Just one shopping month left until my birthday! Y’all know I love music, to the point that I have a separate Amazon wishlist for music only. Ahem.

• Sandra McCracken’s Red Balloon. When you’re friends, you get advance copies.
  
• Nirvana’s In Utero.
  
• Jackopierce’s Promise of Summer. This is a NoiseTrade success—wouldn’t have bought this album without listening to the EP. So, if you’re interested … get the EP at the end of the post.
  
• 3 Feb 2006 [Las Vegas, NV, USA] concert bootleg of Coldplay. I’m done with them now. 2006-02-03: MGM Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
  
• 26 Oct 2007 [New York, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2007-10-26: Highline Ballroom, New York, NY, USA (disc 1) and 2007-10-26: Highline Ballroom, New York, NY, USA (disc 2).
  
• 17 Jul 2008 [London, England] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie.
  
• 26 Jul 2008 [Anchorage, AK, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2008-07-26: The Moose's Tooth, Anchorage, AK, USA (disc 1) and 2008-07-26: The Moose's Tooth, Anchorage, AK, USA (disc 2).
  

Last week:

• Blind Faith’s eponymous album. It’s a shame that Windwood, Baker, and Clapton couldn’t co-exist. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• Lenny Kravitz’s It Is Time for a Love Revolution. Starts off with a bang, and then … mellows. Three stars overall.
  
• Matthew Perryman Jones’s Swallow the Sea. I have sadly not given this album the time that it deserves this week, but a copy will go in my car for my Labor Day driving. But from the first few listens, it gets four-and-a-half stars.
  
• 20 Jul 1995 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. Sometimes, the sound guy needs to get shot. This is one of those times. Two stars.
  
• 20 Apr 2004 [Minneapolis, MN, USA] concert bootleg of M. Ward, Jim James, and Conor Oberst. Matt started his set with a harmonica, which is a sure-fire way to have me love it. [I have yet to understand my affinity for the instrument, but it's undeniable.] Matt’s set is pretty much everything you’d expect from a 2004-era show. As usual, Jim James’s stuff confounds me—I just don’t grok it, for whatever reason. Conor Oberst’s set mostly bored me. Two-and-a-half stars overall.
  
• 18 Nov 2006 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. The taper noted that the distortion errors are present in both the SBD and AUD sources. SOUNDBOARD FAIL. Two stars.
  
• 1 Aug 2008 [Sugar Land, TX, USA] concert bootleg of Andy Gullahorn. Great recording from Jim, who hosted the show. Great performance by Gully. Fun times. Four stars.
  

And again … here’s that JP EP:

• Nirvana’s Nevermind. Nope, never actually owned my own copy.
  
• The Cardigans’ Life.
  
• Over the Rhine’s Live From Nowhere, Volume Three.
  
• 16 Jul 2006 [Florence, MA, USA] concert bootleg of The Autumn Defense. 2006-07-16: Pines Theater, Florence, MA, USA
  
• 17 May 2008 [St. Louis, MO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2008-05-17: The Pageant, St. Louis, MO, USA (disc 1) and 2008-05-17: The Pageant, St. Louis, MO, USA (disc 2).
  
• 23 Jun 2008 [Santa Monica, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. 2008-06-23: Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW-FM, Santa Monica, CA, USA
  
• 22 Jul 2008 [San Diego, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Feist. 2008-07-22: Humphrey's, San Diego, CA, USA (disc 1) and 2008-07-22: Humphrey's, San Diego, CA, USA (disc 2).
  

Last week:

• R.E.M.’s Murmur. Admittedly, I haven’t given this enough of a listen [just getting to it on Saturday], but I’m just not feeling it yet. I’ll keep trying, but right now, it’s just a three-star record on my radar.
  
• George Strait’s Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind. I don’t like a whole lot of country music, but there’s just … something about George Strait’s voice. I figure between George and Lyle Lovett, I can get all the country I ever need in my life. [And I still blame my junior-year-at-MSMS roommate, Thomas, for listening to country music in the first place. I had two choices: listen to country or kill him. I chose the former. But working in country radio right out of high school pretty well fixed me on listening to too much country.] So yeah, I’m going through Strait’s catalog some. Three stars, if you like country.
  
