On the other hand, it probably will move up later as it is pretty new.

39. Damien Jurado - Caught in the Trees (Secretly Canadian) : "Gillian was a Horse" is one of the best Wilco songs he's ever written and "Trials" is the best Elliot Smith song he's ever written. The rest of the album is highly decent, consistent ol' DJ. The deciding factor is probably that my girlfriend likes it a lot, which ranks it up pretty high.

38. Manual - Confluence (Darla) : I had sort of forgotten about Manual. His 2002 "Ascend" was the kind of solid post-rockish-electronic-glitchy-quasi-ambient-morr-music type album which really hit me at that time. I didn't listen to 2005's Azure Vista much finding it fairly disappointing and New-Agey (Ty would probably disagree with me). Then one day in 2008 I was browsing me mp3 blogs and wham! This album just popped up out of no where. And It's incredibly good and probably the best thing he's ever produced. It seems he's gone (either now or in the past when I wasn't watching) true good news ambient and this is aa beautiful and quiet album, free from all the cheesy sounds of yore.

37. Seconds In Formaldehyde - Suchness #3 (Gears of Sand) : While it was released in 2008 it was techincally recorded in 2007 live at the Auerworld Festival. Apparently just one dude with a guitar, it does not sound like that at all. This dude is especially good at "Creating Moods and Atmospheres with just one chord or one single Note that stretches across time and space," and "Building a Wall of Guitar Harmonics and Subnotes and let them flow into Infinity." These are both things that I am really into, especially the first. Suchness is a 40 minute track cut into three. Soak your brains into thee pure guitar sound.

36. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in The Light (Drag City) : I've always like BPB slightly depressed more than happy, but really he can do whatever he wants and I will love it. I've also always been suspicious of singer/songwriters but ol' BPB, a true gentleman, can do as he pleases. Good job here.

35. Claudio Rocchetti - Another Piece of Teenage Wildlife (Die Schachtel) : This release is all over the place, but everwhere it goes is good. In fact, its so varied it almost sounds like a compilation or best of sort of album, as it lacks the cohesiveness we normally associate with full lengths. Rather than describe the album let me just show you the linear notes:

Claudio Rocchetti: voice, guitar, turntable, cassette, field recordings, piano, percussion
Valerio Tricoli: voice, tape loops
Margareth Kammerer: voice
Madame P: voice
Xabier Iriondo: guitar, mahai metak
Massimo Carozzi: ghost electronics

or this: "The work of Claudio Rocchetti is a deep plunge into thick sound, investigating its innermost workings. Using a variety of devices such as turntables, audio cassettes, samplers, radios, and microphones, often incorporating other objects and traditional instruments, Berlin-based Rocchetti builds compelling structures that employ sound as sheer matter, mass, and impact. 'I have a very direct approach to sound, trying to act on instruments and devices,' he says."

If that or anything else you might read about him doesn't get you going, then you need to get real. This is an awesome album. Plus "I miss you like hell," aside from being a great song title, is a pitch perfect Rip-off of the best kind of Stars of the Lid spell for the first 7 of is 16 minutes.

Paco's Top 56 Albums of 2008: 56-46

I've decided to split up my Top Albums list into an undecided number of parts. This is because otherwise I might keep messing with it and adding more things and never finish, small break ups will be more digestible and it will make it look like I made more posts on the blog than I really did.

Well, this was much harder than I thought. 2008 was an incredible year for music. I could probably say that about every year ever, but I feel like things just keep getting better. I've never been one of those, "new music sucks, x is just copying y" type of dudes, and while I will (hopefully) never tire of exploring the seemingly unending musics of the past, I am more excited than ever before about the possibilities and directions of new music.

The past has its perks to be sure, nostalgia or faux-nostalgia, lo-fi recordings that weren't on purpose, fake backstories and histories we all accept, accidents turned into hot new genres, white people stealing from black people, and blah blah blah. But the present? Why it's got all that, or at least most of that, or at least some degree of knowledge of most of that, plus more! It's got the collected true and false histories and sounds of all time and places which we have had access too. And globalization may have brought tons of dumb crap into our lives (or mostly our dumb crap into people from other countries lives), but now we have those sounds from all over the earth. And we've got electricity! We've got the remix! We've got circuit bending! We've got centuries old hand crafted singing bowls! And while my general view of the actual condition of things on earth is not nearly so optimistic, I'm high on life about music! We may have lost our homes our minds and our souls but we have hands and ears and we can scavenge, scrape, and re-assemble. We can put on our coats and hats and vanish into the day. We can cover our bodies in neon and nostalgia and dance into the night.

