
Can't wait for Sufjan Stevens' next record in The Fifty States Project? Then feast your ears on The Welcome Wagon's Welcome to the Welcome Wagon. The indie darling's imprimatur is indelibly stamped all over this beguiling release from the Asthmatic Kitty record label.

Last Saturday night, The Dixie Hummingbirds brought their warm jubilation to an otherwise dark and bleak Ohio midwinter. Seemed a good time to huddle up for some gospel harmony as the cold and snow are getting a bit oppressive around here.

For the better part of three decades, I've given Chrissie Hynde the benefit of the doubt. Fellow Ohioan. Sassy. Rock and roll guitar playing chick singer. Pretty cool.

This was certainly a good year in music. While not as ridiculously strong as 2007, 2008 had more than its fair share of fantastic releases. Over the course of the next week ScooterDMan, Evan Mix and myself will list our picks for the best albums of the year.

Well, the top five got postponed slightly due to a series of travel-related complications and other unavoidable stuff. We resume our countdown today with the second-best album of 2008 - a crazy little mashup masterpiece by the name of Feed the Animals.

This was certainly a good year in music. While not as ridiculously strong as 2007, 2008 had more than its fair share of fantastic releases. Over the course of the next week ScooterDMan, Evan Mix and myself will list our picks for the best albums of the year.

3. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals — Cardinology

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks -- Real Emotional Trash

This was certainly a good year in music. While not as ridiculously strong as 2007, 2008 had more than its fair share of fantastic releases. Over the course of the next week ScooterDMan, Evan Mix and myself will list our picks for the best albums of the year.

5. Vampire Weekend — Vampire Weekend

As you may already be aware, Eric, Scooter, and I will be breaking down the top albums of 2008 over the next week. Each article will feature a pick and commentary by each of us on that album. In my column, we open the week with a little hip-hop. Here we go!

This was certainly a good year in music. While not as ridiculously strong as 2007, 2008 had more than its fair share of fantastic releases. Over the course of the next week ScooterDMan, Evan Mix and myself will list our picks for the best albums of the year.

It seems like we've been gone forever, but They Bring The Music To Us is back this week with a new music blog, Cause = Time.

They Bring The Music To Us is back, and featuring a great little mp3 blog called HARD CANDY which separates itself from the rest of the mp3-blogging pack in a significant way.

The Lower East Side was positively Scandinavian Wednesday night as Tobias Froberg, Theresa Andersson, and Ane Brun made themselves comfortable in the Living Room for the second night of CMJ 2008.

Today on Listen In we're rewinding to 2006 with Pepper's fourth record, No Shame, an album which found itself on constant rotation in my car.

Another week, another They Bring The Music To Us, and today I'm featuring a fantastic blog called The Tape, which was filling the gaping void I've had for a while.

They Bring The Music To Us is back from hiatus, and we're kicking things off with Indie Music Filter.

The final day of ACL has come and gone, unfortunately I had to leave early, but I did get to catch a few of the acts playing, but overall wasn't that impressed.

Day 2 of ACL is here and I've decided to keep things a little more laid back than yesterday.

The day has come to an end, but Austin City Limits is just getting started. I've got the scoop on 3 other great shows I saw today.
Bobby Bare Jr. (Web, Myspace)

Day 1 of Austin City Limits is here, right now I'm sitting in the press lounge waiting for some shows to start, but so far everything is looking pretty good.

The Austin City Limits music festival is right around the corner, and I'll be heading up there (down there for most of you). I've made a tentative schedule of the bands I would most like to see, which was hard because so many conflict with each other.

This week on They Bring The Music To Us is the delightful Guilty as Pleasure.

It's as if there were a slider that could adjust music much as a saturation control adjusts color. There would just be... more.