What the CL Music Team is spinning this fine Monday to rocket launch us into the work week… To check out last previous entries, click here.

Ray — Little Lo, A Poison Tree EP (2011)
I was a little disheartened when I read that St. Petersburg folk-pop outfit The Sun Society had decided to go into a "hibernation" until next year. But thankfully, this Austin-based band came across my radar. They're scheduled to play New World Brewery on August 20 and, much like a certain album from another Austin-based fave (read: Bright Light Social Hour), this six-track extended-player is one of those instantly likable albums that ends up on repeat for a week. The songs recall Sun Society, but are set apart by male and female vocal harmonies ("Roots, Trees, Wires") and lush arrangements that have been pristinely recorded and meticulously put together. If Sun Society are a band in their infancy, then Little Lo possess the sound of a post-graduate blossoming into a being of his/her own. Plus, it's streaming for free at their Bandcamp page. Click here to check it out.

Gabe — Chris Difford, Cashmere If You Can (2011)
Brand new solo release from one half of the songwriting team and co-lead vocalist of one of my all-time favorite bands, Squeeze. Difford's witty approach to lyric writing hasn't dulled a bit. His wry humor and deadpan delivery are as sardonic and straightforward as ever. His tales are as woeful as they are hilarious so you'll find yourself choked up and chuckling simultaneously while listening to this album.

This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2011.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...

I was born on a Sunday Morning.I soon received The Gift of loving music.Through music, I Found A Reason for living.It was when I discovered rock and roll that I Was Beginning To See The Light.Because through...