What the heck is experimental folk? I guess Wayfaring Strangers mixture of folk, klezmer and jazz might fall in there, but The Fruit Bats? Come on. I just picked up The Fruit Bats first album, Mouthfuls. Pretty nice folkish, pop-rock soft of stuff. Actually, I really do enjoy the album. Unfortunately, I downloaded it right before Aloha and they pretty much killed the chance of me listening to

I started listing to Acoustic Junction before I was aware of the term alt-country or the existence of the entire genre. I just liked this band a great deal, finding their music interesting and highly approachable. Then out of the blue I hear this alt-country term thrown around and immediately think everyone must be referring to Acoustic Junction. Well, they weren't, but they certainly had them in mind

One of my favorite sites for music reviews is Stylus. I have found their reviews a bit more congruent with mine than Pitchfork, although I like what those folks have to say as well. I have picked up a couple of albums based on Stylus reviews and had pretty good success. The only real exception being Embrace's latest, Out of Nothing. It sits squarely in between sugar pop and light alt country. There's

A bit of digression from the music here. I catch static from my jazz friends and certainly my classical friends about listening to lots of alternative, indie, pop, rock, whatever you want to call it. I spent quite a bit of my life listening to and talking about important music. Now some important music is also damn good. However, life is too short to listen to music because it's important. I listen

Another band in the classic indie-rock/pop genre is Pedro the Lion. My understanding is the band is named for a cartoon character dreamed up by one of its members. Regardless, I really like the name. I own Achilles Heel, their most recent release. If you really want to hear indie-rock anthems, take a listen to Start Without Me and A Simple Plan. Very typical indie stuff, done atypically well.

For those who like their music a bit further outside and sans vocals, The Album Leaf's In a Safe Place is for you.

Although most of what I talk about here is indie rock, post-rock and pop, my first love is jazz. Returning to my roots, I'm happy to highly recommend Happy Apple's album The Peace Between Our Companies. I'll warn you right now, this is not your grandmother's Duke Ellington. This is what I like to call punk-bop. It is not free - all the songs are quite structured and I follow the changes most of the

What to say about British Sea Power and their latest album Open Season. I really like the album - very good post-rock. However, it just doesn't make it in the player very much. As opposed to The Sea and Cake, British Sea Power is classic indie-rock. Lots of electric guitars, not much keyboard, very nice harmonies and excellent performances. The first two tracks, It Ended On an Oily Stage and Be

Sam Prekop is best know as the lead singer for The Sea and Cake and earlier with with Shrimp Boat. (I have no idea why the references to the ocean, but I digress.) The two albums I own are his self-titled debut and his latest Who's Your New Professor. Thank you Salon for the initial free download!

The my second Sea and Cake album was The Biz.

Whoever didn't tell me about The Sea and Cake is now officially on my shit list. Big time. This is simply an amazing band that defies classification. Somewhere between jazz and post-rock, The Sea and Cake make albums that are about perfect for me. I found this group through solo work by its lead singer, Sam Prekop. My first taste was One Bedroom, their latest from 2003 and more recently The Biz.