Me and What Army?

It was a very exciting weekend. Not as exciting as the forever unchronicled Canada Day Long Weekend, but whatev. The big thing is that Nicole came back from Saskatchewan on Sunday, putting an end to my eight-day-long diet of ketchup chips & Pilsner.
But what might be more exciting to you, dear readers, is that between Friday afternoon and Sunday night I got a bunch of new music.
On Friday, I went downtown to the big Human Meat Vacuum to use a birthday giftcard. As mentioned in previous post, I spent a lot of my solo time just listening to music that I hadn't listened to in a while, and over the course of the week, I got WAY into Luna, thanks to a promo copy of 2004's Rendezvous.
So I was looking for The Best of Luna, hoping for the Beggars' edition, which comes with a bonus disc of cover tracks. I found it, but couldn't tell which edition it was. But it had an "Import" sticker on, so I figured I was in luck. I wasn't. But there was a flyer inside the package pointing me to Lunafied, which is where the covers are at. At 99 cents a pop. SIGH.

But while I was in the L section, I noticed the Lightning Dust album, Lightning Dust. Starring Amber Webber and Joshua Wells of Black Mountain, Lightning Dust is dark and moody folk-type (I dunno, maybe it's that "New Weird America" stuff I keep reading about in Arthur magazine) stuff, though "Wind Me Up" is pretty delightfully upbeat. "Heaven" ends with a nice melodica bit, and Amber Webber's voice is archly great. Oddly, I ended up hanging out with Josh most of Friday night. We are both Royal Trux fans.
MP3: "Listened On" by Lightning Dust

Anyway, not satisfied with a mere greatest-hits package from Luna, I also grabbed the latest alb from former Luna folks, Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, aka Dean and Britta. Very much a contempo-take on the Lee & Nancy dynamic, but also as breathy and luxurious as the last few Luna albums. Last week, talking about my rekindled fondness for Luna to Cam, I said that they make me wish I had a high-performance car so that I could put Luna on the stereo and drive along the coast late at night. There's the thrill of going fast without the fear of losing control. Their latest album, the one I got, is called Back Numbers, and it's everything I hoped it would be.
MP3: "Our Love Will Still Be There" by Dean & Britta

Not that long ago, I realized the Parkas have a new record. As soon as I realized it, I ordered it. Thing was, since I'm a little moron, I somehow had it sent to my parents' house in Regina, rather than my house in Vancrunker. Luckily, Nicole was in Regina last week, and stopped by to hang out with my darling mother and brought me back some sweet Parka action! I'm still getting to know Put Your Head in the Lion's Mouth, but the early impression is that it's an impressive continuation of the toughening up of the Parkas that started with The Scars To Prove It EP. Here's a really excellent track that kinda makes plain the difference between the Now This Is Fighting Parkas and the Put Your Head in the Lion's Mouth edition, since it's a remake of Fighting's "The Heart Is Only A Muscle".
MP3: "A Change of Heart" by Parkas