Husker Du- It's Not Peculiar

It's just odd.

I've been so giddy with anticipation for tonight's Hold Steady show that I was tempted to drive halfway across Missouri to see them Tuesday night in Columbia. When I try to explain the band's appeal to my straight (i.e. non-music obsessive) friends, I explain that they combine the traditional rock'n'roll evangelism of Bruce Springsteen with the punk ethos of American punk bands like Husker Du. It's not hard to imagine The Hold Steady covering this song from Warehouse: Songs and Stories, especially if you picture Craig Finn replacing Bob Mould's stutter at the end of "It's Not Peculiar" with the words "down on the banks of the Mississippi River."

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NPR's Day To Day program ran this compelling feature on Israeli group The Idan Raichel Project today.

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The New York Times details the blogging shenanigans of jazz enthusiasts today. The excellent Destination Out, which I link to on the right, is name-checked in the story. Maybe those guys would stop hating on me if I quit posting snarky comments on their site.