More Mosquitos and A.M. 60
The Mosquitos, my personal favorite discovery of 2003, have a second release out, Sunshine Barato. It's pretty good but has that second-effort syndrome, just three stars to the first album's four.
Meanwhile I've just learned of Mosquitos founder Chris Root's prior project, A.M. 60, which also has a record out, Big as the Sky. Apparently A.M. 60 is the proverbial "we're big in Japan" band, and in the UK, where it first appeared. So while Chris and Jon and Juju were bombing around the US as the Mosquitos, Chris's records as A.M. 60 were raking in serious profits abroad.
A.M. 60 sounds like what you'd expect, the Mosquitos minus the Brazilian musical component and with Juju moved to backing vocals. I'd say it's another three-star effort, worth a listen but not a religious conversion. You can hear it for yourself on the A.M. 60 site.
Having just ended a Mosquitos tour, they're climbing back into the van for AM60's first American tour (scheduled to be at Stubbs on December 11). Makes you wonder why they didn't just schedule a joint tour for both bands at once...