Just a reminder of where we’ve been thus far:

10. The Hold Steady – “Stay Positive”
9. The Black Angels – “Directions To See A Ghost”
8. Sun Kil Moon – “April”
7. Frank Turner – “Love, Ire & Song”
6. Vampire Weekend – “Vampire Weekend”
5. Jon and Roy – “Another Noon”

One of the toughest things about living in Britain was making friends. The English are notoriously reserved, tend to put up a front for public consumption and are not particularly fond of Americans – so it was tough to get to know many people in the early days in England. Scots, however, are a different kettle of fish. They are more outgoing than the English, particularly with a drink or three in them and lack the guile to be disingenuous. Plus, they don’t dislike Americans as much, largely because their hatred is reserved for the English. What this means is that a lot of my best friends in Oxford were Scots. There was the Glaswegian Oxford Don who kept me sane in an unpleasant job by sharing strength and hope. Another Glaswegian, the wine steward at one of the colleges in town, kept me sane by letting me rant at him once or twice a week over coffee. And then there was the Ph.D. student from the Highlands who kept me sane by periodically stabbing me. Good times.

Scots can be pretty good musicians as well. Beyond the obvious traditional Scottish music and The Proclaimers, there are bands like Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Jesus & Mary Chain, Beta Band and Arab Strap making lusciously dark music in the gloomy north. To that list, I’d like to add Frightened Rabbit. The Selkirk quartet released their second LP, “Midnight Organ Fight” (Fat Cat) back in April and it’s been a regular favorite for me since then.

I’m running on empty here in the lead up to Christmas and was struggling to come up with words to describe Frightened Rabbit’s music. Dr. O’C and I were listening to “Old Old Fashioned” on the way to Sellick’s Beach yesterday and I asked her of what the song reminded her. With no hesitation, she replied “Counting Crows”. And she’s right – there’s a real roots feel to a lot of Frightened Rabbit’s music as well as that yearning euphoria that Duritz and Co. did so very well. The album is diverse – a lot of exploration of genres – but if you like this track, chances are that you’ll like most of the album as well. Go out and support an up and coming independent band by purchasing “Midnight Organ Fight”.

Check out my interview with Frightened Rabbit from back in April for more about the band.

——————————-

Now to the important business. It is time to announce the winner of the Tagline Contest. I struggled with this one for quite some time. There were several great entries and I suck at making decisions. I’m as big a fan of genital humor as the next guy, so Nichole’s entry – A Free Man: Now with 99% more Kangaroo Scrotum – definitely tickled my fancy, but didn’t seem quite the image I was after. Father Muskrat, a bit piqued after not making the cut in the limerick contest, gave me the vaguely threatening A Free Man: Bantha Fodder. Then there was Jamie’s predictably wordy entry – A Free Man: The adventures of one crazed, belligerent North Florida Redneck transplanted into a sea of crazed, belligerent Antipodean Rednecks. Up until late last week, I was pretty sure that the winner was going to be a collaborative effort between Boyhowdy and Headbang8 – A Free Man. Free the mind, and the man will follow.

I really like that one. In fact as I write this I’m still torn and am thinking that maybe I made the wrong decision. But my favorite, for reasons known to a few of you, came in late and on the wrong post, from Mongolian Girl.  I’m a stickler for the rules, well for my rules, and I almost threw her entry out for violation of those rules. But it’s just too perfect for me to ignore:

A Free Man – Stepping Up From Down Under.

So, congratulations to Mongolian Girl, your music will be on the way as soon as I can be bothered to go to the post office. I think that your share of the prize includes the latest from Setting Sun, which I was listening to this morning and is just excellent.

Now, if you’re starting to feel aggrieved that your limerick/tagline wasn’t chosen, here’s one more opportunity to win a musical prize this December. To one lucky winner I’m going to give away electronic copies of each of my top 10 albums of 2008. All you’ve got to do to win is leave a comment on this post. You can tell me what you’re favorite music was this year, you can tell me how wonderful I am, you can leave a comment saying “This is a comment so that I might win”. Whatever. One winner will be chosen at random when the #1 album is announced (some time before the New Year). If you’ve previously entered either the limerick or tagline contests, you’ll get an extra entry and an extra chance to win.

————————–

Buy Frightened Rabbit’s “Midnight Organ Fight” from Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight.

Image credit:

Scotsman

 
icon for podpress  Frightened Rabbit - "Old Old Fashioned" [3:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 69% [?]