Hello all, and a special hello to all who apply. (You'll find much more entertainment out of this post by reading it in a "British":http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation. accent) Once again it's time for SXSW, and unlike last year I am not going. No, it's staying here in the warm breast of the DFW metroplex. Ah, the warm fuzzys of not doing something awesome. But! That does not mean I can't ch-check out new muzzacks. When I first heard of a band consisting of indie god M.Ward and some actress who was the sister in "Almost Famous," apprehension heaped onto my audio soul like tomato soup after a rather brash run-in with a black and white stripe. "Bit and shenanigans!" I cried. "Hype and leggings!" SO, I conjured up a copy and gave it a proper listen. I remember certain points in my life where I was ten-hundreds percent right. Like when I told my then neighbor Jason Adair, that our "home built zip-line" wasn't the most stable apparatus. Well "Volume One" by "She & Him," was the total opposite of my well thought out first impression. This album is everything I ever needed. Nom, nom, nom. (All crow eating is done.) Zooey Deschanel haunts like any of the other indie queens of our time, maybe even better. I love this album for the exact reasons I could hate it. It spreads genre, it's tooth-ache sweet pop, it fills with covers, and it covers stone-set songs. (Who covers The Beatles and doesn't get nailed to a cross?) With all this in mine’s mind, I am still in love with the damn thing. I can't help but be charmed by it. (This Is Not A Test.) ((That's a track on the album.)) It breaks free of all the new trends of the indie crash-rock-electro-sample world and reminds us all of what started us on this slip slope. Good tunes to make us feel rad. Bad grammer aside (It’s been a LOOOONG time between posts.) Pick up on this before it gets blown out of the water. Actually at this point of post, it has been blown out of the water but, love it none the less. Buy it, download it, burn it, just get it. It’ll make you feel something good. (It's a front runner for, album of the first half for moi.) Well, it feels good to be posting again. Check out the track and reply, because we all love criticism and hate mail