Totally Blotto

A few recent discoveries of the musical variety …

— John Perry Barlow, a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, made one of his infrequent blog posts the other day. This one was extolling the virtues of Dr. Blotto, a Chicago band that Barlow stumbled into and ended up writing lyrics for. I downloaded their new album, Barlow Shanghai, and it’s definitely worth the $12.50 I paid. I’ve only listened to the whole thing once, so I’m not sure if the lyrics are all that. But the music has a definite hook and I’ll be listening to it a lot over the next several days.

— I heard a woman singing on WDVX the other day who sounded wildly familiar but that I couldn’t place. When they announced it was Carrie Rodriquez, I was stymied. I’d never heard of her. But I found several of her CDs on iTunes and downloaded her latest, “7 Angels on a Bicycle,” and one she did with Chip Taylor, “Red Dog Tracks.” Her music really is resonating with me. Downloaded these CDs on Saturday and already have listened to them a bunch of times. I’ll probably go in and grab more of her music …