One of the small pleasures of being a pseudo music critic is the in-crowd thrill of having "your bands". You know what I'm talking about. The music that only you and a few sparse devotees here and there know about, despite its brilliance. The bands that you know deserve all that fame and fortune that Slipknot gets for no readily apparent reason.

Yeah, you know what I'm on about. We all do it. I've got my Thee Michelle Gun Elephant; I've got my Sharkquest. Post-Lib's got his Isobella. Tracers has her local scene. You've got something you like to think of along the same lines, I'd bet.

Another of the eclectic collection of "my bands" is The Lucksmiths. As these things go, I'm not sure how "mine" these guys are. They seem to have at least a nominal following around the national scene, although the Hang the DJ girls over at Album88 might be skewing my notion of their popularity a bit. (Millie likes The Lucksmiths a good deal, I think.)

(While we're on the tangent, go over to WRAS, find the Hang the DJ time slot, and give it a listen now and again. Good stuff, mostly. And the Headon Rock Block is quite possibly the funniest thing on the radio, anywhere.)

Anyway.

The Lucksmiths. Yeah, that's where I was. They make acousticy guitar pop. Soft, melodic, three-years spent on working out the perfect lyrical phrase sort of stuff. Sort of Crowded House by Australians. Great stuff, if you're into that sort of thing. I am, my love of aggressive Japanese rock notwithstanding. Why That Doesn't Surprise Me is their third release stateside, and their first full-length proper. Fourteen songs, not many of them longer than 4 minutes. Strummed guitars, clarinets and oboes and bass clarinets, organs and harmonicas, strings for effect. That sort of thing.

Good stuff.

If you're into that sort of thing. I like it.