• The Cardigans’ Emmerdale. For a band with this much rock and roll chops—Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson had been in heavy metal bands prior to The Cardigans—it’s weird to hear a pop record from them, but it’s still solid, because Nina Persson’s voice is stellar. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Apr 2008 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. The mix is just off, but I’m afraid that there’s not much to be done about it by the taper, given that it seems like everything was done that was possible with the AUD part of the mix. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 28 Apr 2008 [Los Angeles, CA, USA] concert bootleg of She & Him. Persic is one of the best tapers I know, so I lay all the fault here on the vocalists—not only Zooey [who just needs to get more stage presence, which should shock no one who's read about her on the Internet at this point], but whoever was doing the bgv’s, too. But the musicianship of the band is great … three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 16 May 2008 [St. Louis, MO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. The musicianship is great. The recording is solid. It just … doesn’t really feel like I’m there, which is pretty much my standard for bootleg recordings. I guess I’m faulting Steve’s mix here, which rightly focuses on the music, but feels like it weighs a bit too heavy on the SBD patch. I’m not saying that it’s not good; I’m just saying that I guess I think it could be better. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Jul 2008 [Santa Monica, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Gnarls Barkley. It’s obvious that they still haven’t gotten comfortable with being interviewed, but man … a fun listen nonetheless. Four stars.
  

Hallelujah and praise the Lord! I’m on vacation!

• Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism.
  
• Paper Route’s Are We All Forgotten, on the suggestion of Jeff.
  
• Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere. Yes, I am slow to the GB party, but Stephen got me there.
  
• 16 Aug 2001 [Jersey City, NJ, USA] concert bootleg of Radiohead. 2001-08-16: Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, USA (disc 1) and 2001-08-16: Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, USA (disc 2).
  
• 17 Nov 2006 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2006-11-17: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2006-11-17: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 2).
  
• 13 Oct 2007 [Kansas City, MO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2007-10-13: The Crossroads at KC, Kansas City, MO, USA (disc 1) and 2007-10-13: The Crossroads at KC, Kansas City, MO, USA (disc 2).
  
• 12 Apr 2008 [Norfolk, VA, USA] concert bootleg of Spoon. 2008-04-12: The Norva, Norfolk, VA, USA (disc 1) and 2008-04-12: The Norva, Norfolk, VA, USA (disc 2).
  

Last week was pretty disappointing.:

• Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. Okay, so the Led Zeppelin that I love is the rockin’, bluesy stuff. And to quote Wikipedia on Houses of the Holy, “This album was a stylistic turning point in the lifespan of Led Zeppelin.” And, well, on “The Song Remains the Same”, I was confused for a minute, thinking that maybe Geddy Lee had replaced Robert Plant or something. [I'm sure that several people broke things after reading that sentence.] Admittedly, it gets back to sounding a little more like Led Zeppelin as the album progresses, and I am the person that did say, just two weeks ago, “I’m a firm believer that bands have to experiment lest they [and/or their fans] become totally bored with the thing.” But that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. So, yes, I should rate this now, right? Three stars, mainly on the strength of “Dancing Days” and “D’yer Mak’er”.
  
• The Cardigans’ Super Extra Gravity. The phrase that I was going to use for this album was “solid, but boring” until I got to “I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to Be Nicer”. I have a lot of friends who are excellent singer/songwriters, so I say this with a bit of trepidation, but … man, The Cardigans rock way too damn much to try to do the singer/songwriter+backing band thing. Sadly, that and a fusion of quasi-country stuff [although it felt like Nina Persson was channeling Sixpence's Leigh Nash for the first few tracks] made for a boring start. But it picks up in the second half of the record, which is good. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. Egad. Jacob said this about Coldplay on a forum I run: “The best way I can put it is that I like simpler Coldplay. It just feels like they’re trying to be something that they’re not right now. The indie-rock/prog-rock (good call Adriene) feel just doesn’t fit what Coldplay was. Sure that sounds like the old fan wishing their band hadn’t grown up and changed their sound…I’ll cop to that. But some of their earlier songs made me want to cry. Now their new stuff does that but for different reasons.” I can’t say it any frickin’ better. One-and-a-half stars, and if any of my friends wants it, I’ll give it to them. I don’t want it back. One-and-a-half stars. I haven’t bought an album that I’ve actively hated in quite some time, but … this is it. Gah.
  
• 25 Oct 1997 [Utica, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Blues Traveler. I’m surprised that a SBD sounds this poorly-mixed, but then I probably shouldn’t be. Sound board operators don’t have time to give tapers jacking into their boards the time to give perfectly-mixed feeds. The mix is very definitely pushed towards the treble and towards John’s voice standing out above all others. For people that crap on me wanting to do SBD/AUD matrices, well, suck on this. Two stars. [Sad, because Bob Sheehan was really on this night. And before Chris Smith says crap to me ... suck on it, LC.]
  
