Music from Corporate America

My girlfriend and I spent a nice afternoon in Barnes & Noble last week, and I thought for a minute they were playing Elliott Smith. Aside from the whispery, double-tracked vocals (everybody does that), the guitars were all “Needle In The Hay” down strokes and the melodies were all chromatic-y and awesome. Of course, it wasn’t Elliott, but the dashing young songwriter Ashton Allen. Give up on that Jose Gonzalez business already and check this guy out. Reminds me a lot of stuff like Slowreader and Morning Recordings, too – really smooth. And great.

Ashton Allen – “Better Than I Know”: mp3
Ashton Allen – “Dewdrops”: mp3

Cruised over to his site, and it turns out the guy is on a whole B&N tour. It never fails.

Anybody else realize that Radiohead and Wilco are putting out albums this year? This is like the Thrilla In Manilla of rock music. But which one is Joe Frasier?