Almost Famous II: David Vandervelde "The Moonstation House Band"

For me, David Vandervelde channels the essence of rock and roll. Rock and roll the way it was meant to be played, like bus scene in Almost Famous. Vandervelde released his debut album, The Moonstation House Band back in January, which is usually the kiss of death for making year end 'best of'' lists. However, The Moonstation House Band really is probably one of the best straight ahead rock albums of the year. It's relatively short, at 8 songs, but there is no waste on the album each song being as strong as the last.

At the end of last year Vandervelde recorded 4 songs at/for Daytrotter (if you're not familiar they have some outstanding live sessions) available for download here. Of these four songs, two are songs from his album TMHB (Feet of a Liar, Jacket), one is a song he wrote in a few minutes (F-ckin' Around), and the last is a cover of the Rolling Stones (C-cksucker Blues). Inexplicably, the post date for these songs is December 25th... pretty sad Christmas for Vandervelde if you ask me.

Also, there are 3 more live tracks available via WEEM/MOKB Indianapolis here.

I really can't emphasize enough how much that you should try and pick this up if you liked the sound track for Almost Famous.