Last night’s Brendan Benson show was good, but not great. Given what an impressive catalogue he’s got for someone who’s only put out three albums (albeit over the course of nearly a decade), it’s pretty hard to go wrong – and he played most of it well. But the whole thing had a mildly half-assed feel to it…as though he could’ve taken it to a whole other level, but couldn’t quite be bothered.

Also, I’m now more convinced than ever that Lapalco is the best thing he’s put out. Material from Alternative to Love (released last month) went over well, but they couldn’t quite touch the best from his second album.

You’ll note in today’s Post that we’re back to having longer CD reviews. I’ve gotten things started with a write-up of Martha Wainwright’s new disc…which, just in case you fail to pick up a print copy (for shame!), I highly recommend.

Not sure exactly what portion of the reviews I’ll be doing, but should be fun.

The Bravery quite suck. The Killers are right, however lame their feud: The similarities between their debut discs are unmistakable. Except the thing is, the Bravery’s songs all sound like they came from the second half of Hot Fuss…the part where all the good stuff is over with, and the filler takes over. Except worse.

Short of Collective Soul, the new Garbage album has to be 2005’s least anticipated comeback from a major ’90s act. Unhip though it may be to admit it, though, it’s not entirely unlistenable. But then, they always were sort of quietly efficient, weren’t they?

While we’re on the subject of comebacks, as I said before, the new Oasis single is more catchy than overpowering. But even as someone who doesn’t watch a whole lot of videos (not sure why I keep posting about them lately), I have to say the video is pretty friggin’ cool.