If Hugh is the proverbial Master of laziness, then I would surely have to be the Apprentice. I do have an excuse though, so I guess that makes it ok. R-right? Furthermore, I don’t know if anyone actually listened to the music I posted, but hey, onwards we march.

Today I have for your delectable listening pleasure the dulcet tones of Ms. Zooey Deschanel, a.k.a. the She in She & Him. Having seen her in the totally awesome “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the news that she also sang was enough to pluck away at my heartstrings! Or something like that. Zooey is joined by M. Ward (whom we haven’t written about for some reason!) to provide us all with some lovely folkey, country tunes. There’s even a Beatles cover in this album (I Should’ve Known Better), and it’s pretty darn good.

Oddly enough, I even have media for you all, and it’s not some dodgy Flash thing either. It’s an actual MP3! Along with this, I would go ahead and check out the aforementioned cover, as well as This is Not a Test, all of which can be found on their debut album, Volume One.

From Volume One:
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? – MP3, 5.7MB

Another Valentine’s Day means another Valentine’s Day post, which means I have to find a song that at least references love. Imagine my joy, then, when looking through all the emails that accumulated after four months of no Internet, I find a song called Love Makes Creeps Of Us All. Surely, the stars have all aligned in an ideal fashion. Especially since while most bands would just call it quits right there, Jim Clements & The Right To Die have plenty more good songs. Incredibly descriptive so far, isn’t it?

Jim referred to his music as alt-country, which seems to be pretty accurate, though it’s definitely the slower variety of alt-country. That is, you shouldn’t expect any barnburners here (which is good, since arson is a felony). His voice sounds like a folky James Blunt, without the whiny overtones. It’s very well suited to the songs, too.

If you love violins as much as I do, then you’ll enjoy These Ladybird Spots too. And remember how I said there aren’t any barnburners? St. Louise might just be the exception to that. It’s an amazing song with gypsy influences, to boot. The Bottom Feeders is another keeper as well, what with being a “swampy New Orleans death march.” That’s a great description for an even greater song. I’ve got two songs from their debut album posted too, neither are barnburners but both are great love songs.

I wish I wouldn’t get called a jerk for posting a bunch of band’s songs, because this is one that definitely deserves it. With most bands, it’s a challenge to find enough good songs to bother writing a post about them. Jim Clement’s, on the other hand, is one of the very few where all his bandwidth would be gone if I didn’t stop myself. Yeah, they’re good.

From When The Saints Go
St. Louise – (MP3, 3.9 MB)
These Ladybird Spots – (MP3, 3.9 MB)
The Bottom Feeders – (MP3, 2.6 MB)
Love Makes Creeps Of Us All – (MP3, 4.2 MB)

From Kill Devil Hills
I’ve Always Been Faithful – (MP3, 3 MB)
Coming Up Roses – (MP3, 3.6 MB)

We love the classics here at either/or. While the term classic is certainly a most ambigious one, I generally classify it as stuff written or released before I was born (pretty sure my comrade in crime, Hugh, disagrees). Anyhoo, since we love the classics, we’ve decided that we’ll be taking time out once a month to bring you up to speed on some of those great old, well-known (and maybe not so well-known) classic artists of yesteryear, and what better artist to kick it all off than the legendary George Harrison.

Most of you are probably aware of ol George-y boy. If not, shame! While he was most famous for his role in The Beatles (and yeah, they’ll be here one month), his solo work was his chance to come out and shine, and boy did he shine bright. Having contributed songs like Here Comes the Sun with The Beatles, he revealed a wonderful flair for great tunes. From My Sweet Lord to What Is Life?, he garnered a pretty huge fanbase until his untimely (and sad) death.

In my opinion, he played a well evolved version of The Beatles music, particularly in their later days, but he didn’t shy away from some good old fashioned country twang either.

And so we pay our respects to Mr. Harrison!

I know what you’re all thinking: either/or is really scraping for some content. Perhaps yes, but hey, these are some of the origins of today’s music peeps! Embrace it!

It never ceases to amaze me how I am always slacking when it comes to writing about CDs I get in the mail, since I don’t ask for CDs I don’t like. While it could just be my regular ‘ol laziness, I’m going to go ahead and say it’s because it’s harder to write about an album than it is to write about a single song. And when the CD turns out to be decidedly different than you expected, it makes it even harder. So when I got Over The Hill’s self-titled debut in the mail, expecting something resembling fairly standard country, I was at least slightly surprised to hear all of its psychedelic influences. The opener of Divorce would make it seem like a regular country song (not to mention the title), and then they throw some psychedelic keyboarding at you and while it’s hardly an expected transition, it still manages to work out fine.

The songwriter’s also got a book out, and if you’ve spent more than a few years on the Internet, you will have no trouble understanding it.

From Over The Hill
Darling What You Want Me To Say – (MP3, 2.1 MB)
Rabid – (MP3, 3.2 MB)

I will say this right off the bat: I am definately not one to look toward for some country music loving (you know, Garth Brooks and the like), but I found myself being totally hooked by these soulful, mellow and imaginative tunes, each of which carried with it a lovely bit of old-fashioned country twang. And what do I mean by imaginative? Well, let’s take a look at my favourite lyric from Farewell Transmission:

#Mama, here comes midnight, with the dead moon in it’s jaws
Must be a big star about to fall#

I’m not sure what it means, but I love it to bits!

