Did you think I had died? Fallen off the face of the earth? Well, I didn’t do the former, but a self-imposed period of regulation and hiatus was necessary. In the face of the viper, you can either take a a shot at getting bitten or step back and live to fight another day. Such was the case for your author, and I can assure you I’m better for it than ever.

So why not return with a bang? The resurrection began with an unexpected phone call the other day in which I was invited by my blogmother, Rachelandthecity, to be the inaugural guest on her new BreakThruRadio show, The Bloggeratti. This weekly 1 hour radio show will feature a new blogger every week unveiling what’s currently putting a bug in their ears. On this weeks show, I’m thrilled to have featured the following artists and I hope you’ll check out the show over at http://breakthruradio.com. Stick around, too, because I’ll be guest blogging their site all next week.

So step back, motherbitches, and take notes. Lesson number one: don’t joke with a hungry man. Nahh mean?

Probably Vampires – “A Western Front” (unreleased)

There can never be enough ‘60’s influenced pop music for my ears to love. Probably Vampires can continue to take the best pieces of The Zombies, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and others into their mildly-sinister psych-pop meanderings for as long as they want to. If their debut album, DANG!, is any sign of what is to come, I can’t imagine not loving the continued results of waking up at dusk and sleeping at dawn. This 5-piece Chicago outfit remains high on my short list of promising unknowns set to unleash their sweet venom on the world, enticing listeners with a cacophony of stellar rhythms, punchy keyboards, harmonic vocals, and uncharacteristically clever songwriting that generates a blistering level of joy.

Listen To “A Western Front (demo)” by Probably Vampires

http://www.probablyvampires.com/

David Condos – “I Should Be Lost Without You” (from the album Smoking City)

The music of David Condos shows a passionate maturity beyond his years. The songwriting on his debut album, Smoking City, is caught somewhere in the jungle of influence left by Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright, complimentary to both of those but more in a direct line with recently popular songs by Coldplay, Aqualung and Keane. Condos has been blessed by a voice fueled by soul, something so empassioned that one can’t help but be shaken to hear him sing. With production duties helmed by Tom Laune (who has worked with R.E.M., Mat Kearney, and Bruce Springsteen), the end result is something so pure it’s hard to imagine that it all stems from the hard work of one young man who is obviously poised for great things. Something tells me I should expect a growing response to this song, “I Should Be Lost Without You”, to be nothing less than explosive.

Listen To “I Should Be Lost Without You” by David Condos

http://www.davidcondos.com/

LEVY- “King James” (from the forthcoming album Glorious)

LEVY is the painstakingly crafted love child of James Levy, an architect of modern New York City mythology whose mark on the world of pop music is merely beginning to be felt. Their new album, Glorious, will be released later this year by One Little Indian to audiences in the UK while they continue to seek a U.S. release. LEVY’s first album, 2005’s murmur pop masterpiece Rotten Love, continues to be one of my favorite albums. How wonderful, then, that James and co. have exited the recording studio with not merely a single new CD but a double CD highlighting both the songs of LEVY the band and James’s alter-ego, YVEL. Where LEVY’s tightly-knitted jangling pop anthems give you reason to dance away your heartbreak, YVEL mines James’s gift for storytelling via a Leonard Cohen-esque figure full of longing and yearning. This album is one of my most loved and most anticipated releases of 2007.

Listen To “King James” by LEVY

http://designedmemory.com/levy/index.html