The new disc by "country noir" singer Neko Case (also of the New Pornographers) is worth checking out - seems like it has been getting a fair amount of press lately. We bought it a couple weeks back, and it is solid from start to finish. There is a pretty cool Neko Case concert on npr, which can be downloaded. npr also has a pretty good review/interview that was on morning edition a few weeks back.

This CD rocks. For more, check it. And Jo...she will be in the Louie in May.

OK, this blog is going to be a bit contrived, but bear with me. The picture at the top came from the Sunday Times Style Magazine from last week - the one called "Design Fall 2005." The article was called "Studio System" and it was about Giussepe Lignano's (principal in LOT/EK) studio apartment in Manhattan. The apartment is kinda cool, but I was taken by the map-ish drawing above the bed (right side of top photo). So, I started looking for an image on the web of the piece or some close approximation. The artist's name is Top Changtrakul, who is pictured in the second photo (the guy who looks like Pond) with what looks like some variation on the piece in Lignano's apartment. Anyway, the web searching led me to a website for a project called The Snow Show, in which "some of today’s most exciting artists and architects have joined forces to design works out of snow and ice," including LOT/EK with Top Changtrakul - whose collaboration is shown in the third picture. Which leads to the final picture - the work of Zaha - just because I thought it looked cool.

P and I picked up this book, Music Lust by Nic Harcourt, on a recent trip to Borders. Pardon my saying so, but it makes great bathroom reading.
"As music director of KCRW in Santa Monica, CA, and DJ of the influential "Morning Becomes Eclectic" show, Harcourt uncovers the best in new and overlooked music for over half a million listeners every day."
You may also recall a piece in the The New York Times Magazine on June 26 titled "The Star Maker of the Semipopular: How a Los Angeles public-radio DJ became America's arbiter of cool music." The article was pretty cool, too. Enjoy.

We have acquired a couple new CDs in the past week, so I will pass along my initial thoughts about Jacksonville City Nights by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals and In the Reins by Calexico and Iron & Wine (who are on tour together now). The new Ryan disc is definitely the most country flavored album since his days with Whiskeytown - will he ever tire of recording?. I dig it, but I have only given it a couple listens, so the jury is still out as to its overall merits. The Calexico and Iron & Wine disc is very good by my estimation. I am not a huge Iron & Wine fan, but Calexico on instrumentals gives the sound a bit of depth, making this disc quite a treat, albeit a short one, at 27 minutes.

I will call him.....mini-me

Well, I rescued some more furniture today. This stack o' chairs came from the Abilene Printing & Stationary Co. Behind them you may notice some past rescues - a small desk rescued from the Abilene Salvation Army, and some lockers rescued from the side of the road in Pensacola.