J Robbins Releases New Single

anodyneJ. Robbins has been a familiar voice in my listening life, be it via Jawbox or Burning Airlines, so it’s a voice that I’ll never tire of, which is why I have to toss up this short two-song promo for his current tour. Just listening to them takes me back, and I can honestly say the second track “Abandoned Mansions” is way better than most of the re-hash emo throwbacks coming out right now. It looks like J. is working on some new music for an as yet to be completed album, and if it’s coming across like this, then I’m actually really excited. Then again, maybe I just love nostalgia when it’s done right. Regardless, here’s those two new tracks.

FTC: Uncle Tupelo

While recently pondering the music world and my depression with the current state of Wilco, I started thinking back to a time when I really dug Jeff Tweedy’s music.  A time when Tweedy used to write music with current Son Volt front man Jay Farrar in the alt-country group Uncle Tupelo.  Now I can’t obviously claim that my young self was around when this band started up in the late 80s, but I do know that I’ve been smitten with them ever since I heard the twang of “Screen Door” off their rough edged debut LP No Depression.  That record introduced a band to the world with some young kids who couldn’t decide on punk or country, so they just decided to fuse the two.  Of course Uncle Tupelo is long since gone after many years together and many country jam filled albums under their belt.  With that huge discography, it’s tough to choose a favorite, but I’ve got to stick with their final album of 1993 Anodyne.  I’m also going with the album closer “Steal the Crumbs” which sort of seems right as a send off to the band since it appears as the closing track on their last recorded album together.  Sad…

[audio: https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/12-Steal-The-Crumbs.mp3]