Low Cut Connie

It's been a while since I brightened your world with a new musical selection, mostly because it's been a while since I brightened my own world with a new musical selection.  But after making grave efforts to catch up with the latest indie releases, I've found myself enamored with a particularly off beat band that pulls on the 'Jersey Pride' tether to my heart.

Low Cut Connie was founded by New Jersey native Adam Weiner and British songwriter Dan Finnermore, but the band's debut Get Out The Lotion (high class lyricism this is not) sounds more like a '50s rockabilly record straight out of Nashville.  The songs are upbeat, catchy, and made for dancing, with plenty of Southern twang and swagger, but the lo-fi aesthetic and hilariously vulgar lyrics (see Shit Shower and Shave or Big Thighs, NJ) bring a decidedly contemporary element to the band's sound that will appeal to the indie rock crowd.  And despite the raunchy veneer, Get Out The Lotion has some unexpected heart (Lovers Call and Full of Joy actually border on sweetness) and loads of enthusiasm.

For all of us hit hard by the tough economic times, Low Cut Connie has Get Out The Lotion available for download on their website for whatever you can afford to pay.  And those in the New York metropolitan area should check the band out live this August at Bar 4 in Brooklyn or The Living Room in Manhattan.

The Secret Sisters

I promised myself I wouldn't be typical and start off this blog with a musical recommendation, but I'm prepared to break that self-imposed rule for the common good.  And that's because The Secret Sisters self-titled debut is so refreshing that it really will turn your frustrated, bored, unemployed frown upside down.  It's that brand of old-timey country that's been sneaking its way back into indie music of late (see Mrs. Jack White's Urban Outfitters-ready debut from earlier this year), but Laura and Lydia Rogers are the genuine article.  Produced by country legend T Bone Burnett and recorded at Nashville's famed Blackbird Studio, The Secret Sisters takes old songs and vintage equipment and makes them sound distinctively new. On each track the Rogers sisters masterfully craft the kind of tight, twangy harmonies made famous by Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters in the 30s and 40s and rarely heard in the overproduced world of contemporary country since.

The record primarily consists of traditional and classic songs (such as Do You Love an Apple, seen above), but a few originals, such as the melancholy opener Tennessee Me, prove that these girls have the songwriting chops to back up their powerhouse vocals.

Now I'll admit, I first heard about these girls from a glowing review in Rolling Stone, which I suppose takes their obscurity-based "indie cred" down a few pegs.  But I like to think The Secret Sisters' classic sound and songbook are above such petty matters.  And while torrents of this album have yet to proliferate the interweb, it's available on iTunes for only $8, which is bound to be gentler on your wallet than whatever Queen-of-Monotonous-Pop-Country Taylor Swift is peddling nowadays.  And for a record this solid, well worth the price tag.