From The Magnolia Electric Co.:
Farewell Transmission – (MP3, 6.8 MB)

I seem to enjoy bands that play music from areas that are not associated with them; first it’s circus music from California, and now it’s the The Broken Family Band, who are from the UK and play country music that’s more “country” than what the country stations play here. At the same time, some of their lyrics are hardly standard country fare; part of the chorus on Living In Sin is “You’re a sick Satanic lady, you’re full of hate and I just love that.” Imagine the media shitstorm if a popular singer sang something like that and laugh for a while. For the more country-friendly of you, I’d start with Song Against Robots, and for those of you who are not as country-friendly, you can try The Perfect Gentleman (which sounds like a Grandaddy song towards the end of it).

From Welcome Home, Loser
Honest Man’s Blues – (MP3, 1.7 MB)

From Jesus Songs
Walking Back To Jesus Part Two – (MP3, 3.8 MB)

From Cold Water Songs
Song Against Robots – (MP3, 2.3 MB)

From The King Will Build A Disco
The Perfect Gentleman – (MP3, 2.5 MB)

I realize Jesse Sykes is something of a blog darling as of late, but I’m glad for that, because otherwise it wouldn’t be as likely that she would have graced my ears. She doesn’t exactly have a pretty voice, but it’s nothing husky, either. In other words, something very fitting for folk-country, which this more or less is, though much more palatable to my ears than most bands in that particular genre.

The banjo on Doralee and Lonely Still makes me recall the death-country banjo stylings of Elliott Brood, but that seems to be the case for just about every band that uses a banjo. Just that old-timey feel, I suppose. Despite all that, you should really check out Station Grey first, because I did, and that’s how you’re supposed to get into music, so you follow the same path to enjoyment that I did. Once that one sinks in, head straight to Tell The Boys, one of my favorites of hers (along with Don’t Let Me Go).

From Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls Of The Soul
Station Grey – (MP3, 3.6 MB)
Spectral Beings – (MP3, 3 MB)
You Might Walk Away – (MP3, 2.1 MB)

From Oh, My Girl
Tell The Boys – (MP3, 2.8 MB)

From Reckless Burning
Doralee – (MP3, 3.4 MB)
Lonely Still – (MP3, 3.6 MB)

Eagle-eyed readers will have seen this band here before, but I re-wrote it so you can’t get mad. Porlolo has released a new album, Storm & Season. I had previously only heard one track off this album, Scratch My Back, which you will like if you like (or at least appreciate) good music. It’s nothing really special, creatively speaking, but it’s just so damn perfect in every sense of the term. As for the rest of the album, if you like mellow country (such as Magnolia Electric Co., who she might sound like if she had more twang) or some folk, you will probably like the whole album. That is my reasoning, anyway.

There are more songs linked on the band’s Myspace, which I would have added myself if I could get the damn links. Regardless, if you like Scratch My Back, go there and listen to Saw Your Head for a different kind of awesome.

From Storm & Season
Scratch My Back – (MP3, 3.5 MB)

Although I’ve never really been introduced to The New Pornographers in any way, I find myself very much intrigued by the solo efforts of Neko Case, a member of the aforementioned band. While TNP play what I’m told is straight out indie rock, Neko Case’s work consists of some lovely Alt. Country stylings, reminiscent of Songs: Ohia and Haley Bonar combined with a very…I dunno, “less than modern” voice (her singing reminds me of the Belinda Carlisle tune Summer Rain, but that’s just me). Don’t take “less than modern” in a bad way though: her voice perfectly compliments the tunes and the lyrics, all of which smack of exceptional goodness.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is her latest release and boy howdy it sure is a zinger! Now, there’s probably no way my drunken ramblings could possibly inform you of her goodness, so luckily I have some media for you. I’d also go ahead and check out John Saw That Number, The Needle Has Landed and Maybe Sparrow before you dive in and get the rest: I’m told by some that she’s hard to get into, but I don’t really know what they’re on about…

From Fox Confessor Brings the Flood:
Star Witness – (MP3, 7.3 MB)
Hold On, Hold On – (MP3, 3.9 MB)

Over the course of the past few months, I’ve been on what you might call a “roots rock” kick. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, roots rock is essentially… well… the return to the roots of rock, usually with a dash of country and folk mixed in for good measure. Magnolia Electric Co. is a band that uses all three to create some rocking country tunes that utilize the lyrical genius of folk music to allow for some truly eloquent tales of heartbreak. Their previous incarnation, Songs: Ohia (o-he-uh? o-hi-uh?), played more or less the same style of songs, so be sure to check them out if MEC happens to touch you in the right way. If you’ve ever had your heart broken, it will.

From What Comes After The Blues
Leave The City – (MP3, 5.1 MB)

From Trials & Errors
The Dark Don’t Hide It – (MP3, 6.7 MB)