The Go! Team - "Bottle Rocket". A choice cut from The Go! Team's upcoming debut, Thunder Lightning Strike. This is a one-of-a-kind act, flashy fun and fresh, their bodacious spirit matched only by their musical panache. It's like Belle and Sebastian jamming with the Furious Five, recorders and melodica that bump like toy boats against sample-flush tunes and double-dutch raps. "Bottle Rocket" is an effervescent single that high-kicks to the sky, marching down the street with floating balloons and spinning batons. There's energy to spare, a generous joy, just the right traces of melancholy - it's a triumphant back-to-school return, dancing to your own song on the abandoned beach. One of the year's best!

Spoilt Victorian Child has some other tracks online, as does Keith. Thunder Lightning Strike will be released on September 13, one day before The Arcade Fire's Funeral hits the shelves. A good week.

Obray Ramsey - "Rain and Snow". Plucked banjo and Ramsey's puckered voice, this is bluegrass for all seasons. It snakes a narrow line between sadness and perfect contentedness, every regret washed away with a swig of resolve. Obray Ramsey makes this seem easy, words squeezed out over a dance of strings. But I wonder at it, try to imagine it in utero, before this whole and simple thing sprung out and onto record. It can't be done. I cannot believe that this was slowly composed, written verse by verse, chord by chord. No - it emerged fullgrown. It grew among berries. (Thanks, Annette!) [buy]

Does anyone know which issue of Q magazine mentions this blog? If you could leave the info in the comments, I'd appreciate it very much.