The pastoral pleasures of Brent Amaker and the Rodeo's third album Please Stand By are hard to resist, if you love either the mod 60s Hollywood hillbilly of Lee Hazelwood, or the jittery original cow-punk of 50s Johnny Cash. Amaker's delivery is dry and wry, and the band cooks up their no-bullshit C&W with a steady sizzle and a few unexpected drunken master punches. The baroque, bourbon-lensed packaging itself is exquisite, as ribald and rococo as anything by Led Zeppelin, and the howl-rattling, full-color comic book included with every copy of the LP gives you as much back story as the libretto for any prog-rock masterpiece.

But what makes Please Stand By the fulsome full length we've all been waiting for from Brent since 2008's Howdy Do (key tracks: "Knock You Out" and "Girls Are Good") is the spit-shined quality of the new songs and their hard-earned messages.

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We don't usually do full on label hype here at Three Imaginary Girls, as we tend to be more artist or song/album focused, but two noteworthy new releases are coming up with stunning shows behind them. And so to massacre a murder of honky-tonking crows with one big blogging, let's dive into the August (live and recorded) Americana mayhem being offered by artists recently signed to up-and-raging local label Spark & Shine:

Rusty Willoughby offers up a dozen superbly written, subtle-emotive lonely journeys on his new album Cobirds Unite. It is probably the best sounding roots-oriented album I have heard in some time, and that means a lot when you have a voice as sweet and true as Willoughby's, backing vocals from Rachel Flotard, cello from Barb Antonio, a bunch of great picking and playing on various instruments by (producer) Johnny Sangster, and Tilman Herb on violin, among others. If you listen to this without ever checking out the CV of the man in charge, you won't necessarily miss anything that's great about it, as these songs seem as crisp and forlorn as any put to post since the glory days of crossover. But Willoughby has earned his solid reputation regionally ever since he fronted Pure Joy in the mid-80s, and proves on the terse and tender "Crown Of Thorns," "Where are The Knives," and the title track on Cobirds Unite that he's not just hustling faux hillbilly hoodoo.

There have been other projects for Willougby in the meantime (for the grunge years, Flop) but like those of us who jumped with The Dils to Rank & File and never minded hearing a Joe Ely bootleg opening for the Clash, a natural born punk is often just a pony boy exiled in the city. There are a lot of people making less fetching racket sort of like this every night in Ballard, but from these songs you can tell the musical workaholic chose this art-form for the ability to marry mature outlook with considered form. Thus when Rusty Willoughby plays with Black Francis on Saturday, August 21 at the Triple Door, both performers should be getting much hollering back.

 

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Pent-up, viciously provoked, ready to shred psycho killer line-up this Thursday night at the Crocodile (June 22) as The Purrs give an official release for their delectable collection of new songs, rare tracks, and covers, Tearing Down Paisley Garden.

The CD has been available for a few weeks now, and has been gaining new fans who hadn't the chance to fall deeply in love with thoughtful, caustic, clever previous long-players Amused, Confused & More Bad News, The Chemistry That Keeps Us Together, and The Dreams Are Stuff Are Made Of. But this is the official kick off party to begin celebrating new Purrs material, a feisty band about to spring out of nowhere on tour and clobber the world before it can defend itself. Bad ass, but charming as hell. Eat this up, as a new full-length isn't till next spring.

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A Brent Amaker and the Rodeo show is always a debaucherous event. Last time I saw them play, audience members were baptised by the Man himself with more than two trays of whisky shots. They lined up and had a shot poured down their throats. It was wonderful and excessive all at once. And now they're finding a way to one-up one of their shows by hosting a costume contest for their 6/13 Noise for the Needy benefit show at The Comet.

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The folks from Light in the Attic are going on a road trip, which began Monday morning in Seattle (at Easy Street Records) and will hit 50 total record stores in the next 10 days, selling Light in the Attic releases along the way. They are borrowing the tour van of Brent Amaker and the Rodeo, which may or may not have working seatbelts.

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Ear Candy blog's celebration has such a great bill because each band is exponentially different from the one that preceded it and the one to follow.

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Good news for people who like good new music: we have a new podcast, ready for you to download and enjoy. Woo hoo!

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This week's podcast features tracks from the Supersuckers, Brent Amaker & the Rodeo, lackthereof, The Old Haunts, Police Teeth, Autolite Strike, The Little Ones, Michael Zapruder, Ivan & Alyosha, William F. Gibbs, Brotherhood of Broken Hearts, Roger Goodman, Quiet by Ten, and Silverhawk.

The Admiral Theatre has reinvented itself from an old silent movie haunt into a 400-person show venue.

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The shows are always free, they book good bands, the food is tasty, there's plenty of parking, and the staff is very friendly.

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