January has been a relatively slow month for punk, but I've found that its indie offerings more than made up for this reality. January 20th was a pretty big day. The New Pronographer's frontman
A.C. Newman put out his second solo indie-pop album, Get Guilty - and I like it. I was introduced to
Andrew Bird through his most recent outing, Noble Beast, and it's a really nice lazy, peaceful, outing good for background music. The day also introduced me to a new band,
Fiction Family, and their pleasant acoustic minimalism. But the real show stopper was an oddly named band,
Coconut Records, who released the year's first must have indie-pop record, Davey. It's a mere 28 minutes long, but every second is undeniably catchy and original. On the punk front, the only thing that really caught my eye was Lucero frontman
Ben Nichols' debut solo EP. It's a solid country album that doesn't stray too far from Lucero's signature sound, but differentiates itself by featuring a more stripped down sound featuring acoustic guitars and accordions.
I also just realized that
Franz Nikolay, one of the masterminds behind The World/Inferno Friendship Society, just put out a solo record, so I'm gonna have to catch up on that. Otherwise, I'm quite looking forward to February's offerings, with new albums by
The Loved Ones (Feb 3),
Fake Problems (Feb 17), and of course
Ben Kweller (Feb 10).
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