what's the ram listening to?

Picture Taken from KCRW Website
Eric J. Lawrence, the music librarian at KCRW, is stealthy. Twice now he has unassumingly handed me CDs with little explanation other than, “Here you go!”

The first was Tristen’s Charlatans at the Garden Gate. I put it in the CD Player in my car and it didn’t leave for over a month. I get completely lost in her music both because of what she’s singing about and the way she’s singing it. There is a pain in most of her songs that I feel I understand. It feels like the pain of youthful love mistakes written down on a page and set to a melody.

She played this morning at KCRW and sang with such ferocity that many of her songs came out in a wicked amazing growl into the mic. What I loved most about seeing her in person was the total lack of pretense. She’s just Tristen. A little pixie of a woman who goes for the jugular with her music. You can take a listen to and watch the full session here. Below is a little preview:



Then Eric J. handed me the “new” (I found out it was released back in March) Generationals album Actor-Castor. Eric gave me the CD last week and I’ll give you one guess what hasn’t left the CD Player in my car.

I asked Eric if there was a specific reason he gave me that album (something in there specific to my tastes?) and he answered that while he can’t quite make the blanket statement that there’s something in Actor-Castor for EVERY music lover, it comes pretty close. Catchy rhythms, interesting vocals that are easy to sing along with, at times poetic/thoughtful lyrics - yeah I’d have to agree. Aside from musical value though, these guys are just plain fun to listen and jump around to. Talk about a welcome dance break from LA traffic.

Ten-Twenty-Ten by Generationals from Jubadaba on Vimeo.