Sad that another season of Weeds is over I was hanging around over at the Showtime site running through the soundtrack they have for free listening. The music editors for that show are great at finding the most obscure and fantastic songs for the soundtrack.
I'd already downloaded, and would totally recommend, several of the tracks, including:
- Your Rocky Spine from Great Lake Swimmers. Strangely intimate, the song, wrapped around banjo and guitar with a lovely acoustic back, could be about a mountain, as the song suggests, or a woman with whom the songwriter is in love.
- Chariot from Page France, and
- Keepsake from State Radio.
Then I discovered these guys -- Illinois. Their track Nosebleed was featured in episode three of the third season when Nancy, played by Mary Louise Parker, dances for the gang leader Guillermo and his crew. The song is from the band's first album, released in March of this year named What the Hell Do I Know. I liked Nosebleed enough to check out more of their stuff and ending up loving the other six tracks way more than the first.
Illinois are pretty typical of where my tastes drift most of the time. The banjo and flat-pick guitar were my first sign that I'd like their stuff but it's so much more than that. Illinois have a very modern, folksy sound. My favorite tracks are One on One and it's heavy drum-backed 70's groove feel which leads into Screendoor, a fun "hoo-hoo"ing catchster that you find yourself humming along to on the first spin.
It's nice to have found an album, albeit short, that I want to listen to all the way through without skipping over something. Unlike, the new Ryan Adams EP Follow the Lights. I've had the chance to listen to the album several times through and I'm bored. New tracks were included with reworks and live versions of several other RA favorites. I felt a little ripped off, like why did I pay for music that I already pretty much own and why must he continue to release albums with no point other than to say I put out another album. I like the version of This Is It that was included but again, it was a version of something I already have . . . blah Ryan Adams, blah.
