Friday is for shivers
Let's face it: October is a spooky month. There's the obvious 'Ween, plus Friday the 13th coming up, the Grudge 2 coming out (among a rash of other movies I'm too much of a cookiepuss to see), and it just keeps getting darker and darker earlier and earlier.
You need music to hold your hand and walk you through days like these. In the spring, Jamie Lidell put the spring in my step as the temperatures warmed. This summer, the triumphant return of the summer jam (Gnarls et al.) kept me running from AC to AC in Japan. But this fall, as I start to shiver in the mornings and wonder how it's already night when I take the dog for her "afternoon" walk, it's been all about the Honeycut LP, The Day I Turned to Glass, which you can grab for FREE on eMusic: just follow this link, create an account, and download away!
Honeycut is the bay area based trio of RV Salters, Bart Davenport and Tony Sevener. RV came from France (say in your best Conehead accent), and some may know him from his excellent solo project, General Elektriks, also out on Quannum. The trio as a whole brings a huge wealth of musical skills to the table, and what they cook up is both classic and progressive, edgy and familiar, and dark and cheerful. In short, it's a unique bag of mixed up styles and themes that works. Really, really works. It's like a darker Jamie Lidell, or a more musically talented Cake, or a more soulful and electronic Arcade Fire... but these are the requisitely lame if-you-like-that-then-try-this comparisons, which don't give the LP its full dues. It's an outstanding and novel effort, and it's easy to find something new to like about music in each song.
You can check out the bands MySpace (blarg!) page for tour dates and more listens. If you're in NYC, you can catch Honeycut at KCRW's CMJ showcase on Wed. Nov 1 @ the Delancey! Remember to carry a flashlight and wear a scarf, kiddies, and it'll all be okay.