When I was writing about The Lucksmiths last week, there was one song I wanted to include but couldn’t.  Even Stevens Even Stevens.  Unbelievably catchy and clocking in at a tidy (albeit midtempo) 2:15, this song about a near-decade of perfectly matched scrabble bouts feels almost target-marketed to the Prospect Park set.  I like it a lot. 

Unfortunately, Even Stevens is only partially a Lucksmiths song.  It’s also a collaboration with The Ladybug Transistor: frequent Lucksmiths tourmates/hosts, owners of the Marlborough Farms recording studio, all-around fantastic band and the subject of this week’s post. 

The Ladybug Transistor, to my ears, have progressed pretty steadily from an obvious psychedelic-beatles-folk influence in their early years (mid-90s) to a sound that is today seemingly more organically derived.  Their great leap forward on this front came on the band’s self-titled album from 2003.  In a band with many collaborators, vocal duties have mostly been assumed by the deeper-than-deep-voiced Gary (as are trumpet rolls), with a smaller percentage sung by former member Sasha Bell.  Self-recorders and multi-instrumentalists, the Ladybug Transistor’s production is often warm, enlivened with flourishes of brass.  And despite maturing as songwriters, heir sound still conjours up images of hippies strolling through a grassy field in the early fall.  

Due to 14-hour days in guten MORGAN-land, I don’t have time this week to get into a discussion of the band’s more esoteric merits, but in honor of my impending job search and hopefully my continued life off the streets, I’ve included links below to two great songs off the band’s last two albums.  One is sung by Gary, one is sung by Sasha, and I’ll leave it to you to guess which is which.

To a longer and less sleep-deprived guten MORGAN next week!

• Always On The Telephone Always On The Telephone
• The Places You’ll Call Home The Places You’ll Call Home