What I was listening to while working on a grant this weekend

I've been holed up critiquing and commenting on my colleague's grant a good chunk of weekend, which is why I haven't finished the longer, medicine-related post I had planned for today. The grant has to go out today; so I'll try to finish the post by Tuesday or Wednesday and maybe even still come up with something for St. Nate for The Skeptics's Corner. (Remember everyone, the deadline is 11:59 PM Wednesday night.) In the meantime, I haven't played music critic in well over a month. I love to have tunes playing when I'm working on grants, so here's the new stuff I was listening to that fueled my work:

1. Worlds Apart (...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead). My very first CD purchase of 2005. Very odd band name. Very good indie rock, though, with a bit of vaguely Smashing Pumpkins bombast and anthemic orchestration. (I'm a sucker for bombastic rock.) I'm definitely going to start checking out their back catalogue, silly band name or no silly band name.
   
2. Bows + Arrows (The Walkmen). Their songs are equally noisy, dreamy, romantic, and angry. Why didn't I discover these guys before?
   
3. Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (TV on the Radio). Just the title alone of the album should tell you it's probably going to be great. And it is. Haunting, deeper, and darker than their debut EP, their first full-length CD showcases more of their drone-rock, veering from post-punk to harder-edged music and back.
4. Funeral (The Arcade Fire). My pick for the best CD of 2004. It's still in my CD player. It's going to stay there a long time.

Finally, I recently found out that one of my favorite bands, Doves, is going to release a new CD in March. I can't wait. Their last one, The Last Broadcast, was phenomenal.

OK, no more music critic wannabe for at least a month. I promise.