Yay! A post by someone who isn't me. Cool.

Thanks for the roundup of your recent faves. I'll leave the full affrontery/takedown to Stu or Derek on your misguided assessment of the AF, but I will say that if the music lives up to the hype than it cannot be overhyped. AF are justlyhyped, imo.

Glad you're enjoying the Dean & Britta. I picked it up last week and it has been on heavy rotation on my headphones and in the house. The tracks featuring Britta, like the one channelling Nico (track you identified) and others (Eyes in my Smoke) do more for me than the ones which do not and you're right, it goes on a little too long. But I dig the fact that they're not overly preoccupied with trying to mimic the VU or recreating a Factory party circa '68. Yes, there are psychedelic flourishes, disembodied voices, and one track (Not a Young Man Anymore) that seems very Lou Reed-ish, lyrically and vocally, but even that one manages to go in a different direction musically, with more modern electronic beats overlaying the distorted guitar work. And it's great to hear Wareham's twangy guitar and half nasal-half monotone delivery again, though a lot of the instrumental stuff is very Yo La Tengo.

Avi Buffalo has been on my saved list for at least a month but for some reason I hadn't pulled the trigger. I like the thick guitar strumming on the sample for the album's first track but the too-similar-to-Issac Brock-of-Modest-Mouse-and-aren't-I-kind-of-tired-of that-jarringly-high-pitched-slightly-perverse vocals put me off a bit. Given yours and Adams strong recommendations, Bri, I'll give it a go. If anything, you gotta love a song titled, "Five Little Sluts".