David Vandervelde : The Moonstation House Band

It's a little early to be calling out album of the year. Many are already picking Panda Bear. If I had picked at this time last year, well, it's all just silly to talk about this early. Anyway, the one I am loving is David Vandervele's The Moonstation House Band and really, now that I look, a load of blogs are too. That's exciting because I think this album is awesome. On his label's website, they say this Michigander/Chicagoan has come out like a "dynamo" and I couldn't agree more. I was looking forward to this album, but it really took me by storm. It's great from start to finish and really harkens back to a time of classic and skilled rock n rock. Believe the hype on this one, it's got staying power.

Notable: Vandervelde worked with award-winning string arranger David Campbell (who is also Beck's father, has done string arrangements for Elton John, Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, Beck, and also did the Brokeback Mountain score) and engineer Steve Churchyard (Wings, the Band, Bryan Ferry, Lucinda Williams) during the making of this album. The album was recorded at Wilco's Jay Bennett’s house and Bennett plays bass on a couple tracks in addition to writing the album's lead track, Nothing No.

David Vandervelde is an artist on Indiana's Secretly Canadian label. David Vandervelde's MySpace.

David Vandervelde - Nothin' No
David Vandervelde - Jacket

EDIT: Damn, I forgot to reinforce that you make sure to check out Vandervelde's seesion on Daytrotter. Awesome.