What I'm Listening To - February and March Edition

Well this sure didn't turn out as a monthly column, who would have thought that becoming a teacher would be so time consuming!  I'm in between my semesters right now, so I took the time to write a ton of reviews - enough to post new reviews on the weekly basis right through August, woohoo!  

Ok, so I'll do this chronologically.  February was an eventful month for indie, as I found myself enjoying new releases from Coconut Records, Ben Kweller, Robyn Hitchcock, Cotton Jones Basket Ride, and Animal Collective.  to sum up, I found Ben Kweller's new focus on country a little off putting, and while I don't find myself listening most of the others, the catchy beats of Coconut Records has proven itself with prolonged listenability.  For punk, I enjoyed new releases from The Loved Ones, Max Bemis' latest project Two Tongues, O Pioneers!, Passenger Action, and Fake Problems.  Not surprisingly, Fake Problems' folk infused disco tunes helped them come out with the crown for the month.

In March I focused on more indie than punk, limiting myself to new releases from Propagandhi, Trophy Stars, and Thursday.  I quite enjoyed all three, which surprised me since I never fancied myself a fan of any of the bands.  Indie on the other hand seemed to captivate me, as I had a quite a bit of listening to do.  I enjoyed new releases by punk-gone-indie staples Attack In Black, the sloppy acoustic strumming of Shotgun Jimmie, peaceful melodies of Peter Von Poehl, the folk sounds of Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Joel Plaskett, and the epic storytelling of The Decemberists.  Other than Peter Vol Poehl, everything else has stayed in constant rotation, making my listening habits cramped to say the least.

April has been a huge month for punk, so I'm going to combine that with May, and try doing this little thing every two months - a far cry from my original intent, but still better than abandoning it all together!