Rocky Votolato—The Brag & Cuss. Good stuff, kind of in the Sean Hayes/Iron & Wine/Ray LaMontagne vein. Not quite as stripped down, maybe (not just him and a guitar, in other words), but in the same ballpark. If you just can't get enough of that kind of music, it's worth checking out. I've only listened to it a couple of times, and I like it. I'm hoping it'll grow on me even more.
Spoon—A Series of Sneaks and Girls Can Tell. I really dug Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, so I went back into their catalogue a bit. Neither of these has grabbed me like GGGGG, though. They're both good, but not as hooky. That borderline-pop sound benefitted them on the last CD, I thought. So while I like these, I'm still gonna keep reaching for Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga until I get sick of it. I'm sure there are plenty of people who think it was their sellout album, but I've never much bought into that nonsense. Oh, and as an aside, these guys must really like Billy Joel. That's cool. I don't like him, but still, they make it cool. The songs that sound like him are some of their best.
Iron & Wine—Woman King. I can't get enough; I'm going to the EPs. Love "Freedom Hangs like Heaven".
Jerry Lee Lewis—All Killer No Filler (The Anthology). Earlier this year, for some reason, I gave his most recent album a chance—Last Man Standing, one of those albums where an old-school performer does duets with a bunch of young (and not so young) whippersnappers. It turned out to be a really good disc, and eventually I had to have more. So I went straight for the biggie. I have not been at all disappointed. This is yet another example of my aversion to the mainstream serving me poorly: I should have been listening to Jerry Lee Lewis for years already. There's so much great music on here, and even the ones I'm not wild about are pretty damn good. I'm not sure I'd say there's "no filler," but out of 42 songs I can't find more than a handful that are. At the very least, this man kicked ass throughout the 50s, 60, and 70s.