POST NO. 40: NOTHING DREADFUL HERE

What if I told you that Bomp! Records was releasing a new record by a Cleveland foursome? You would probably assume that Greg Shaw's esteemed garage rock label had stumbled upon the latest batch of Cleveland kids to channel Rocket from the Tombs and the Dead Boys. But you'd be dead wrong. The Dreadful Yawns share no common DNA with Stiv Bators, nor with the bulk of the Bomp! catalog. But lest we forget, Greg Shaw first identified a promising folk-rock group from Los Angeles in the late-Nineties named Beachwood Sparks. And before he passed away last fall, he struck gold a second time in the genre of Americana with The Dreadful Yawns.

Channeling The Byrds, International Submarine Band, The Flatlanders, and Buffalo Springfield, these Clevelanders wrap up the past in a 21st-century quilt much like peers Yo La Tengo (see Fakebook), Acetone, Iron & Wine, Bedhead, and, yes, Beachwood Sparks. A nod to VU, occasional splashes of Spiritualized-like psychedelia, a communal sound not unlike The Band, and some truly remarkable, classic songwriting combine to make The Dreadful Yawns self-titled offering one of the year's best under-the-radar records. These guys will scratch your Uncle Tupelo jones like an old black dog attacking a pesky flea. Thanks Greg, for shaking out America's rug one final time and catching this rugged nugget of dirt before it hit the floor.

The Dreadful Yawns - "Darkness Is Gone"

The Dreadful Yawns - "You Sold the Farm"

Now that I think about it, I hear some good ole fashioned Teenage Fanclub-gone-country in these tunes, too. And isn't that a lovely Neil Young-ish moment there in "You Sold the Farm"? Damn, a band that reminds me of so much, yet sounds like not much else when taken as a whole. Visit the boys here, and pick up a copy of their album -- it's good from the word go.