Post 17: Rural Alberta Advantage

The new album just came out, I just bought it and I'm stoked. Summer, on the other hand, is well past over but I can still remember it fondly. Check out "Ballad of the RAA" for another scratchy-throated mini-epic or just download the whole album. Thank you Canadians.

Post 16: Beirut

I recently witnessed Zach Condon's incredible band "Beirut" at the Fox Theater in Oakland and despite being significantly closer to the ceiling (about 20 feet, it seemed) than the stage (about 20,000 feet, more or less) I heard some of the most heartfelt and beautiful music I've ever experienced live. Their whole catalog is top notch, actually, but this video elevates it to a pleasantly surreal Mentos-commercial meets Wes Anderson level. Enjoy!

Post 15: Fleet Foxes

I should cite the sweet innovation of these Take-Away shows, a concept realized by one Vincent Moon. And there now I have. But this lovely performance is all about the FF's, a band with swooning harmonies that seek to kiss those of the BBs (Beach Boys...), a band that has recently snuck its way into my heart. Enjoy.

Post 14: Devotchka

The soulful plaintive crooning, the sweet sweet drone, the incessant rhythmic drubbing- all this makes for a song I can love for a long long time. Maybe forever...

Post 13: Sufjan Stevens

A sweet, horrible, poetic song about a terrible man. Are we really all "just like him?"

Post 12: Yo La Tengo

Ok so maybe it makes me feel a bit elderly to love a band that's been together for 27 years, but that's elderly in a good way because I still keep finding rad videos like this to fall in love with all over again. Fucking charming and delightful, every GD song.

Post 11: The Avett Brothers

No youtube video I have found accurately conveys the raw emotion, tenderness, and vocal skill that this band puts forth in their live shows, but this one comes close. After seeing them at the Fox theater last week, I am officially ruined for the summer; I can tell I will be pouring over their catalog ad nauseum. But that's not exactly a bad thing. Enjoy!

Post 10: Scala and Kolacny Brothers

This is just the perfect antidote to my many melancholy moods, at once somber and uplifting. And apparently it's my only post in the past month. So be it.

Post 9: Mumford and Sons

I hear these guys had singles circulating down under more than a year ago, but due to the Coriolis effect or something, it has just now found its way to me. So be it. The whole damn album "Sigh No More" is worth a listen and evokes some serious banjo-induced sentiment.

Post 8: Fleet Foxes

This band has gotten quite a bit of press, but I actually know very little about them. I think maybe they're infant-years-old. In any event, this is the anthem for every good vibe morning I've had for the last several months. Just darling.

Post 7: Loney Dear

I already posted this to FB, but I love it so much it belongs here. Try to avoid it becoming the wallpaper of your heartmind. Just try.

Post 6: The Knife

I know I'm like the last person to get on board this train, but I love this song and especially this video, which has a nice little gender-bending theme. It deserves its whole own blog, really.

Post 5: Sin Fang Bous

They call him the Sufjan Stevens of Iceland on emusic.com, not that I have any idea what that means, but I know I like it. It's groovy and moody and lots of other "oo" words too. Like spooky. It's also kind of spooky. Video's cool too. Dig it.

Post 4: The Books

This is "The Books". Consider your fragile little world altered. Permanently.

Post 3: Garfunkel and Oates

More along the lines of bands that have fallen in my lap (not literally, regretfully), here's Garfunkel and Oates with "Only You." More handsome than Art Garfunkel and more intelligent than John Oates, these chicks kill it every time with their dope wit and badass harmonies. See for yourself.

Post 2: Frightened Rabbit

So, it's like Easter soon, right? Well, great then. Here's another little known, totally rad band I recommend that you should know and enjoy and there's either eggs or rabbits involved, but not both. You guess which. OK fine, this is Frightened Rabbit, just like the post title says, and they're a Scottish band born in 2003, and they rule to the nth degree. So enjoy.

Post 1: Deer Tick

This first post/video is from a band I love that gets very little press, from what I've noticed anyway. They're called Deer Tick and they seem to have begun in 2004 as a solo project by one John McCauley way over in Providence, Rhode Island. It is in no way significant as my first post for this blog, so I wouldn't read too much into it. Also, this is clearly a homemade video that just happens to be the best way I know how to share this amazing band with you.

Hope you enjoy. Let the spewing begin...

What is holygranolabars?

Holygranolabars is my cyber-vomit bucket, the one place where I can post my every fleeting whimsy, often or rarely, without much consideration for what you (or I) think about it, now or later. And that's quite different from the heinous over-structure of every other part of my life- from my hectic work life as a special education teacher, to my challenging/rewarding home-life as a husband and parent of two boys, to my relentless fantasy baseball blogging on another site which shall remain nameless.

All that being said, I will try not to wretch too explosively on your person, for it is merely my intention to entertain and amuse you whilst sharing my various affections, not send you a-spewing too.

Here's hoping this is a mutually beneficial arrangement.

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