Megafaun, Record Stores and Incense

I don't smoke weed. Maybe I should, I don't know for sure. There's a scene in Almost Famous when the kid puts on Tommy, "Sparks" fades up, and I remember thinking when I was a kid: "Should I be smoking weed?"

Is it possible that music can replace the urge? Megafaun's new album, Gather, Form & Fly, comes damn close. It's baroque, dark, and full of barn hay. There's lots of exciting diversions in this album, and as the needle rounds the record, it shocks you. Trumpets and scratchy strings in between beautiful folk songs. Some of them raw, like a garbage bag is wrapped around them, giving them that cool, hippy, papery sound that folk musicians love to do these days.

If this were the Seventies, and war was going on (wait...), I'd probably be in my room Indian-style, with a fairly large bowl, with Megafaun's new record rolling on the table. It really is beautiful to think about, and even better to listen to now.

Megafaun is on tour, right this minute, with the Bowerbirds. Can you think of a better thing to do, than to see them play? And before play their records, burn some incense, and see your future? Damn that Cameron Crowe.

Megafaun - The Fade