So, i've been listening to these a lot. It's probably better that i let these guys sit with me for a while rather than giving you my first impressions. A couple of them (sun kil moon, new pornographers) have grown on me since first giving them a chance a week and a half ago.
rather than giving you the song by song analysis, i thought this time i'd just say that i appreciated just about everything here. To be honest, the only thing i'm still not sold on is Springsteen. I've heard great things about his band and him as a performer but as a songwriter i guess its just not my thing. i found most of the songs on the greatest hits to be pretty cheesy. the 80s snare sound (where you take the reverb off the end and paste it over the initial strike) gets really fatiguing also.
with that said, i enjoyed everything else you posted and i'm really glad you introduced/re-introduced me to them. With a lot of bands what happens with me is i'll hear it and not get into it at first, and then over time something happens to my ear and i'll hear the same band again and just "get it." this happened with belle and sebastian especially. After giving them another chance, i'm actually really enjoying it. I haven't gotten any albums though, i wanted to know which one you thought i should start with. I'm really impressed by their diversity.
The notwist was a favorite out of these. their percussion tracks are just amazing - i really wish i could do stuff similar to this with my own music. The other favorite was Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. I can definitely hear the Pavement in them, i just never knew what the guy's name was, but it clicked pretty quickly. I got the album from the song you posted and that weekend i went with my band to wisconsin and we listened to it on the way there, it's a really solid album. I'll definitely be getting a few more. Also, i remember Wilco playing cut your hair that night, they did a great job! with all the covers really. It was my job as an intern to type up the lyrics to each song in that set for jeff. Can i ask, when they did the "stump the band" thing, how did you feel about that? enjoyable? believable? The drunk lady doing a british accent in front of the entire crowd was a highlight of my weekend.
I like Fleet Foxes a lot, actually i should have said that. I am excited about anything they're going to release. Helplessness Blues is a great song. the whole album is really special. This one is another one i love.