It is, and it's Always Been, and it Will Always be the Next Best Option to Pretty Much Just About Anything

I knew there was a staggering amount of good music heading my way is 2008, I just didn't know how rapidly it would reach me, and just how good it would be. My week has pretty much been set up like this, listening to the new Henry Clay People EP Working Part Time while I'm driving, listening to the new Nada Surf album Lucky while I'm walking, and (still) listening to that Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin song while I'm sitting in front of my computer.

The Henry Clay People have been one of my favorite live acts over the past year, and the new EP captures the energy of those live shows perfectly. They create smart, catchy indie ROCK songs that get better every time that you hear them. Their songs also somehow simultaneously make you excited about the future of rock music, yet would have been right at home in 1994. In fact, if they had been releasing records and playing shows in 1994 they probably would have been on tour with Pavement. I'm officially nominating the Working Part Time EP as "That CD that will live in your car's CD player until sometime in September." They have a Monday night residency at the Echo in February, and are releasing the EP just in time to celebrate that.

Nada Surf on the other hand pull off pretty, full sounding power pop, and pretty, introspective ballads with equal degrees of success. And they just keep making near perfect record, after near perfect record. I'm not sure how they do it, but I'm going to keep listening until I figure it out. They have a few upcoming shows listed on the
Barsuk Records site none (sniffle) listed for L.A., but I imagine (hope) there will be a lengthier tour in the spring. While you are hanging around the Barsuk site you should download an mp3 of "See These Bones," It's well worth your time. Especially since Lucky won't be in stores until February 5.

Below is the video for my favorite song from Lucky, "Whose Authority." Notice the lead actor in the video. Doesn't that make you want to spend the rest of your day hunting for old episodes of the Adventures of Pete and Pete on You Tube?