Okkervil River - "Down Down the Deep River". A song like a TV themesong, a glitzy red carpet for a stream of live audience-members, a deckled invitation to a man with a thin-stem microphone. The walls have hieroglyphics in fake neon, pink and orange. The cages are filled with tigers and lions. There are roars, there are cheers, there is the crash of pop-song cymbal and the ripple of pop-song guitar. People are waving placards, people are waving their smiles, smiles and placards catching the fake neon light. The man with the thin-stem microphone wants to give the crowd some wisdom, to use this moment for something besides corvettes and kitchen sets. Forget the spay & neuter, he's got something bigger to share. Something that harkens back to riverside makeouts and childhood camping trips, backyard crushes and lockercrisp longing, something involving a driveway and a girl and an autumn, something like that, just as soon as he can remember it. [buy The Silver Gymnasium]

Talmud Beach - "How Long?". Dry dogfood blues. Enough wink and slip to make it mesmerising; enough noise in the signal. This clock deserves a second look. This burro has boogie. Hide Beck in Finland, like Rip Van Winkle, and after a few decades, with sand in his eyes, he might make a thing like this. [buy]