Catholic Guilt and Grenadine

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Today was a very good day for my music collection. Unfortunately, I must give credit to the fact that, if one of my very favorite music stores (Face the Music on 13th) was not currently going out of business, I would not have had such luck. This afternoon I purchased at very modest prices Rilo Kiley's 'More Adventurous', Pavement's 'Crooked Rain, Crooked rain', Neutral Milk Hotel's 'Aeroplane Over the Sea' and (the icing that makes the cake too precious to eat) BRIGHT EYE's two newest studio releases 'I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning' and 'Digital Ash in a Digital Urn'. **Please note: these albums are not to be released until tomorrow!** Yeah, like an early Christmas or Birthday present that renders the actual date of the event incidental. Indeed.
I was orgininally going to review the two albums in this post, but after listening to the releases over a few times, I anticipate it may take me another day to truely determine from which direction I should consider them. They are both of course very good, yet somewhat deviant from the trend which Conor has developed through prior Bright Eyes releases; hence meriting a more thorough deliberation.
I am also very excited about the Rilo Kiley album...recently I haven't been able to keep their Saddle Creek release 'The Execution of All Things' out of my CD player. This is one of the first groups of the indie persuasion which successfully indulges in the dexterity of a female lead that I have been honestly adament about. Well, besides Tilly and the Wall of course (whose fine quality I strongly attribute to Conor's ingenuity).
Neutral Milk Hotel and Pavement are two surefire hits in my book and I can't wait to delve into, more deeply than I have been able to before, what they have to offer.

A list of ways to help and subsequent discussion:

Saddle Creek WebBoard thread on the worst natural disaster in modern history.
Check it out.


For more ways to help I have put many links on my other blog on the balcony or check out the TsunamiHelp blog in the links section here.

Every dollar, every drop of blood...yeah, it counts. So much.