"Phosphorescent Blues" by Brazos

Brazos @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

At the Brazos show last Thursday, after My Mind opened for a relatively empty room of 25 people, blasting sufficient volume to force me into the cave bar below, I found I was extremely impatient for the show to start. I wasn't in a particularly good mood; The weather was awful. But I still couldn't help but be excited. I have been listening to Phosphorescent Blues with a giddy smirk all week long on the subway, drawing fear from normally hard faces. Live, that feeling of friendship and kinship that you get from the record made for such a warm interaction between the band and the audience. A solemn solo beginning to the set with "Downtown Boys" was followed in rapid succession by new realizations and recognitions. When "The Observer" was performed, singer Martin Crane prefaced it with what has become its introduction, and the creation myth of the band, formed around the musical adaptation of the poem by Adrienne Rich. Phosphorescent Blues will be on my top 10 list for 2009, unless of course 9 fuckin' awesome records come out in the next 6 weeks. Listen to and love "Day Glo" below. Thanks to Shastasheen for turning me on to these guys.

"Day Glo" by Brazos download mp3 (with permission)

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** And BTW, Crane sounds exactly like Russell Huie. I know, but he does. I think it's the same vocal influences (Wainwright, C. Martin, T. Yorke, and J. Buckley).