Cass McCombs' New Single

Cass McCombs, who can be described in a reductive fashion as "Sufjan for the heroin crowd," has been lurking around our record players and iTunes since the early part of the century. There's nothing gimmicky about McCombs, unlike many of his contemporaries who seem to be grasping at an attempt at burning out vs. fading away. "He's just... good," an otherwise articulate music writer once said to me, and perhaps that's all there is to say about him. Having risen to notoriety during a popular time for romanticized, American nouveau-troubadours (Sufjan, Oberst, etc) Cass McCombs floated just under the surface, regularly appearing bothered that a craft he knew he had inside him his entire life was being so widely co-opted by the Urban Outfitters crowd. His songsmithing skills seem to still be quite present on his latest, "Medusa's Outhouse" although perhaps his song-naming skills need a readjustment. Give McCombs another spin today, whether it's this or one of his earlier hits. The man deserves more than he currently receives. 

 

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