The Books

[X. Torris]

I was turned on to these guys a few months ago.  They combine live instrumentation (guitar, bass, cello, piano, banjo, mandolin, & more) with samples of speech, percussion, and other interesting electronic effects.   I've heard it called "electronic-folk" and "folktronica" which isn't a bad description, but still doesn't capture the uniqueness of it all.  Sweet, poignant, funny, and frenetic.  Very accessible for such an originally unconventional mash-up of styles.

I saw them Friday on the packed-house first show of their first tour---  and they brought the house down.  I had wondered how they would perform live, as so much of their tracks sounded so finely produced.  They played instruments to simply but well-managed prerecorded samples.  My description sounds much less impressive than the performance actually was.  Best show I've seen in a year.

Their website.

Anyway, I highly recommend catching them if they come to your town--- they're touring all this month.  If you decide to get an album, I'd recommend starting with "Thought for Food".

Anyone else here like 'em?

[JRL]

Folks the reply was not from our X man. Note the lack of a period

[JRL]

I deleted the post. BTW the Groove is not a democracy.

                 Jrl the despot