Jeff Mangum/Neutral Milk Hotel

Nuetral Milk Hotel is one of those "bands" that seems to get more well known every year, even though they haven't released anything in several years. Great melodies, funky surreal lyrics with more rhymes than Green Eggs and Ham, it's some of the best 'lo-fi' out there. Jeff Mangum, the singer/guitarist/writer is also one of the men behind the Elephant6 Collective, which has put out lots of other cool stuff over the years. If you haven't heard them yet, check out this page, lots of live tracks, including one of my favorites, My Dream Girl Don't Exist.

Check out more of their stuff here: Neutral Milk Hotel on Amazon.com

Point Line Plane

Point Line Plane is a band that I first heard at Emerald Lounge one night, when I was with my friend Larry. We walked in and heard this cacophony of sound coming from the stage (which is sort of around the corner from the bar.)
We walked back and found this insane noise was coming from just two guys, one playing a traditional drumset, the other a synth with a goodly amount of distortion. They are from Portland, and released their most recent album on Skin Graft Records. They added a second synth player, which you can hear on the newer material. Check out D.R.U.G., from their latest release.

According to their MySpace page, the second synth player left, hopefully we'll be hearing more from them soon!

You can check out more of their stuff here: Point Line Plane on Amazon.com

Red House Painters

The last few days I've been listening to Red House Painters, which is a band whose last record was released by SubPop Records. I first heard them a couple years ago, when their song "Cruiser" was being played regularly on SubPop Radio. Then a few weeks ago, I was listening to the Garden State soundtrack, which is quite nice background music for painting (walls, not art.) Anyway, while listening to that, I became interested in the track "Such Great Heights," by Iron and Wine. So that led me to SubPop, where I re-encountered Red House Painters. After a quick trip to iTunes, I was downloading their album "Songs for a Blue Guitar" (released on Universal/Island), which is great painting and driving music. Mellow, sort of Mazzy Star meets the quieter Elliot Smith.

So anyway, you can hear samples of the album here: Red House Painters on Amazon.comand Mark Kozelek's current band, Sun Kil Moon, as well: Sun Kil Moon on Amazon.com

Enjoy!