By Noah W. Bailey
Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category.
Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells more like the Kinks than Neil Young. [Editor's note: That's why we put it on our indie-rock list.] We likewise discarded Shearwater's near-masterpiece Rook, despite the
Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel both enjoy wearing a silly hat, a basic freedom most Americans sadly don't take advantage of.Well it finally happened. Indie rock icon and dorky eyeglasses connoisseur Ben Gibbard - better known to those few grandmothers and Buddhist monks (who actually don't know who he is) as the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and 2003's side project The Postal Service - got engaged last week to movie star and recent recording artist Zooey Deschanel, sister of TV's Emily Des
Mathew Ward and Zooey Deschanel (a.k.a. She & Him).
We fully admit to our jealousy of Mathew Ward.
Not only does the Portland guitarist have an obscene amount of talent (which he's demonstrated much over the past decade on seven separate full-length albums), Ward's collaborated musically with such indie all-stars as Cat Power, Bright Eyes, and Yo La Tengo. The dude (who performs as M. Ward) even got to perform on Letterman last night.
Plus, he's best friends with the gorgeous Zooey Descha
Seems like it's been a long time since a any Phoenix promoter felt like shelling out the big bucks it takes to rent the gorgeous Orpheum Theatre downtown for a show. It appears the inaugural tour by Monsters of Folk, an ironically-named side project featuring My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, and singer/songwriter M. Ward, is worth it.Monsters of Folk is scheduled to play the theater on Oct. 21. Should be a great night.
