New Music Monday

You've probably already heard of these guys as they have gotten some popularity from various TV shows I don't watch (Grey's Anatomy, The Riches, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, etc.), and movies by Nicole Holofcener (they thank her in the liner notes). But what the hell, I love 'em. I would describe their music as quietly infectious pop-folk. Quietly infectious in that it's not catchy in the repetitive, simplistic way that beats you over the head and gets you singing along despite hating the song. It's the kind where you might catch yourself humming a melody, not even sure where you might have picked it up. Pop-folk in that it's got the sound and instrumentation of folk music without the depressive, bleak, sacrificial inaccessibility that your deep singer/songwriters often have. They do sing with a little sadness it seems, but it's a sweet, resigned sadness. It shouldn't matter, but another thing I love about this group is their story. The Weepies are Deb Talan and Steve Tannen, both solo musicians until they met at one of Steve's shows and became friends before partnering to form The Weepies, falling in love somewhere along the way. They are now married with child and three beautiful albums. It's like Once, except neither was a Hoover-fixer-sucker-guy and they actually ended up together. This is the cover from their latest album, but they're all great.

If you can't read the picture (I can't), the album is Late Last Night by Robby Hecht, a singer-songwriter out of Nashville by way of Wisconsin. This was one of those artists and albums that I had never heard a whisper about, just picked up a pair of headphones at a Fingerprints listening station and made a great discovery. Well, great personal musical discovery that is. He already had an album and a representative to get him on the player so it's not like I stumbled upon the guy strumming on a riverbank or anything. The music is similar to The Weepies' in that it's a sort of mellow, relaxing, acoustic folk with a discernible heart and engrossing warmth to it. I have heard Robby Hecht compared to Amos Lee and I think I would agree that he has the same soulful voice and sentimental disposition (musically speaking of course as I don't know him personally). It could just be the newness of the cd I'm experiencing, but Hecht's melodies seem to resonate a little more with me than do Lee's, in general. They are more lullaby-like and I am a sucker for such a thing. My favorite such song on the album is Freight Train Lady (see link above). It wasn't the first song I heard, but it's the one that clinched the purchase for me. It chokes me up, I tell ya, it chokes me up!