Let's talk about music.

House is an incredible show, I've found out. I've plowed through the first four seasons now and while watching the stellar season finale, Iron and Wine's "Our Endless Numbered Days" played. That song is the best song on the album it lends its title to. I forget sometimes about Iron and Wine. Amazing voice, Sam Beam has. Our Endless Numbered Days is pretty much unquestionably the best material he's put out, because the earlier stuff was too low-fi, and while The Shepherd's Dog was FANTASTIC going to sleep music, it only had a song or two that hearkened back to the days of a man and his guitar. The retrospective Around the Well is a great double disc, the first being material that came out in the early, low-fi days, and the second (better) disc being OEND and TSD material. But what I really want to mention here is that on the (flawless) EP for his (incredible) cover of Such Great Heights, there's a little seven minute ditty called The Trapeze Swinger. It's the single best song Beam has made to date, and the stripped down version on the EP is superior to the over produced number on Around the Well.

Lucero's new album is so goddamned good. It's the most feel-good album of theirs they've ever done. Every song oozes sunshine. Honestly, I'm still on the fence about the band moving from a four piece to a six-or-more piece with the addition of a keyboardist, slide guitar player, and horns. The crushing guitar solos of old are gone, replaced by better all-around songs. The first song, "Smoke," is simply one of the best songs they've ever written, and it goes on from there. "Darken My Door," "Can't Feel A Thing," and "Goodbye Again" are beautiful, and rockers "Sounds of the City," "The Devil and Maggie Chascarillo," and "Halfway Wrong" will have your little alt-country ass shaking. If you have any interest in rock music, this is an essential album.

Finally, The Avett Brothers' new album finally got here today. My little bluegrass rockers have finally released their first major label album, and it's a fucking heartbreakingly beautiful piece of music. But where hast thou gone, banjo? Where hast thou gone, rockers? But hello piano, you fit right in here. Hello full drum set. Those angelic harmonies return with gorgeous production, and the achingly honest lyrics are as good as ever, if not a little darker than I've come to expect. It's funny to see the difference between when a band like this hits the big stage and a punk band goes major label. Punk fans get MAD when one of their babies tries to make money doing what they do for a living. The Avett Brothers' fans all express the same emotion: Thank you for the music you've made that I feel like was just for me. It's sad that I have to share you with everyone else now, but you deserve it. And they do. This album isn't going to hit the radio, but for people who love real, honest music, it's going to be fucking epic.