It's been a really long time since I've posted. For that, I apologize. Life got really crazy. I guess it's still pretty crazy but some really cool stuff happened in my music world last week. Not only did the Avett Brothers come out with a new album but I got to see them live! What better way for me to get back to posting than with one of my favorite bands.

Yes, yes, yet again, I am here to talk about everyone's (ok, mostly my) favorite brothers, The Avett Brothers. I'm pretty sure half my posts are about them. Deal with it. I love them and so should you.

Let's start with the new album. It's good, of course. I'm not sure the Avett Brothers could make bad music. A lot of fans are pretty upset with the direction these boys are taking with their music. Their becoming more country and less bluegrass. They're cleaning it up, tightening their screws and veering from that rawness we've all known and loved from their early work. They started doing that with I and Love and You and I don't know if they'll ever go back to it but that's okay with me. I mean, as much as I'll always gravitate toward that raw sound, I still think they're making really good music and I like it. So many bands change their sound as they progress and I really think this is a necessary move in the Avett Brother's career.

I think I've talked about this before.

The first Avett Brothers full length album came out in 2002. They were one of the first bands to start this blugrass/rock genre that so many bands are filling the airwaves with today. They've been there, done that. It's time for them to explore it a little bit more, now.

Like with last years album, The Carpenter, Magpie and the Dandelion continues to showcase a little more electric guitar in the first track, orchestras and large choruses in their second track and then they even get almost this psychedelic sound in the third. By the fourth track on the album, they bring back a little to their classic banjo sound. And next is their inevitable love ballad. No one writes love songs like the Avett Brothers. No. One. Track six, I might call my favorite on the album. Good to You. Maybe it's the piano. There's nothing I can't resist less than Seth Avett and the piano. Does me in every time. And  those build ups? I'm weak in the knees. I love the simplicity of this song. It makes it even more powerful.
The rest of the album continues in this combination of sounds. Our friend, Zachary Gibson called it a longer third Gleam. I might have to agree with that. It really has the vibe of the Gleam EPs. They even include a live version of Souls Like Wheels, a song on the Second Gleam. I will say, sometimes the flow of this album seems a little off. Like, the transition between Souls Like Wheels and Vanity is really abrupt. Not sure how I feel about that...
Overall, I really like this album. I'm not sure if I like it more than the last album. I might like it the same, just for different reasons. It's not my favorite album, though. But my favorite Avett Brothers album is always changing. Last week it was Mignonette. For a while before that it was Four Thieves Gone and before that, it was I and Love and You and before that... anyway, you get the picture. Maybe some day it could be my favorite. It's a good album. The Avett Brothers love writing music and it shows and I love them for that. I always will.


Stay tuned for my post about their show.

The Avett Brothers played Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday and totally rocked it (of course they did). They played "Another is Waiting" from their album The Magpie and the Dandelion, due out Oct. 15.
They're playing Fallon again tonight with Chris Cornell from Sound Garden and Audioslave, so tune in.

I first heard about the Avett Brothers from Tori and Zach. They always talked about them when Tori and I were living together, so I schooled myself via the interwebs one day, and I never looked back.

A couple Avett Brothers songs fit so well into situations I have experienced that it's uncanny. Music has a great way of making you feel that you aren't alone, but their songs make me feel like they sneaked into my journal and wrote about what they found there.

Anyway, they have a new album called Magpie and the Dandelion coming out in October. "Another is Waiting" is the first song they have released, and I love it. It is pretty poppy, but they don't stray too far from the Avett Brothers sound. The song is a good marriage between old AB and new AB, I think. It has the Avett-style harmonizing of something that could have come before I and Love and You and the LOUD that came after (and during).

Click here to listen on NPR.