I know that I’ve been very scarce about posting here lately, other than some fits and spurts. Let’s just explain it this way: I am managing the delivery of two flight support equipment carriers for some electrical switching units to fly up to ISS on 1J/A. We first started talking about this delivery back around the holidays last winter, and we’ve been on contract since April and are heading down the home stretch towards delivery. Staying on top of the details is more than a full-time job, one I wouldn’t be able to do without the great team I work with on a daily basis. My head is very much down on this, and the ol’ Weblog is suffering for it. I think that you’ll understand.
[I think I'll talk more about this stuff when it's on-orbit and I can point to pretty pictures of our hardware. I think that you'll understand that all my really good stories will have to be saved for re-telling over a Smithwick's at Mason's Pub in downtown Huntsville.]

• Devendra Banhart’s Cripple Crow, at Mike’s behest.
  
• The Cardigans’ Gran Turismo.
  
• 17 Dec 2001 [San Francisco, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Elliott Smith.
• 27 Oct 2006 [Champaign, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Jeff Tweedy.
• 13 Feb 2007 [Hamburg, Germany] concert bootleg of The Decemberists.
• 23 Apr 2007 [Berlin, Germany] concert bootleg of Feist.
• 9 Jun 2007 [Lawrence, KS, USA] concert bootleg of Son Volt. Sadly, there are no more Son Volt shows in my queue.

Last week was very good for the studio albums, and it took me until Friday night to even sniff at the bootlegs.

• Caedmon’s Call’s Overdressed. I’ll admit it: when I first heard that Derek Webb was rejoining the band, I was skeptical. Could they make it work? They did. Four stars. Yes, I think that Christianity Today’s five-star review is overly ebullient. It’s not the very best record that they’ve ever made, but it’s very good, and it’s definitely the best one with both Andy Osenga and Derek Webb involved. And, speaking of Osenga … people are going to make this album out as “the return of Derek”, as if the only thing that was wrong with Caedmon’s was Derek leaving the band. I call bullshit. I feel like the pressures—real or perceived—of what Essential was wanting to do with the band were dragging them down. Look at their discography since 2000’s excellent Long Line of Leavers: worship album [In the Company of Essential Angels], breakup album [Back Home], greatest hits album [Chronicles], concept album [Share the Well], second worship album [In the Company of Essential Angels]. Only one of those albums is any good, and it’s the concept album. Why was that concept album good? Well, for one, the band meant it; and two, Andy Osenga and Randall Goodgame played major parts. They play major parts here on Overdressed. Andy O is all over this album. If you think that Caedmon’s Call is making a great studio record again only because that short bald guy is back, you’re wrong. Flat-ass wrong.
  
• Over the Rhine’s The Trumpet Child. My friend Jeff, who introduced me to OtR about three years ago, has reviewed this album for The Corner Table, and I wholeheartedly stand by what he says. My conundrum: I love OtR so much that I want to put the “Bergquist/Detweiler ‘08: If a Song Could Be President” bumper sticker on the car, and I’m not the biggest fan of the song.
  
• 21 Oct 2000 [Atlanta, GA, USA] concert bootleg of Elliott Smith. This is not as good as the Nantes show that I babbled about a few weeks back, but it’s still very good—it’s Elliott with a full band, and they rock Atlanta’s famous Tabernacle. Four stars.
• 27 Jan 2006 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Feist. There’s a fair amount of FM static in this recording. The source and performance are both very good, but man, the static is annoying as hell. I could probably try to remove some of it in Audacity, but … meh. Three stars.
• 9 Feb 2006 [San Francisco, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Jeff Tweedy. A wonderful performance and setlist from Jeff. Four stars.
  
• 17 Oct 2006 [Trussville, AL, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb. Okay, it’s a soundboard, so it’s not likely to get a five-star rating from me—and this doesn’t. But it’s Derek at his full-throated, protest-singing best. Four stars. [Would be five if I had a second rig and could have matrixed in some audience sound.]
  
• 3 Feb 2007 [Dublin, Ireland] concert bootleg of The Decemberists. Sadly, the recording is a bit distant [despite having good equipment and being Front of Board], and the crowd is very, very chatty. [Witness the group shushing at the opening of "Shankill Butchers".] Sounds like a hell of a time, though. Two-and-a-half stars.