Do you read top music blog/friend of TPC extrawack on a regular basis? If not, get thyself to the blogroll down the right hand column and check it out. Trust me on this.

You could - no, you must - check out the recent post on Killer Of Sheep, which looks like an absolutely amazing film (and with a great story behind its making, as well). It's one of those things that makes me really, really wish I was anywhere close to the NYC area right now. If you are, I insist you go on my behalf. And your own, of course.

You could also go back 3 weeks or so and check out my guest blogging stint at the 'wack. If only I was smart/organized have to said something here, say, 3 weeks ago. I actually did, but it's still lying in the draft bin, along with another epic tome of a post - and may stay there forever more.

That extrawack post of mine was written in anticipation of a new release by one of my very favorite under-the-radar artists, Pelle Carlberg.

You probably haven't heard of Pelle yet, plaudits from the likes of me and fellow New England Indie Music n' Soccer Mafia member False 45th notwithstanding, but that really should change after two albums of the caliber of Everything Now!, and now, In A Nutshell, which came out last week. I've seen him pegged him as an amalgam of early Belle & Sebastian and Morrissey. That's no bad start in my book; throw in a little bit of melancholy, north-facing whimsy, plus a pinch of magic musical dust that all these great Swede acts seem to have, and you've got yourself a stew. Yes, you may marvel as he gets away with shamelessly Mozz-like prolix titles like "Crying All The Way To The Pawn Shop" and "Even a Broken Clock (Is Right Twice A Day)" and be dazzled (or appalled) by the chutzpah necessary to actually call a song "I Just Called To Say I Love You." (!)

Why not listen for yourself?

Pelle Carlberg - "In A Nutshell" - listen to the full album on live.fm.

Highlights? Well, there's the irresistibly folky, mandolin-a-janglin' "Middle Class Kid." Go here for live versions of it and "I love you, you imbecile" from Swedish TV. But everything else aside, I feel pretty close to exultant over the way "Clever Girls Like Clever Boys..." has finally turned out. I mentioned this tune a while ago here, after an early version turned up on his website. There is simply no way I could not like a song that said that and sounded like that - but, being a demo and all, it wasn't quite the finished article. It is now. A lot more layered, tighter, and with just the right sort of bounce. Man, I think it's great. I'll be listening to this album a lot this summer.

If you'd been checking out extrawack, as well as False 45th, you'd also be clued up to Brooklyn-based up-and-comers Dirty On Purpose, who rolled into town for a free show along with TPC-tested and approved Matt Pond PA, who I've seen twice and were a kick each time.

Their album Hallelujah Sirens is real good stuff, and the live show was damn good considering the surroundings. If the theater in the new student center (no alcohol: check, high school aud-type stage setup: check, cushy, bolted-down cineplex seating: check, somewhat obnoxious students that provoked a drummer from a misfiring opening act to hurl a stick at the crowd: check) is perhaps the least rockingest place to ever see a show, at least I got to hang for a few minutes after the show at the merch table with DJ and George from D.O.P., who are very nice guys indeed. Of course they are - they're New Englanders like me. In fact, I spent a few minutes chatting with DJ about the beauty of North Conway, NH, where both our families have vacation places. Now that's rawkin'.

Kudos, also, to Matt Pond himself (among the more ingratiating onstage chatterers around, for my money) for calling out the "tall blonde girl, who was doing a cabbage patch or something - we've never seen that done to THAT song ("New Hampshire") before."

Kudos and then some to said tall blonde girl, all 6 feet and 110 lbs (yeah, if that) of her, sporting the super-tight white ringer tee and skinny jeans, and making an absolute ass-shakin show of herself amidst a small crowd of arms-folded indie-kid freshmen. Yeah, she was totally being that girl, and she knew it. And holy hell, was she ever hot.

I don't know why, but there seems to be a sudden influx of devastating Amazons in these parts. "Influx" being the 3 or 4 I've seen in the last couple weeks, but you get the gist.

It's bittersweet. They all make me feel sorta like this:

Labels: Dirty On Purpose, les belles amazons sans merci, Matt Pond PA, Pelle Carlberg, The Wannadies