Country Music, Monsters of Folk and a Frontier Ruckus

I have a stack of music to write about, but I haven't quite settled in enough with any of it to actually compose a coherent post. On top of that I am in a crabby mood and I figure it isn't fair to write about a disc in that state, so let's see if we can look at a few random items designed to lift the spirits a little.

• First up, if you hadn't noticed the new little badge down there on the right side, we are now subscribed to Review Shine, which is a neat new site designed to connect artists and music bloggers. Artists can upload their tunes (please do!), and bloggers then get the right to review and share that music. In the first week, we have already had several albums offered up to us for review which is cool, but I can't help but notice that most of what has ended up in the ole Tuning Room inbox is very country oriented and a lot of tunes have to do with drinking. Hmmmm. Is this some commentary on the content here? I will let you be the judge.
• Then there is all the commotion going on about the upcoming album from Connor Oberst, Jim James, and M. Ward known as the Monsters of Folk. And today, we find out that the first single is being offered up for free download over at their site. Just say "please" and the tune is yours.
• And lastly, I was recently surfing around and ran into this great video of Frontier Ruckus live in the Paste studios which made me explore the band a bit more. That exploration taught me that these guys are from Michigan (bonus!) and that there a bunch of videos of them popping up all over the Great Lakes State and playing tunes. Here is one of my favs shot on the side of the road in northern Michigan which made my boys wonder if we will see them on our vacation--that would be too cool. You can count on some further exploration of this band's music in future posts.

Wow. I feel better already!