SOUNDTRACK: The Believer June 2006 Music Issue Compilation CD: Famous Shovels in Twain (2006).
The “theme” behind this year’s CD was live recordings. So all of the songs are live (whether in front of an audience or just live to disc). Like the previous discs, I had only heard a few of the artists on this disc. But unlike previous discs, there is quite a lot of diversity on this one.
In fact, the diversity takes them far afield: Neung Phak is a band from Thailand. They play a fun and crazy call and response rock song (which I assume is sung is Thai). Juana Molina sings in Spanish. And Mamadou Diabate is an astonishing 
soloist on the kora, a 21 stringed instrument (see picture at right). Mixing things up even more are Stephen O’Malley with an electronic manipulation type song and Blood on the Wall with the heaviest track thus far on a Believer compilation.
The rest of the disc consists of solid performances by Calexico (you can hear a train pass by the studio), Jim White, with a charming song sung on the front porch of Flannery O’Connor’s house. Well, maybe the song isn’t charming (although it is catchy), but his attitude towards his guests (captured on tape) certainly is.
Destroyer play one of my favorite songs, “Rubies” in what sounds like a drunken revelry. El Perro del Mar plays an astonishingly upbeat song and, what is probably the real selling point, Feist plays a demo of “Mushaboom.” The demo isn’t really that different from the official version, but you can hear that her voice sounds great in this raw form.
This is definitely the most adventurous disc that The Believer has released. But it’s nice to see they haven’t gone too far away from releasing great alt rock.
You can see the track listing here.
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