I for one, will be building a dome filled with my disappointments, covering it in wrought iron and monterey jack cheese, shrinking it down to the size of dinosaurs pea-sized brain, imbedding it in a half-cello/half-tambur, rigged to electronically sense the colors that my brain is thinking of, and play an improvised looping duo between my hand and my brain processed through 1000 handmade effects pedals and Ableton live, then broadcasting it on AM to the middle of the Gobi Desert where I will tune in to the dial a few stations off, record that half-recieved sound, layer it as many times as I can in logic studio, put it out to 7", record the seven inch on to cassette tape, smash the cassette with my bare hands and throw it out the window of my parents car on U.S. 24.


So the list: I sort of managed to whittle this down to 56 selections, with a few instances of cheating. I didn't care about format or length, except that I didn't include single tracks, and its mostly full length albums. The list is fairly heavy on ambient/drone type of stuff and also some degree of lo-fi noisy psych rock type of stuff. That's what I mostly love and what I mostly listened to this year. I still like hip-hop, but I didn't really feel like listening to it until about 1 month and half ago, so there aren't many choices in that vein, and many of them are uncertain. I also still like dance music but again mostly didn't feel like listening to it until about month ago and most of those things were single tracks not full albums. I know this is such a good year because I feel like I forgot about a thousand things and there are so many more things that I remember that I want to add to the list and so many things that I haven't even listened to yet but that appear to be awesome.

These First 11, 56-46 are mostly things which I am fairly sure are great or even possibly awesome, but haven't had a chance to really listen to in-depth yet. This is either because I just got them or because I just didn't get around to it.

And BEHOLN! The List did come forwad!

56. The Fun Years - Baby, It's Cold Inside (Barge): Actually I've barely listened to it, but it sounds like delicious ambient and Boomkat just said it was their number one album, so it must be alright.

55. Raccoo-oo-oon - S/T (Not Not Fun): Final album from a band I've only just started liking? Check. Kind of cool, kind of dumb unclearly pronounced name? Check. Noisy, improv goodness? Check. Haven't really had a chance to give this a fair shake but the Night People label (Run by Shawn Reed of Raccoo-oo-oon) and Not Not Fun (both largely tape labels) can do no wrong these days.

54. Wet Hair - 08 Tour Tape (Night People) : Speaking of Night People, and Shawn Reed, It's his solo alias. I love noisy handmade tapes! You should too. And this stuff's all going down in Iowa! Iowa? Thier s/t 12" from this year is nice too.

53. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends (Anticon) : Solo album by Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow. Not all that different from thier usual vintage analogue synth what-have-you, but I can't get enough of them so...


52. Grouper - Dragging a Dead Dear up a Hill (Type) : This was my introduction to Liz Harris and frankly I thought this was fairly overrated in a number of the internet circles I lurk in. But it's still pretty good. Reverb-drowned slow-core folk? Jonny might even like it.

51. Q-Tip - The Renaissance (Universal Motown) : Nice MPC. A Fine Sir. Need to give this more listens.

50. Jake One - White Van Music (Rhymesayers) : A looooong release (43 Tracks!), I've only just heard of Jake Dutton, however he has apparently worked with a number of sweet dudes, from De La to Strange Fruit to MF Doom to NaS. He has also worked with hilarious dudes like E-40 and G-Unit, and made some tracks for hilarious movies like Fast and Furious. This album is not mind blowing but is solid and features good rappin' by lots of Minnesota cats and other undergrounders. But It's really long.

49. Magic Lantern - High Beams (Not Not Fun) : I know very little about these dudes, but they pound out some California krautrocky/Acid Mothers Templey/lengthy dronums space rockouts. Plus, who doesn't like a song called "Deathshead Hawkmoth?" A fool that's who. Not Not Fun strikes again.

48. Brian Grainger - Autumn Soil Feedback (Milieu) : South Carolina Fellow also known as Milieu among other monikers as well as a member of VCV. He actually released an insane buttload of stuff in 2008 but I only have this (and VCV - The Star of the King of the Dead, which is also good but not on my list). Less accessible than a lot of stuff on here, unless you are really into tape hiss or radio static (which I totally am...) Additionally he is a sweet dude because many of his releases are available for free download at Archive.org. This should probably be higher on the list. Strongly recommended.

47. S1 - Music Box (Spilt Milk) : I love positive raps and I love Strange Fruit Project. Symbolyc One of Strange Fruit has produced a real nice, soulful-positive vibe rap album with spots from Little Brother, Rah Digga, Inspectah Deck, and Blu among others. I've heard absolutely nothing about this and its definetly one of those releases that slips through the cracks in the floor. Seriously this is really good n' funky.

46. Sam Goldberg - Echoing Department (Gniess Things) : Lo-fi krautrockish tomfoolery, Steve Hauschildt of the awesome Emeralds guests it up (It's his record label after all).

More to come, stay tuned...

