Bon Iver cover The Outfield's "Your Love"

I love The Outfield's "Your Love" and Bon Iver does a great job of putting an entirely new twist on this 80's guilty pleasure:

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I sometimes forget that I can write about things other than music so I am going to take a little time to do just that. Bioware has finally released gameplay footage to their highly anticipated upcoming MMORPG PC game titled, Star Wars: The Old Republic. The game looks as if it is going to be based off Bioware's highly succesful RPG PC game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). KOTOR stands as one of the greatest games I have played regardless of platform so I am obviously excited that they are working to take what was good about KOTOR and incorporate that into The Old Republic (not to mention things are back in Bioware's hands). Details have been kept to a minimum and no firm release date has been set, but at least we are beginning to see progress with the game. I will try to keep up with news of its release.

Chris Dane Ownes - "Shine On Me" (Hilarious)

Every so often the internet gods smile upon us we mortals and hand down absolute hilarious videos for our viewing pleasure. Just such a gift is this music video for Chris Dane Owens' song "Shine On Me." The concept of the video seems to be as if The Lord of the Rings movies incestuously mated with Robin Hood: Men In tights and the Narnia series. This turd of a video had me laughing from the onset but reaches its peak when we see Owens power strumming his green Grestch guitar (2:54 mark) and then blessing us with his awesome pirouetting skills. To add to the awesomeness Owens and the gang make sure there is no shortage of fans to breeze back his perfectly styled long blond locks. Heck, it is Chris Dane Owens' world and we are all just living in it. Rest assured that Chris Dane Owens' Album Blue Stone and the red hot single "Shine On Me" will NOT be making my 2008 best of lists.

Look for Chris Dane Owens to be touring soon and rockin' a Medieval Times near you...

Plants and Animals - "Feedback in the Field" (Video)

I have started thinking about my Favorite Albums of 2008 list but it is nowhere close to being definitive yet, however, you can count on Plants and Animals' Parc Avenue making the list in some manner. "Feedback in the Field" is a cool track from Parc Avenue that will leave you stomping your feet, but this video only adds to the coolness of this song:

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

I awoke the other night to The Rural Alberta Advantage's (RAA) song "The Ballad of the RAA" pulsing in my head and it was just the sign I needed to pick up the album and give it a few more listens. "The Ballad of the RAA" is a song that begins with the building of simplistic rhythm and synthesizer and courses through powerful raw vocals accompanied by beautiful chimes and then culminates with a stripped down acoustic guitar and vocal melody that makes your heart sink. This musical experience is echoed throughout the album without being repeated or uninteresting. Hometowns has an innate quality of being raw, powerful and honest all while appearing to not be trying too hard. In otherwords, RAA's music is sincere and not over produced with the right doses of raw edge and pure emotion. Give the RAA an acoustic guitar and they can rock you with intensity rarely heard out of the more subdued brother to the electric guitar and then they will turn around and sing lullabies that make you wonder if they had to perform an exorcism on this same acoustic guitar to make it so sweet.

I actually found out about The Rural Alberta Advantage on the Metacritic forums (great place to find new music by the way) a while back but have only recently been exposed to them with the release of Hometowns as one of eMusic's "Music Selects" series, as their album was only available through the band's website. I have seen comparisons of RAA to Neutral Milk Hotel and I will go ahead and agree with the similarities although I would say that RAA show a little more straight forward pop sensibility. Nevertheless, the RAA are traveling in good company to be compared to Nuetral Milk Hotel and they will not disappoint. I can see the RAA being somewhat of a Bon Iver indie Cinderella story with the snowballing of publicity they are suddenly recieving and seemingly coming out of nowhere.

If you don't have an eMusic account you can order RAA's Hometowns through their webpage found here, just clink on the "audio" link. Either way check the RAA out as they are definite pleasant surprise in 2008. -(8/10)