Balkan-Folk That Rocks!

I was a tad worried when I was reading over the year-end "Top X" lists over at Pitchfork and Stereogum. Admittedly, Pitchfork's choice of a J-Tim track for #1 of 2006 probably made this sensation a little stronger than it should have been, but I digress.

What really worried me was that I couldn't find any mention of Norway folk group The Captain And Me. I started listening to their album, Automata, in late November (in fact, two weeks after it was released out there), and it has quickly become a staple of my music collection. In fact, I've already listened to the lead track, My Darling Mary K, at least as many times as anything I've heard from The Crane Wife -- which I've had three months longer.

Now, I wouldn't normally put a nearly two-month old discovery on this blog, but something came up this afternoon which pushes this high enough on my list of priorities: while browsing P4K and SG, I realized that the only mention of this two-man recording ensemble/8- to 13-person live troupe is in Stereogum's article featuring the line-up for Oslo's Øya Festival they attended.

So there you have it, folks: a band I'm touting as one to watch through '07 (and should have been listening to back in '06) BEFORE Pitchfork and Stereogum hop on their musical-group-wagon. Featuring a vast array of instruments, fantastic vocal work, and story-songwriting skills to rival those of Meloy and Darnielle, The Captain And Me are not a band anyone should skip out on.

Check out the track Jacques de Vaucanson on their Myspace to hear what I mean!