Jonny's Top Hits of 2008

A Quite Quiet Listing

With Kings of Convenience gearing up to release a new album called Quiet IS the New Loud, a follow up to Quiet Is the New Loud, I thought I’d go with the flow and just throw up my favorite quiet time albums of 2008 (even if it means dropping Marnie Stern and Deerhoof like bad habits!). I dug deep into the soft-veined recesses this year, eschewing hip-hop and hot chip for hot little ditties about horses, death, and Chicago. I finally got over trying to listen to new albums and really just listened to last.fm and decided I liked some artists I thought I didn’t, and found some albums no one else but sad, white northerners were listening to, too. So here’s a list, of some of the albums I loved in 2008, and why I loved them, and how quiet they were, and how loud I played them, and really none of those things at all.

P.S. I don't even really like Kings of Convenience. And I wrote this list from 25-to-1, but I'm posting it oppositely. Some of the entries might be confusing in backwards order. Oh, well.

1. Rachel Ries – Without a Bird / For You Only
Gal of the year! These albums were the first CDs I bought in over two years, and I had already downloaded one of them. For that, Rachel Ries is a miracle maker. She’s basically all I ever wanted from Over the Rhine since they started sucking, only from North Dakota and Chicago, rather than Cincinnati and Kentucky. I have decided that North Dakota is superior to Kentucky. And I always knew Chicago was better than Cincinnati (I mean, look at the Bengals). Rachel Ries has the sweetest voice in the world, and she reminds me of Amy Griffin so freaking bad. They should meet and be BFFs 4evah!

2. Horse Feathers – Words Are Dead / House with No Home
Horse Feathers is Justin Ringle, who comes from Idaho I think, but now lives in Portland, which kind of makes me jealous. Sometimes I google-map Portland and look at all the spots I remember from when I was eleven. Which is basically OMSI and the Rose Garden and the Zoo. I bet Justin goes to the zoo all the time. I’m so jealous.

3. Vetiver – Thing of the Past
I've listened to a few Vetiver albums in my lifetime (two), but this one composed of covers takes the cake. Bye cake! Have a good time with Andy Cabic! So many good songs on this one. I just want to eat the cake, too. And this album.

4. J. Tillman – Cancer and Delirium / Long May You Run / Minor Works
Whoa, nice bird! Josh Tillman is my singer of the years. Go, Josh! And then he started playing with Fleet Foxes, I think by drumming. His songs are way quieter and I heard about him through Damien Jurado so maybe that should tell you how awesome he is. They're basically soul mates.

5. Fleet Foxes – ST (Ragged Wood) / Sun Giant EP
My tags in iTunes are janked up. I downloaded the ST CD right after I got the EP and it was called Ragged Wood then but then they changed it to Self-Titled and I never made the change and now last.fm says I’ve listened to them over 200 times but their full-length only 3. I love stats.

6. Marla Hansen – Wedding Day
I stumbled across Marla Hansen on last.fm, apologized, then discovered she’s a pal of Sufjans. But not until I had listened to the songs four or five times. And he’s on a couple of them. It’s only an EP, but I really really want her full-length to appear suddenly or rapidly or now. She’s the bee’s knees.

7. Damien Jurado – Caught in the Trees / Walk Along the Fence
Is it frustrating that I’m not describing these albums well? Well Damien dropped a new album! And it’s got a swear!! My pal, Damien! I think he got divorced. And quit being a full time preschool teacher. Now he tours with a guy and a girl and they should have a sitcom. He also is the narrator in Rosie Thomas’ Christmas album. Why isn't that on this list? I smell a Christmas list soon! (And Scott, IMO "Everything Trying" is this album's "Denton, TX." Very repeat friendly, especially after the break-down near the end. I have to start it all over again after that sweet, sweet goodness.)

8. Nina Nastasia – The Blackened Air
I saved this album for 2008. Every other Nina Nastasia album I downloaded and consumed like jars of Tostidos Salsa Con Queso in 2007 (which is quickly and sort of pigishly). But this one I waited for. And it was just like my middle school pastor said sex would be like in a marital relationship. Beautiful and tender and passionate. That was such a weird paragraph.

9. Smog – Supper / A River Ain’t Too Much Love
Bill Callahan is my new hero. Alongside Mark Kozelek and David Bazan and Damien Jurado (who we’ll get to) and Will Oldham (who I left off this list; boo! hiss!). Slowish, repetitive ditties, sometimes about horses. And death. I don’t know why I didn’t get into his guy earlier.

10. Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire – Lost Wisdom
Phil Elverum. What a guy! Julie Doiron. I used to have some of your tracks from Epitomic! Fred Squire. Who are you again? This album got lost in all the lists. Which is sad. Because it could easily be my favorite album of the year if the year had a few more weeks to it.

