Subtitle: Haunted and Hogtied by the AvettsI've gotten some questions about the avalanche of good music released recently (from Green Day, Pearl Jam, Monsters of Folk, now Lucero, etc.). Don't worry: I'll cover them all very shortly (Mailbag teaser!). Suffice it to say that sometimes--through time, effort, hunger, drive, and opportunity--you find good music.
Sometimes, the good music finds you.
Such was the case with "I And Love And You," the title-track to the new Avett Brothers record. I'd long heard good things about the Avett's but hadn't ever heard anything by the Avett's; through a lapse of judgment or sheer stubborn laziness I never pursued them myself. When I heard their major label debut would be produced by Rick "I Should Be Knighted By Now, Or Something" Rubin, my ears perked up. When I heard a snippet of a sleeper track in my friend's living room, I noted the production and hustled home to pack. The Avett Brothers were setting me up--jab, jab, jab--for the knockout right cross and I, as usual, was oblivious.
Three days later, I sat in my family's living room, having just left Nashville and about to fly to New York. I turned on Letterman because I always watch Letterman when I'm in Arkansas. Back home, I watch my TiVo-ed programs around talk-show time, but I have no TiVo-ed programs in Arkansas. So I watch Letterman happily and wonder why I don't do this every night in every city.
Suddenly, there were the Avett Brothers, here to perform "I And Love And You" off I And Love And You. For a guy on the eve of his to New York, hours removed from a long and heady drive from Nashville, it was like Letterman was broadcast from inside my unconscious. I really wondered if I was dreaming.
I can now safely recommend the entire album, which is consistently solid, always listenable, and periodically great. But "I And Love And You" is a remarkable song that chased me down, grabbed my heels, tripped me up, and swallowed me whole.
Sometimes the music finds you. I never stood a chance.
The Avett Brothers, "I And Love And You"
So what music have you found this fall? And what music has found you?
Tell the ones who need to know,
CM
3 comments:
Wow, that is good. And different. Nice find, Chris.
I'll probably re-post when I think of other stuff, but as for new music, I rediscovered an album my dad used to play, listened to it with new ears, and found it well done. It's Two Lane Highway by Pure Prairie League. Probably their most rock album, Bustin' Out is a good folky/country one.
Nice! I'm woefully lacking in the Pure Prairie League department. A department, I think, that also sells musk and "clothes with fringe."
Zing! I could not have said it better myself. Your writing is taking off, man.
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