At 10:34 AM 3/19/2003 -0500, Harris, Will wrote:
>And now that that question's asked, can anyone recommend anything else by
>John Cunningham, Menthol, Permer, and Chitlin' Fooks?  The songs on this
>disc are great, and I'm just wondering how the rest of their material is...

The two Chitlin Fooks albums are largely identical and both quite good if
you like that Emmylou-and-Gram-influenced school of alt-country. John
Cunningham's recent HAPPY-GO-UNLUCKY is pretty good, but if you can find
his European album from a few years ago, HOMELESS HOUSE, that one is just
*outstanding*.  There's only one Permer album and I quite liked it (another
Scandinavian Hidden Agenda signing, Club 8, do a very similar thing with a
female singer -- their SPRING CAME, RAIN FELL was a favorite of mine from
last year), and honestly, I don't really remember the Menthol record.

However, in recent Parasol-related releases, I can enthusiastically
recommend the self-titled album by the Telepathic Butterflies (think of a
more psych-oriented Cotton Mather) and reservedly recommend Sidonie's LET
IT FLOW.  This album is quite a lot of fun to listen to, and I love the
Bollywood influence on the arrangements (there's sitar and tabla all over
the album), but frankly, Charity and I were listening to the album and
going "Okay, that's the guitar riff from 'Pleasant Valley Sunday,' that's
the groove from the Stone Roses' 'Fools Gold'..."  It's telling that one of
the best songs is a cover of Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger" that plays up
the fact that the main hook from that song is a blatant ripoff of the
keyboard line from Love's "She Comes In Colors."

S