Joy's Blues

On Wednesday night I saw Adem and Akron/Family. The former alternated between a shambling brilliance and a shambling tedium, at their (or his, more accurately, though his band was essential to the music's success) best quite enjoyable. He played songs from his new album, Love and Other Planets, songs with intentions of a cosmic grandeur which never quite reached those heights. Ironically, Akron/Family beat him at his own game, channeling astonishing, beautiful noise seemingly from above, at once celestial and impossible. I became entranced by their glee and their sincerity - it was clear they were having fun, but it was also clear what they were doing was special. It was music for the infinity of a summer evening!

Just a day later, I was sent music that reminded me, immediately, of AK-AK's bearded homages to the cosmos. It was Joy, or Joy's Devil's Blues. The songs were a loosely-woven blanket cast wide, warm evening air through the holes. Notes rang with twilit clarity, up like smoke, dissipating into night and space. These back-porch transmissions reminded me of Califone and Lowlights, the twisted blues of the former played on the latter's astral nighttime highway. Hushed and buzzing, this is flawless music at exactly the right time. Give it a listen, I couldn't recommend it more.

From Devil's Blues

Joy - Tigers Paw [mp3]

Joy - Strummed On A Bent Harp [mp3]

From the Devil's Blues sessions

Joy - Devil's Blues [mp3]

Joy - Sea Life [mp3]

Visit Joy online, and purchase Devil's Blues (Shrimper Records) from Midhaven.

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Did everyone see Dan's video for Sunset Rubdown's "Us Ones In Between" at Said the Gramophone? How about that!

Did everyone get Josh Ritter doing Modest Mouse's "Blame It On The Tetons" at I Guess I'm Floating? It's like a favorites overload.