I’m back in the groove this week. I’ve stayed true to my word and picked up some Feist!

• Feist’s Let It Die.
  
• Keane’s Under the Iron Sea.
  
• 28 Feb 2000 [Seattle, WA, USA] concert bootleg of Elliott Smith.
• 26 Sep 2001 [Washington, D.C., USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. I just noticed the date on this one, and it will be interesting to hear Jeff Tweedy 15 days after 9/11 in the nation’s capital.
• 29 Oct 2005 [Las Vegas, NV, USA] concert bootleg of The Decemberists.
• 14 Jan 2006 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco.
• 13 Oct 2006 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Beck.

Last week was far less involved because I eschewed the bootlegs:

• Fountains of Wayne’s Traffic and Weather. Stephen really likes this album, but I’m just not that big of a fan of it. I mean, it’s solid, but as I said earlier, I’m with Steven Garrity—FoW has almost developed into a self-parody. Now, there’s a certain amount of poetic justice in that, but I don’t like the result very much musically. There are some highlights in the record—”Fire in the Canyon”, the title track, and “Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim”—and … then there’s “Planet of Weed”. They’d almost be better served by breaking out of the power pop genre for an album or two, for my money. Three stars—and that’s low for how I feel about these guys.
  
• Travis’s The Man Who. Okay now, so you know I love Elliott Smith, and you’ve read me quote Linford Detweiler: “Sad music makes me happy.” But man, when Travis goes all mopey, I … just don’t enjoy it as much. I guess that I think “Flowers in the Window” when I think of Travis. Maybe that’s wholly unfair of me, but I think NME might be right: “Travis will be best when they stop trying to make sad, classic records.” Two-and-a-half stars.