11. Laura Gibson – If You Come To Greet Me
I found Laura Gibson though Pandora, which I kind of hate, but it gave me her, so it’s not all bad. She sings pretty and plays pretty and pretty much is good winter music. For fans of My Brightest Diamond who want a little less drama.

12. Madeline – Kissing and Dancing / The Slow Bang
Madeline is like the Jonas Brothers, only with boobs, and kind of punkier, and she knows the dude from Phosphorescent. Her new album (kissing and dancing) is okay. The first three songs are killer. And use the same two chords over and over. But her other album (the slow bang) is heartbreaking and pretty and better than tom petty and the heartbreakers. But not the Petty Thieves. Those guys ruled.

13. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Whoaaaaaaa. This album has been loved all over the Webkins. I loved it last winter. And loved it come spring. Summer scared it away. Fall forgot it. But we’re wintering again. And it I can’t keep a good man down. Also, I love mispronouncing the name. Because it pisses people off sooooo much.

14. Beach House – Devotion
I liked this record for two really good reasons. One, Jason Martin from Starflyer 59. Two, Yo La Tengo. Neither of them plays on it. But it’s kind of like what if they did? It’s a nice Elseworlds thought.

15. Alela Diane – The Pirate’s Gospel
Pirate folk! Paul, this one sounds like some of the Southern Journey series, but not all the time. It needs more shaped-note singing (it has none) and yodeling (also none). But good, nonetheless. (Also, pssst. She's beautiful.)

16. Robert Deeble – Thirteen Stories
Do you remember Robert Deeble? Do you remember Jackson Rubio Records? Do you remember Havalina Rail Co.’s little indie label? Do you remember a sampler I bought at the Anchor Room? With Havalina and Mandy Troxel and Robert Deeble? My brother goes to school with someone who knows Mandy Troxel. Havalina reformed minus the girl as Matt Death and the New Intellectuals. And Robert Deeble released some damn fine records. This one included. (It's next to impossible finding a picture of this guy. Please, buy his stuff so he can be more famous and google searches for him work better. Thank you.)

17. Le Loup – The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly
These guys are like the Animal Collective, sort of produced by those ISAN guys, with more banjo than usual for normal records, but not as good as you’re thinking it sounds. Still, it’s a really good record. Just not as good as you’re imagining it. I hear they’re even better live, though.

18. Phosphorescent – Aw Come Aw Wry
Did you really think this list was about 2008? Haha! I got you! If the two Langhorne Slim albums didn’t give it away, this did. It’s like three years old. But it’s good, Steven. I swear. And you should, too. SWEAR! Shit! There! We swore! Hot damn!!! Damn this record! It’s too good for 2008!!!11!1one!!

19. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
I like Grizzly Bear. I think. But I really like these Eagles. I know. Plus, badass album cover, man. I mean, seriously. Bad. Ass.

20. June Madrona – The Winged Life
Where’s this guy from? He doesn’t even get a Wikipedia entry. I found him on Last.fm, too. Just like Beatbeat Whisper, and Tallest Man, and Jordan O, and Le Loup, and et al. Some duets on this album. And funny lyrics, too. Nice guy, man.

21. Sun Kil Moon – April
O Mark Kozelek. You are my old couch. You are my basement in Michigan. You are the oak tree. That held the laundry line. And that blocked fly balls from breaking windows. Except for that one time. When I hit it over you and broke the one next to the side door we let our dog out of. When my mom was in the kitchen. She didn’t get mad.

22. Beatbeat Whisper – ST
Quietest quiet album of the year, except for the closer, which is about rain and boots and hot chocolate with a sweet, sweet hook. I dare you. (Plus, I love it when bands smile for pictures. They're brother and sister!)

23. The Tallest Man on Earth – Shallow Grave
This man is mysterious. People keep comparing him to Bob Dylan, but I don’t see it. He’s Swedish right? That’s cool.

24. Langhorne Slim – When the Sun’s Gone Down / Langhorne Slim
Let’s say you’re pretty good friends with the Avetts and Clem Snide and Old Crow Medicine Show (but OCMS kind of get on your nerves sometime but that’s okay). Then Langhorne Slim will probably be your friend, too. Or, at least, you’ll probably get along okay.

25. Jordan O’Jordan – Not Style Nor Season Nor Hard-Handed Lesson
Jordan O’Jordan is not a real person, or at least I don’t think he is. He IS one mean sumbitch banjo player. And one ranky-dank singer. I guess there’s a certain freak folker he could be compared to, but that doesn’t do the man/machine justice. He’s pretty funny, not funny like ha-ha, but funny like I told you so. He’s a pretty man, a dandy man, and kind of sounds like the Promise Ring circa 1853. I like that about him. You should, too.

Amen? Amen.