i hate the sound of guitars

artists of the week: 13ghosts, masshysteri, the vicious, gorilla angreb

My friend Joe has been lately been mentioning some unjustly overlooked best-of-decade candidates. His first pick was 13ghost’s Cicada. After only a spin and a half, I’m not prepared to say “best of decade,” but it deserves more attention for sure, and I might eventually decide it is on the short list. Moody, somewhat rootsy, mostly slow, but still sometimes rockin’, calls to mind the likes of Sparklehorse and Centro-matic.

If Ted Leo told me to jump off a bridge, would I do it? That remains to be seen, but if he calls Masshysteri’s Vår Del Av Stan the best punk record of a recent year, I’ll go listen to it. If I agree with Mr. Leo that it’s pretty awesome, I’ll take steps to purchase it so the band and the label get some recompense, even if it’s not super-easy, and I’ll backtrack along Masshysteri’s family tree at least as far as The Vicious and Gorilla Angreb.

So as far as the bridge thing goes, let’s just hope Ted Leo doesn’t ask me to jump off one unless there’s a pretty good reason.