all these flashes and cables, originally uploaded by minervacat.

I have been lucky enough to happen into an almost legal advance copy of the upcoming A.A. Bondy record, When The Devil’s Loose, and having finally listened to it last week, two weeks after it came into my possession, I can say: this album is officially fantastic. It’s a little more loping and low-key than American Hearts, more the pure rough Americana sound that Bondy’s brothers-in-law make as the Felice Bros. and the Duke & the King, but I think there’s still the blow-the-house-up rock sensibilities that Bondy carried in Verbena hiding underneath, making things a little creepier, a little dirtier. It’s fucking fantastic.

Now if somebody would just send me an advance of the new Mason Jennings album, that would be awesome. I promise to write a review that salivates all over it, because it’s Mason, and I have absolutely no objectivity when it comes to him.

This post gets a shot from the Centro-matic set at the 506 last November, because the Will Johnson Tour Extravaganza and a Bondy set were the last two shows I saw in November ’08 before I got Six. I took one photo between the two of them, but there are some shots I didn’t take that are still burned into my mind. Sometimes you need to know when to put the camera down, after all.

[A.A. Bondy — “I Can See The Pines Are Dancing”] 4MB, .mp3. From the upcoming When The Devil’s Loose.
[Centro-matic & Jason Isbell — “Flashes & Cables”] 3MB, .mp3. From a show in Nashville in 2007. My favorite Centro-matic song with Jason’s crunchy guitar behind it.

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It’s pretty much been all Centro-matic, Bondy, My Chemical Romance, and Hoots & Hellmouth on my iPod this week. These bands have nothing in common with each other, except that they all live in my music library.

Tonight I’m watching S1 West Wing with shep., folding laundry (ugh), and figuring out a billing system for paid photo gigs. Prior to this month I’d only ever gotten paid in beer, guest list spots, and offers of sexual favors, none of which the IRS requires you to pay taxes on. Real cash money, though, you gotta account for.