Front Porch Musings

Well here I am with Part 6 of our Artist Series, highlighting our favorite artists’ favorite albums of 2009. Today it’s a big pleasure of mine to bring you Shane Sweeney’s list. You all know Shane as the ass-kicking bassist and deep(er) pitched singer of Two Cow Garage. TCG had a killer year this year, most of which they spent on the road melting faces in promotion their 2008 release “Speaking in Cursive.”

If you haven’t noticed by the roughly 1,000 times these guys have been mentioned on the blog, or the picture of us idiots in their t-shirts, we’re big fans. “Speaking in Cursive” has been on repeat around the porch for months at a time, they’ve been all over our FYIF playlists, and you can see that many of the other artists in our Artist Series have given these guys some serious recognition. I bet that feels pretty rad. We were lucky (or creepy) enough to meet the guys at their show at Thee Parkside here in the city back in September, and not only are these guys kick-ass musicians, but they’re stand-up doods as well.

Here are a couple of Shane’s tracks from 2008′s “Speaking in Cursive”
The Heart and The Crown

Glass City

Well, I think TCG is done with touring for the year, but Shane and Micah are doing some solo shows. We’re all pretty excited for what 2010 has in store for these doods. Shane mentioned that they were going to Buffalo in February to start working on a new album that should consume most of 2010. How exciting is that? I know, way exciting! Okay, without further ado, here are Shane’s selections and a little bit about why he likes them.

“These are in no particular order.”

Buffalo Tom- Sleepy Eyed: “I bought this record right after I got my drivers license, lost it, and re-bought it. Rinse and Repeat. Every time I find this record again I end up writing songs after listening to it. Sunday Night and Sparklers are highlights.”
Sunday Night

Rod Stewart- Every Picture Tells A Story: “Rod Stewart used to rule the fucking school. I can only imagine how much fun this record was to record. Its sloppy and all over the place but also really organic and occasionally heartbreaking. Maggie Mae was the hit but almost every song is great, especially the title track.”
Every Picture Tells A Story

Roger Bryan and The Orphans- Recovery: “Fuzzy pop songs with fantastic melodies. Three guitar players working together perfectly. “This Song” won’t leave your head for days. They just released a new record called Wolves that I haven’t heard yet, but I’m sure is spectacular.”
This Song

Theodore- Songs For The Weary: “These guys also have a new record coming out soon. This will probably make you cry, so be prepared. As fantastic as this record is they are even better live. Awesome, heartbreaking songs.”
Everyman

Grand Champeen- Battle Cry For Help: “My favorite band. I will champion them until the day I die. This is not even my favorite record of theirs but it’s the one I listened to the most this year. I also go back and forth between all of their records as to which one is my favorite, so you should probably just check them all out.”
Paper Rock Scissors

Okay, there you have it folks. Part 6 in the books. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you check out all of the stuff on the blog that has featured Two Cow Garage this year, they’re a huge part of why we dig music so much, and clearly why others
dig it too. I can’t wait to see where these guys are going.

Take it over-easy,

Brain.