As big of a fan of the dearly departed At The Drive-In as I still am, it took me a while to really dig in to the various groups that have splintered from the El Paso band’s 2001 break-up. Truth be told, I had rather enjoyed what I had heard from both The Mars Volta (which is built around ATDI’s Omar and Cedric) as well as Sparta. For one reason or another, I just simply never connected with either band the way I had with their somewhat legendary original project. That began to change at last year’s ACL Festival, however. Waiting to meet up with the people that were to be my ride back to my hotel, I caught The Mars Volta set and was enthralled. The fact that I was seemingly a full mile’s distance from the stage really bore no ill effects on my experience. They tore it up. I felt like I was watching the kick-ass love child of a noodling Jam band and some twisted, dramatic Prog-rock ensemble.

This week, I’ll be working my way through The Mars Volta’s newest release, Octahedron. This past week, I spent some quality time with their 2008 release, Bedlam in Goliath. It is sweeping, dramatic and at times, simply head-scratching and full-throttle. Below are some goodies I have found recently that I enjoyed…

Austin Cunningham wants you to listen up a little bit.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Texas’ own Austin Cunningham in a live performance for the first time. I had only recently listened to his new disc, Made to Last, which is a fine album that contains Country tunes that deal with Cunningham’s love of fine time-pieces that represent something grander than just simple jewelry (”Made to Last”), Texas (”Take Me Back to Ft. Worth”), a possibly deadly love triangle (”Catherine”, which has one of my favorite lines, in any song ever with, “Mother Mary on the dash and my foot on the gas“) and his affection for the dying breed that is the independant radio-station DJ (”The Last Great D.J.”).

Given that I had enjoyed the album to that point, I figured to get a kick out of hearing the aforementioned tunes live. After it was all said and done, it was two songs that aren’t on this or any other full-length Cunningham record that left me most impressed and more understanding of the sincerity that goes into his work. The standout songs during the afternoon performance, “Guns and Religion” and “Who’s Gonna Bail Out the Workin’ Man” (which seem to only be available via Cunninghams’ website, or on I-tunes as a 3 song EP), were both prefaced by Cunningham from the stage as songs he had written as direct responses to items he had seen and heard in the news regarding the current economic crisis, as well as the political divide that we find ourselves in as a country.

Personally, as is likely the case with many Americans, I find myself in the middle politically. I often see both good and bad in the plans set-forth by the leaders as to what to do about the current state of things and therefore, I have a hard time understanding what I think the plan of recovery should truly be. Cunningham doesn’t suffer from such middle of the road positioning. in “Guns and Religion”, we find out quickly what has gotten him so riled up when in the opening line he sings, “I heard the president say campaigning that day / I couldn’t believe what I heard him say / he said people in small towns get bitter and cling / to guns or religion like that’s a dumb, backwards thing.” The song goes onto detail his, and others, need for both of the items in the title. For me, the fact that Cunningham was immediately compelled to speak out is far more inspirational and important than the actual message itself. I’m not a big fan of guns personally, no biggie, just never cared for them or really needed one. Perhaps my relatively comfortable suburban middle-class upbringing has kept me from ever truly needing a gun as is described in the song.  That said, I have always appreciated when an artist immediately rises to craft a response to something they feel is askew and simply wrong in today’s world.  A really good and thoughtful protest song beats the heck out of a letter to your congressman, in my opinion.

The other song that stood out above the songs I had expected to hear was, “Who’s Gonna Bail Out The Workin’ Man”.  With the chorus of “Who’s gonna bail out the workin’ man when workin’ don’t work no more?“, Cunningham asks as honest and straight-forward of a question as can be asked to the lawmakers of today. By not looking to accomplish anything more than to shed light on the feelings of millions of people, as well as to question authority, Cunningham is a convincing spokesperson for the ones who have truly suffered during this time.

Sincerity in a song cant be faked, and a patronizing millionaire who looks to gather angry mobs against “Wall Street” or “The Boss Man” (John Rich and Hank Jr., I am looking at you) will usually ring fairly hollow with their pandering. When an artist like Cunningham, who most likely resides in the same tax bracket as the majority of his fans, speaks up against such issues, he is speaking with the people and not falsely for the people. Regardless of whether I agree 100% on the stances he makes in these songs, I can whole-heartedly appreciate the fact that he is doing it so effectively.

