New at Not Lame, 2/28/06.

Interesting batch of releases featured tonight. The big news is that AbPow favorite Justin Levinson is one of those featured. And speaking of Mr. Levinson, David Bash has informed me that he's been invited to play International Pop Overthrow Boston, thanks in part to our bringing Justin to his attention.

Also featured is the new Vandalays EP we spotlighted last night, and the writeup includes some of our comments on the EP.

Moving along, most of the rest of the featured discs are 2-5 years old. The release by The Other Half from 2001 really does sound great. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find anything online about these guys. I have found info on at least three other bands calling themselves The Other Half, including a 60s psychedelic band, a "modern rock" band that compares themselves to Matchbox 20 (on cdbaby and myspace), and a North Carolina punk band. So that makes at least four other halves out there, which to me seems like a mathematical impossibility.

Darin Murphy's Haunted Gardenias is another interesting blast from the recent past (2001). Fortunately, Darin is a little easier to track down online, and this page will yield mp3s from the album, as well as a previous solo effort and what he calls "Fab Fourgeries", about half a dozen Beatles covers he's recorded. Very cool stuff. And he's a multimedia renaissance man; according to his bio, "His uncanny Lennonesque vocals recently landed him a job on Broadway in the new musical LENNON, opening spring 2005." He has a myspace page as well.

Next up is Patrick Storedahl's Ink Block Fingerprint. I'll have to dust off this 2004 release which I have put away somewhere, but there are five mp3s available (with lyrics) at this page. All the tracks can be sampled here.

I could have sworn that Bloom's O Sinner was featured on the main page last year, as I recall tracking it down as a result (I know I didn't find it on cdbaby). This band from Gainesville, FL (Go Gators!) definitely rawks, in an 80s kind of way, and they have a sense of humor too, with song titles such as "Only God Can Stop The Drum Machine Now" and "Don't Tell a Dead Man How To Die". Samples of all tracks can be found at cdbaby, and it's available via eMusic as well. I will note that they were another research nightmare, with at least 3 other Blooms (but not this one) appearing on myspace.