MOG

Oh, dear, I seem to have been silent here for, um, almost a month. Sorry about that. Did you miss me? Can we just take all the usual excuses - busy at work, no time to listen to much new music, _really frickin' lazy_ - as read?

But O, my moggly Moglings, I have been to the promised land and found many treasures. Of course, I always find out after I make these discoveries that the Kewl Kidz were into my new fave band hours ago, and they are passe'; so if you've heard of these guys, already loved them and got bored with them, please just humor me.

So, first up is a band that is going to make me violate my vow to post only stuff that has been distributed for free. I pulled these guys off of eMusic based solely on a review posted there, and I am hoping that once you hear them, you will rush over and buy more. Thus do I rationalize my actions.

Art Brut. A snooty, artsy reference for a band name, and a tag by NME as "art punk," along with Franz Ferdinand and others. OK, whatever. To me, they come across as an amalgam of The Fall (and _their_ more recent U.S. analog, The Arm), the Stranglers, Wire (there's your artiness) and the Soft Boys (I loves me some Hitchcockian lyrical quirks). To me, there is almost no combination that could be more fun.

According to the band, today's selection was written five minutes after they formed the band. It doesn't sound like it. And if they want to be the band that "writes the song that makes Israel and Palestine get along," more power to them. Enjoy and keep watching this space. I have some FREE music to tell you about, soon.