Biting Other Blogs is an occasionally occurring feature that will direct your attention to a specific blog post or two that, most likely, I wish I had posted myself. Giving credit where credit is due, I typically wont blab too much, except to encourage you to get up on whatever blog I am highlighting…

While I do not consider Son Volt to be my favorite band, I cant help but listen to their new release, Central American Dust and feel like they sound the way that a rockin’ country/alt/americana/whatever band should sound like. Jay Farrar’s lonesome, and often-times mournful tone lays itself ever-so-smoothly over the top of each song. I also can’t help but notice the fine lead-guitar work of a certain Chris Masterson, who seems to be able to play with anyone and hold his own, even while standing in the shadow of an imposing figure such as Farrar. Here are some reviews that I found enlightening from the city that I often wish Icalled home, as well as a couple of interviews with Farrar that were equally as enlightening:

• Austin 360.Com (Austin American Statesman) likes the album, but it took a bit of work.

• Jim Caligiuri, of The Austin Chronicle,  supports his claim that Son Volt is still quite the force.

• Muzzle of Bees had 5 Questions for Farrar…

• Aquarium Drunkard had a lot more than 5…

I suppose that Son Volt will forever be compared to Farrar’s former Uncle Tupelo partners in Wilco, especially when they release albums as closely together as they did this time around. It has been relatively easy for me to prefer Tweedy’s body of work since the Tupelo split, but after multiple spins of American Central Dust, that dilemma is tougher than it has ever been for me.

CD’s I am Diggin’ Right Now is an occasionally occurring series where I casually highlight some discs (new and old) that I think you might like, without boring you with an overly-wordy, metaphor-filled “review” that I often like to bestow upon some other discs.

I have long admired many Bluegrass artists.  Watching a Bluegrass band tear it up in a live setting is a singular and exhilarating concert experience. That said, I often find myself bored or simply underwhelmed when it comes to Bluegrass on CD. Obviously it’s difficult to recreate the energy of a live show in any genre with studio recordings, but for me at least, it’s always been even more so with Bluegrass, not totally sure why, it just is, I guess. More than with other styles of live music, I get a special thrill when I see a fiddle or mandolin player nail a solo in concert to the point where the audience feels required to acknowledge the effort with a hardy round of applause. Recently, two Sugar Hill Records releases have stood out to me and have really made me pay the same amount of attention to the recording as I would if I were seeing either artist live.

Sarah Jarosz - Song Up In Her Head: What can be said about critical-darling Jarosz and this disc that hasn’t been said already? That it isn’t very good (get it? no ones sayin’ that…okay, I’ll stop). Her young vocals have a smokiness to them that at times makes you forget her age (18). Her sometimes sultry and even playful compositions can’t hide that she is a serious Bluegrass artist that is still respectful of tradition. I have read that she is planning on attending Berklee College of Music in Boston soon, and I’ll be quite interested to see what she does with all that book-learnin’.

Chris Pandolfi - Looking Glass: Pandolfi is a member of the popular Infamous Stringdusters (along with Jeremy Garrett, who plays some fiddle on here and has also recently released a solid solo-disc as well). This disc breaks away from the standard Bluegrass mold and at times, effectively displays a rather laid back and even jazzy tone, always with a pretty strong sense of melody. When records focus primarily on instrumentation, especially in the Bluegrass realm, it’s important to shake things up a bit and avoid the fast-as-lighting-pickin’ monotony that can often be the case. With this being his second solo-release, Pandolfi seems to be on his way to making a name for himself outside of his regular Stringdusters gig.

I know everyone else seems to be talking about this, so sue me. I usually try to defer to other blogs when it seems that a certain record has been mentioned many times before I get around to it, but not this time!

Joe Pug, who, as I have noted many times here, is a fantastic talent. How fantastic you ask? He was able to produce on of my favorite CD’s of last year with his Nation of Heat EP, and this year, he has just released another EP of the tracks that didn’t make it onto Nation of Heat, and it’s every bit as good. In the Meantime picks up seamlessly where Nation left off. Instead of babbling on, as I did for Nation of Heat when it was released last spring, I am just going to point you into the direction of this new and FREE record.

Go to Joe Pug’s new website to download In the Meantime all free and legal-like.