Sinkcharmer - "Vegetable Farmer" cd  (Asaurus)
I haven't heard from this band for a while - not since hearing "Stars In Winter" from them several years back. Well, Paul has since moved to upstate New York, and has been keeping busy with his other band, Albumen, as well as with his new vocation, vegetable farmer (the album title doesn't lie!). Luckily, he's still managed to find time to write and record an album's worth of songs under the old Sinkcharmer moniker. Although the last record found Paul with a backing band (which itself was a first for Sinkcharmer), this one finds him mostly alone again (with some guest musicians scattered throughout), though most of the songs still have a full-band sound. The songs on this record span a variety of styles, from the catchy indie rock of "Passing Freighters In The Fog", "Wisdom Tooth" and "Half Life" to the more melancholic fare of "California's Gone" and "Kayaderosseras Creek" to the casiopop of "Here Comes The Breakdown" and "Into The Deep" (a dancier tune which sounds exactly like something Casiotone For The Painfully Alone would've done), and even a stark, piano-based tune ("Trapped Below The Pass") to close off the album. And the packaging is one of Asaurus's best to date (rivaling the Colin Clary cd from a couple years ago), involving full-color printed cardboard and maps, as well as little punched holes! Nice!   MTQ=11/14