First Impressions: Dressy Bessy, I'm From Barcelona, Head of Femur, Airborne Toxic Event

After a relatively slow August and September, I got a pile of new music this past month. I'm still digesting a lot of it, but here are some quick first impressions of a couple albums from two bands I know and two bands I didn't know.

Dressy Bessy: HOLLERandSTOMP
Dressy Bessy will always hold a place in my heart (or at least my ears) because they've produced a few of my favorite albums of this past decade. This new album, by the band's own admission, is a bit of a departure for them. It's a bit more lo-fi, a bit darker, and many of the songs are slower than what I've come to expect from Dressy Bessy. To be fair, Tammy Ealom and her crew have been going at this for the better part of 12 years, so they could probably use a tweak in their formula. HOLLERandSTOMP is no Electrified or Dressy Bessy, but a not-fantastic Dressy Bessy album is better than none at all. I can't quite imagine Tammy shaking her thang in her go-go boots to many of these songs (and I already missed their show in Boston, so I won't be able to find out first hand), and I wouldn't recommend this as an intro to this band (I'd definitely go with their self-titled LP for that), but HOLLERandSTOMP is a more than adequate addition to this underrated band's discography.

Head of Femur: Great Plains
Here's another band that's apparently been around for a while, but this was my first foray into their music. This album is a bit weird, and coming from me, that's saying something. They play with a lot of musical styles and toss around a lot of instruments (many of which are played by guest musicians, I believe). They even get away with some saxophone on one of the standout tracks on the album, "Jetway Junior." Stylistically, these guys are as all over the place as Ween, and their writing is as all over the place as They Might Be Giants...I'm pretty sure the song "River Ramble" is about pollution, song from the point of view of a hick. Maybe. I'm actually not that sure about it at all, but it's a strange-but-pleasant tune. Individually, a lot of these songs are fun and catchy, but disparate enough that I'll probably listen to them on a song-by-song basis rather than listen to this whole album from beginning to end very often. I need to give it a few more listens, but I've enjoyed what I've heard so far.

I'm from Barcelona: Who Killed Harry Houdini?

I'm from Barcelona's last album, Let Me Introduce My Friends, actually made my Top 10 list for 2007. I can say with some certainty that Who Killed Harry Houdini? will not find a coveted spot on my 2008 list. I doubt it will even crack my top 20. It's not that it's bad necessarily, or even that the novelty of this humongous Swedish band has worn off. It's more that their debut album was filled with a certain child-like wonderment, and this album moves the group into a more somber early-adolescence. Emanuel Lundgren's motley crew (seriously, check out the members page on the band's website) can still create some great music, but the songs have lost their innocence. I don't mean to trash this album, especially after only one listen...it just wasn't what I expected. I'll certainly give it many more listens before I can relegate it to the "listen to only once in a great while" pile, but I'm not really that optimistic about this one.

The Airborne Toxic Event: The Airborne Toxic Event

If you have any faith in my musical taste whatsoever, then you will go out and buy or steal or do something that will allow you to listen to this album. Listen to the song in the video below (if it's working--I've been having issues with the video), and take note that as good as it is, it's probably not even the best song on this album...that would probably be "Gasoline." The songs are super-catchy, the music is plain and simple rock--I'm glad I stumbled across these guys. They're just what I needed after a slow few months. Though I like the other three albums in this post to varying degrees, none of them will be in my top ten for the year, whereas this one stands a very good chance.