• 1 Sep 2007 [Denver, CO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. Gah. Another week of getting burnt by a stealth rig. Venues that don’t allow tapers suck. This sounds pretty good despite being stealthily done. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 26 Apr 2008 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. It’s a rare case when I’m disappointed by a matrix [well, other than my own, heh], but I am by this one. Karin’s vocals are too hot in the mix, but I fear that’s probably a fault of the sound board op [which shocks me, because this typically isn't the case with CST shows] than the taper. [After all, if she's too hot in the SBD feed, she's probably too hot in the mains, and you can't compensate with the AUD part of the feed to get more of the band.] I mean, it’s still a decent recording, but I only give it three stars. I expected four-plus.
  
• 27 May 2008 [Milan, Italy] concert bootleg of Feist. Feist bootlegs are hard to come by, so I was willing to chance it on a recording made by a Zoom H2’s internal mics. [Hey, I own and use a Tascam DR-1, so I'm understanding. It's just that internal mics aren't going to get a big band's sound, especially not in a room like that.] So it’s not terribly surprising that the recording is muddy and distant, but hey, it’s free, right? Two-and-a-half stars.
  

• My Brightest Diamond’s A Thousand Shark’s Teeth.
  
• Sigur Rós’s Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.
  
• 21 Apr 2002 [Toronto, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2002-04-21: Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
  
• 14 Nov 2003 [Los Angeles, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. 2003-11-14: Henry Fonda Theater, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
  
• 22 Apr 2005 [St. Paul, MN, USA] concert bootleg of M. Ward. [Thanks to emdot for the use of her photo for this cover art.] 2005-04-22: Turf Club, St. Paul, MN, USA.
  
• 5 Nov 2005 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2005-11-05: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2005-11-05: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 2).
  
• 4 May 2008 [Birmingham, AL, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken. 2008-05-04: Workplay Theatre, Birmingham, AL, USA and 2008-05-04: Workplay Theatre, Birmingham, AL, USA.
  

Last week was abbreviated in an effort to catch up:

• Sloan’s Parallel Play. Three stars: almost three-and-a-half, but not quite. Fun power-pop, though.
  
• Eric Peters’s Bookmark. Two-and-a-half stars: it works as a tide-me-over album, which is what it was intended to be, best as I can tell. A worthy grab for EP fans and completionists.
  

Yeah, so uh … no new music last week. I’m in Delivery Mode, which means excess mental energy doesn’t get expended unless necessary. The only new studio release is something I actually don’t have my hands on yet, but will probably get this afternoon as I head to the office to work [told you it was busy]:

• Death Cab for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs.
  
• 7 May 1999 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. I’m sneaking two in here to try to work off the backlog. 1999-05-07: Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL, USA (disc 1) and 1999-05-07: Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL, USA (disc 2).
  
• 3 Nov 2004 [Portland, OR, USA] concert bootleg of The Delgados. 2004-11-03: Music Millenium, Portland, OR, USA.
• 4 Nov 2005 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2005-11-04: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2005-11-04: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 2).
  
• 28 Sep 2006 [Santa Monica, CA, USA] concert bootleg of M. Ward. 2006-09-28: KCRW-FM, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
• 3 May 2008 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken. By my own hand! 2008-05-03: 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN, USA and 2008-05-03: 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN, USA.
  
• 5 May 2008 [Missoula, MT, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2008-05-05: Harry Adams Center, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA (disc 1) and 2008-05-05: Harry Adams Center, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA (disc 2).

Two weeks ago turned out pretty well:

• Deb Talan’s Sincerely. A solid, four-star effort. The rendition of “How Will He Find Me” is the strongest track.
  
• City and Colour’s Bring Me Your Love. Another four-star release for me; “The Death of Me” and “Body in a Box” are both good little numbers.
  
• 4 Sep 1967 [West Hollywood, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Cream. Two-and-a-half stars, which is what I’d expect for a four-decade-old recording.
  
• 27 Aug 2005 [Cincinnati, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. Four stars; “The World Can Wait” and “Firefly” just sparkle. Fun between-song banter, too. It’s OtR with a hometown crowd—hard to beat that.
• 4 Feb 2006 [Malmö, Sweden] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. It starts a little slow, but they really fly in the second half of the concert. The renditions of “Crooked Teeth” and “What Sarah Said” are the best to my ears.
• 26 Mar 2008 [Melbourne, Australia] concert bootleg of Wilco. Three stars. I was terribly bored.
• 9 Apr 2008 [Louisville, KY, USA] concert bootleg of Son Volt. Two stars. Just not a good recording.

