My two new studio releases this week come courtesy of the Granades. Thanks, you guys.

Also, I’m going to start putting links in to MusicBrainz URLs for releases. I spend time putting those in for the bootlegs, so I should show the work, eh?

• Nick Drake’s Pink Moon.
  
• Sigur Rós’s Takk.
  
• 2 Sep 2002 [Seattle, WA, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. MusicBrainz URLs: 2002-09-02: Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA, USA (disc 1) and 2002-09-02: Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA, USA (disc 2).
  
• 24 May 2003 [Akron, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. MusicBrainz URLs: 2003-05-24: Lime Spider, Akron, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2003-05-24: Lime Spider, Akron, OH, USA (disc 2).
• 30 Jul 2006 [Council Bluffs, IA, USA] concert bootleg of 311. MusicBrainz URL: 2006-07-30: River Riot '06, Westfair Amphitheatre, Council Bluffs, IA, USA.
• 4 May 2007 [Seattle, WA, USA] concert bootleg of The Decemberists. MusicBrainz URL: 2007-05-04: The Paramount Theater, Seattle, WA, USA.
  
• 18 Jul 2007 [Phoenix, AZ, USA] concert bootleg of Snow Patrol. MusicBrainz URL: 2007-07-18: Dodge Theater, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
  

Last week was average:

• My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me the Workhorse. Admittedly, My Brightest Diamond is not the most accessible thing. When I first saw her open for Sufjan Stevens in 2006, I spent the first fifteen to twenty minutes of her set going, “The heck?” Then, something clicked. Not sure what, but … something did. “Golden Star” is a favorite of mine. The control that Shara Worden has over her voice is largely unseen in popular music, but belies her operatic background. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Aug 1989 [St. Louis, MO, USA] concert bootleg of Uncle Tupelo. It’s an old, fuzzy recording, but you can just smell the raw talent of the band. As I listened to this, I thought once again about how I always liked Jay Farrar’s voice better for what UT was doing, but after the split, I’m definitely a Tweedy guy. Can’t imagine the disappointment I’d feel if I’d followed UT back in the day, hoping that Son Volt would be a fully worthy successor to the band. Two-and-a-half stars.
• 4 Sep 1998 [Rockford, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. A decent era of the band, but unsatisfying for me: I didn’t like the background vocalists, and most of the sets had a lot of the Mermaid Avenue stuff, which I like, but I’d rather hear original Wilco tunes. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 5 Apr 2007 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of The Decemberists. The annotation that came with the bootleg termed it a “[g]reat audience recording (some crowd chatter on first few songs)”. That’s … charitable. That said, live taping is often hard in Nashville’s more popular venues [City Hall, the Ryman] because security’s really harsh on it, regardless of the artist’s taping policy. This definitely feels like a stealth recording, and it’s … passable. Two-and-a-half stars.
• 2 Sep 2007 [Denver, CO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. I had read high praise for this recording, and that praise is well-deserved. Four stars, even with my general apathy towards the Sky Blue Sky material.
  
• 14 Sep 2007 [Grantham, PA, USA] concert bootleg of Feist. As much as I have bagged on Feist recordings over the past few weeks, I have to praise this one. Whoever taped it knew what the heck they were doing! Four stars.
  
• 14 Sep 2007 [Goodlettsville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Andrew Osenga. Andy forgot the condensers he was going to let me borrow, and the omnis really weren’t up to the task. Three stars, all due to the band. Taper sucked that night.