This is cross-posted from my blog. I figure I better cross post music stuff from there, or I'll never add anything to Mog, because I am lazy.Aaron Schroeder: Woah, this kid is absolutely amazing to me. I literally cannot get enough of his songs. I downloaded a few off of the Sixeyes blog and played the song “Between Drags” into the ground. It’s one of those songs I can listen to over and over again. Perhaps it’s the plaintive voice, the honest lyrics, the perfect combination of instrumenation, or the delicately bouncing pop of it all. But I can say that my ears perked up from the first line: “Fuck it, I never promised you I’d try…” Since then, I ordered his self-released first record, Southern Heart in a Western Skin, through PayPal (which he sent directly to me and included a cool map that my dog subsequently ate). After playing that over and over again, I’ve broken my rule never to use MySpace and have continued to download the new demos he keeps posting there. (Since then, I’ve found that most of those files are also available on his web page.) He’s quite literate (he works in a bookstore!) without being showy or pretentious, and he lists Billy Bragg, Destroyer, The Smiths, Silver Jews, The Kinks, The Mountain Goats and Otis Redding as influences.Illinois: I just downloaded two of their tracks from a trusted MP3 blog, My Old Kentucky Blog. This fairly new band seems now to be popping up throughout the music blogosphere, so let’s cross our fingers that they don’t become the next “Clap Your Hands and Say Over-Hype.” I haven’t gotten the EP yet, but the two songs I’ve heard are pretty outstanding and getting heavy rotation on my various music players.Ladyhawk: I think this band is pretty much the domain of 2006 when almost everyone was writing about them. But I was a little resistant. Who really knows why? Actually, I do. It’s because lots of folks were comparing them to older Southern rock, which doesn’t conjure up lots of excitement for me. Sure, that kind of thing has its place, but that place is usually not in my music collection. However, Ladyhawk turns out to have much more of an Archers of Loaf feel than anyone ever let on, and I appreciate the ramshackle hooks of their music, which I distinguish from the jam-miness of Southern rock. So don’t be afraid of them (even if they look like hippie stoners who spend too much time obsessing over My Morning Jacket). Also, they’re on Jagjaguwar, one of my favorite labels these days. So, if you haven’t heard anything from their debut record, Ladyhawk, I encourage you to download a few tracks and give them a try. Best of all, they’re on eMusic.Also, who wants to place bets now that the music blog world will utterly reject the new Wilco record, Sky Blue Sky, in a massive backlash. I’m not ready to make my own judgments on the record yet, though I will say that I’m glad Jeff Tweedy seems to be returning to his lyrical strongsuits (honesty and concreteness, rather than abstractions of the rock “philosophy/poetry” vein). May we never have to suffer another “Theologians” again.