I'd hoped to wedge this into the pile of reviews that went up late last week, but alas, it was not to be. Part of it, I'll confess, was due to my reluctance to bother even listening to Pete Yorn's latest album, Back and Fourth; fair or not, I tend to lump him into a pile of samey-sounding, guitar-/piano-slinging singer/songwriter dudes like John Mayer & Jason Mraz, all of whom magically seem to've appeared out of nowhere the last decade or so and about whom I'm generally meh.

With Yorn's latest, though, I'm slowly but surely being won over. He's gone a bit more country-folk this time out, at least when compared to his stuff from the Me, Myself, & Irene soundtrack and subsequent album Musicforthemorningafter, drifing out to Nebraska to record w/Mike Mogis and get all rootsy, and my apprehension aside, he makes it work to a surprising degree. The songs on Back and Fourth, which at first seemed fairly generic and dull, have steadily crept up on me, to the point where I find myself really, truly digging 'em, particularly tracks like the California-poppy "Paradise Cove," sweetly post-modern, Sun Kil Moon-esque "Social Development Dance" (is that actually where the term "social" for a dance-type party comes from, btw? if so, weird...), and defiantly unbowed opener "Don't Wanna Cry." Check the full review here if you feel like reading more ramblings from me on the subject.

Yorn's playing in town tonight, as well (hence my guilty rush to get this up today), up at The Meridian with somebody I've never heard of called Zee Avi (who's apparently originally from Borneo, which is intriguing). I'll grant his music may not be for everybody -- there are definite moments of Wallflowers-like Adult Alternative, to be sure -- but I'd recommend it.

New Featured Bands, Believe It Or Not: And as a bit of a side note, yes, I've added a couple more folks to the "Featured Bands" section, namely messy, noisy Pasadena rapper B L A C K I E and mathy, noisy post-rockers Tambersauro. Sorry it's taking me so damn long to update the Bands page -- it's just been hard to find the time, lately. I've got another dozen or so "Featured" people I want to get up there, and while I added some new band links to the "big" bands list today, too, I've got about three hundred more of those to add. Gah. Stay patient, y'all.

Labels: Admin Stuff, Featured Bands, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Reviews, Things To Do

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