The National

I will keep it short.... I was very late to the online music world. I can honestly say I've never downloaded a single track from Napster despite knowing friends with entire hard drives full of mp3s. In my pre-blog life, I used Epitonic to find a lot of new stuff. Without exception, The National was my greatest find on Epitonic and now a few years later everyone and their brother knows about (or should) this amazing five-piece from Brooklyn. Their 2005 release Alligator made a lot of Best Of lists so it is no surprise that new album, The Boxer, due out May 22 on Beggar's Banquet will be eagerly anticipated.

Check out the single Fake Empire (mp3)

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird first gained notice back in the mid-90's for his violin playing in the Squirrel Nut Zippers, that group of indie rockers turned 20's revivalists that coincided with that unfortunate Swing revival (thanks a lot, Jon Favreau). He went to form Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire and has for the last several years recorded as solo artist. I have to admit I didn't take notice until 2005's & The Mysterious Production of Eggs and his incredible single "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left". Not unlike John Darnielle and the Mountain Goats, his music can be difficult to categorize - folk?, indie??? The best solution is just to listen. His brand new album Armchair Apocrypha is due out on March 20th on Fat Possum records, which is no longer just putting out Delta Blues music as exhibited by both Andrew Bird and the new Dinosaur jr. album due out in May. Check out these songs.

Heretics (mp3) from Armchair Apocrypha
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left (mp3) from & The Mysterious Production of Eggs