What I'm Listening To October 1 - 7, 2010

1. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge Records)

2. Birds and Batteries - Panorama (Velvet Blue Music)

3. Broken Bells - Broken Bells (Columbia Records)

4. Dead Meadow - Three Kings (Xemu Records)

5. Kelley Stoltz - To Dreamers (Sub Pop)

6. Pavement - Quarantine the Past (Matador Records)

7. Autolux - Transit Transit (TBD Records)

8. Radars To the Sky - Supra / Infra (self release)

9. Film School - Fission (Hi-Speed Soul)

10. Darker My Love - Alive As You Are (Dangerbird Records)

The week of the Arcade Fire shows at The Shrine put The Suburbs back at number one and made it difficult to find time to listen to anything else. But I did. The Dead Meadow show at Echoplex on October 3 put Three Kings back as I can never listen to that album just once, and Broken Bells played The Wiltern this week prompting a few spins of their wonderful album.

Birds and Batteries write songs with a lot of variety and their album continues to have a hold on me. I'm looking forward to their in-store at Origami Vinyl on November 26. All the other albums are ones I've seen performed live recently and that's one of the things I like best about the availability of shows in this city. And that's really a major difference between my relationship with rock and roll in the '60's and '70's and my relationship now. Then, I was lucky to hear one or two of my favorite albums live each year. Now it's rare not to hear every CD I love in person, and often many times. It's added a whole new dimension to my music appreciation.

whrabbit