Surprisingly, I was able to hold out on listening to The Weepies’ new record until this week, despite having it Tuesday. Discipline, or something.

• The Weepies’ Hideaway.
  
• Carole King’s Tapestry (Legacy Edition). You can blame this one on me watching lots of Gilmore Girls episodes.
  
• 18 Feb 1997 [Ottawa, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Wilco. 1997-02-18: The Cave, Ottawa, ON, Canada (disc 1) and 1997-02-18: The Cave, Ottawa, ON, Canada (disc 2).
• 26 Aug 2005 [Lexington, KY, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2005-08-26: The Dame, Lexington, KY, USA (disc 1) and 2005-08-26: The Dame, Lexington, KY, USA (disc 2).
• 15 Mar 2008 [Austin, TX, USA] concert bootleg of M. Ward and Jim James. 2008-03-15: St. David's Church, Austin, TX, USA and 2008-03-15: St. David's Church, Austin, TX, USA.
  
• 4 Apr 2008 [Dyersburg, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb. Really happy with the ability to do SBD-AUD matrixes now. 2008-04-04: Dyersburg State Community College, Dyersburg, TN, USA.
  
• 4 Apr 2008 [Dyersburg, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Caedmon’s Call. This one took a lot of work, because my feeds got slightly out of sync from time to time during the set, so I continually had to monitor for sync issues. Worth doing, though. I’ve got some ideas of how I’ll do that better next time. Could’ve spent more time mastering it, too. Ah well. 2008-04-04: Dyersburg State Community College, Dyersburg, TN, USA (disc 1) and 2008-04-04: Dyersburg State Community College, Dyersburg, TN, USA (disc 2).
  

Last week was good in the studio spots, meh otherwise:

• Deb Talan’s Something Burning. Unlike with her husband, I liked her sophomore release much better. This is good, but the melody is better on the next record. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• Deb Talan’s A Bird Flies Out. Lots and lots of fun here. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 11 Jan 1997 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Jeff Tweedy. Pretty standard Tweedy solo fare of that era; nothing special. Two-and-a-half stars. The fun bit for me is the cover of “Thirteen”, which I’m used to hearing Elliott Smith do.
  
• 7 Jul 1999 [Stuttgart, Germany] concert bootleg of Wilco. Very meh. Two stars.
  
• 12 Aug 2002 [New York, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Coldplay. Sounds thin and reedy. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Jun 2005 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. Good mics, well-implemented. Feels sluggish, but that’s because the performance is slow and muted. Sometimes when OtR goes this way, it’s really cool, like listening to jazz with a good glass of $alcohol [I'd say wine, but I don't drink wine], and sometimes, it’s like this, just a tad too mellow. Three-and-a-half stars.
• 17 Apr 2006 [Toronto, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. Sadly, an audience rig not up to the task. Two stars.

In honor of The Weepies’ Hideaway coming out this week, I’ll finish my tour through Deb and Steve’s solo catalogue this week:

• Deb Talan’s Something Burning.
  
• Deb Talan’s A Bird Flies Out.
  
• 11 Jan 1997 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Jeff Tweedy. 1997-01-11: Lounge Ax, Chicago, IL, USA (disc 1) and 1997-01-11: Lounge Ax, Chicago, IL, USA (disc 2).
  
• 7 Jul 1999 [Stuttgart, Germany] concert bootleg of Wilco. 1999-07-07: Roehre, Stuttgart, Germany (disc 1) and 1999-07-07: Roehre, Stuttgart, Germany (disc 2).
  
• 12 Aug 2002 [New York, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Coldplay. 2002-08-12: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY, USA (disc 1) and 2002-08-12: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY, USA (disc 2).
  
• 25 Jun 2005 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2005-06-25: Schuba's Tavern, Chicago, IL, USA (disc 1) and 2005-06-25: Schuba's Tavern, Chicago, IL, USA (disc 2).
• 17 Apr 2006 [Toronto, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. 2006-04-17: Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto, ON, Canada

Last week was brief due to technical difficulties:

• Steve Tannen’s Big Señorita. I wished that I’d started here. Steve’s first effort is pretty good. What’s the old line: you have all your life to write your first album, and nine months to write the second? Anyhow, three-and-a-half stars.