Brooklyn folk-rock veteran Toby Goodshank, a member of NYC bands Double Deuce, the Tri-Lambs, and the Moldy Peaches has released a new album "Truth Jump Fall" in early october. The album, which was released October 18th via Toby’s bandcamp, features beautiful acoustic tracks like “Sara and Jon” that showcase Goodshank’s signature, piercing voice and intimate and catchy songwriting which is very reminiscent of the Decemberists. Check out our favorite track  “Baby I Feel Like I Just Got Cut In Half” streaming here. Goodshank will be performing at the Mercury Lounge on Friday, November 25th with Diane Cluck & Anders Griffin and Jeffery Lewis & the Junkyard. – Amanda F Dissinger

Channeling influences as disparate as early The Who, Camper Van Beethoven and Nick Cave into a sound that’s equal parts Americana and Rock’n’Roll, in their new album "Octopus" New Jersey’s Big Wilson River have crafted an in your face rootsy sound that’s as entertaining as it is intriguing. The rock’n’roll single "Eighty Days Armadillos" is a super-fun party song that borrows "My Generation"’s stop and go formula and develops it in more rootsy ways, exploiting to perfection the classic country male/female interlaced harmonies. Lead vocalists Darrin and Emma deserve praise for great performances full of character and earthy passion throughout the record. Other songs in this collection, like "Gipsy Song" and "Dandelion," reveal a more playful approach, with Darrin’s vocals full of punk attitude and occasional psychedelic influences, while other ones, like "Backyard Passout Fest" and "River Boat" develop in more classic folky ways, allowing Emma’s alto to cast its spell. A great record for parties and long car trips.

At the risk of sounding academic, music is experimental to the degree at which structure informs content. Think about this for a moment, recall that it’s going to be ok, try not to cough this pop-tart up all over your external hard drive.
I came to this realization 2 weeks ago after watching Little Women play Death By Audio and speaking to frontman Darius Jones about what the heck just happened. There were indeed elements immediately peculiar to the performance. The music preempted by a prayer circle; the concluding passage spawned by Darius and Travis Laplante detaching sax from mouthpiece and chasing each other around the room in curious courting ritual qua duck hunt.
At the risk of sounding grandiose, this is serious business. This music exists as an amalgamation. A paean to the compositional process itself. Stormy vignettes, entangling threads, compromised reverie, sprouting, sprouting, sprouting. Music that consistently turns its course on its head, mimicking moments of splendor and, with equal irreverence, building and substantiating the remote, the forgotten, the passages that have simply passed us by, as life inconsequentially ebbs and flows. The fantasy of self-referentiality.
Darius says they’d take a 3 minute segment and spend an entire rehearsal on it. What happens is you hear the piece as a whole and must confront what it means to understand something when you’ve never experienced it before. A wizard casts a spell and you’re no longer sure if this is your life, Louisa May Alcott just stole your seat. – Velrie Kuehne

I could write here something very similar to what I wrote about Scout 2 blog entries ago. I clearly remember talking to some friends about NYC’s psych-rockers My Best Fiend 4-5 years ago. Well, here’s a testament to the power of persistence: the band – whose latest incarnation was formed in 2009 – has just signed to (awesome UK label) Warp records – home to Grizzly Bear and a ton of edgy electronic acts. My Best Fiend just made available for streaming a first single (below) entitled "Higher Palms": its subdued pace and spacious melodies bring to mind 2 bands that graced the cover of The Deli: The Occasion and Caveman. A very good sign indeed! The My Best Fiend live at Shea Stadium on December 15.