Koen VanMechelen loves chickens. Live chickens, stuffed chickens, videos of chickens, paintings made with egg tempera. Saturday night at Conner Contemporary, VanMechelen’s “Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (DC)” opens; it’ll run to Dec. 31. According to the press release, the Belgian artist is “systematically crossing all breeds of chickens to create a world-mongrel chicken.”

1. When Will the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Run Out Of Mainstream Acts to Induct?
2. Meet New Moon Cast Members at Fair Oaks Mall
3. Clip Job: Five Bands with at Least as Many Members as Songs
4. Photos: Miley Cyrus @ Verizon Center
5. Photos: Bruce Springsteen @ Verizon Center

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C., held an old-fashioned book burning last week (above is an AP video on the same).

Now, my people didn’t burn books when I was growing up, but my youth pastor did ask me to toss my copy of Pyromania, and my grandfather, an Episcopal priest, refused to allow books written by Carl Jung inside his house. Also, I once had to scribble an ode to masturbation on a slip of paper during mass and throw it into a cauldron of fire.

Based on these criteria, I feel qualified to offer the following FAQ for attending a book burning.

Is it OK to swing by the grocery store on my way to the burning and just buy a new book? Or should I bring something from home?

Serious book burning is as much about purging one’s soul of evil influence as purging America’s retail shelves of the same. That said, only bring a book from home if you’re sure that fellow congregates have read it, or skimmed the dust jacket in a moment of doubt. A book burning is a family event, not a chance for you to strut your perversions.

If the only irreligious book you have at home is Madonna’s Sex, leave it there and pick up the new Dan Brown book on your way to the burning. Otherwise, your pastor will think you are making a mockery of the entire thing.

I have a lot of dog books at home, and not much else. Should I burn my dog books?

Novels about people who form emotional connections with their dogs are fucking disgusting, and the Lord will not abide. Where the Red Fern Grows? Go ahead and roast the copy you read to your kids. Your fellow burners have probably read these books too, and as such, are just as on the fence about it as you are. Remember: It’s one thing to use a dog for sexual pleasure, it’s an entirely different and unholy thing to write a book about it. Same goes for Shiloh, My Dog Skip, and–my personal favorite–the Lad series. Burn them all.

I really want to bring my friends to a book burning, but I’m worried that they’ll think I’m crazy. What should I do?

Ask your friends if they have ever touched a hot stove, perhaps a cookie sheet fresh out of the oven, or a warm drill bit. If they say yes, ask them if they can imagine what it would be like to feel that pain for an eternity. Then tell them about the book burning and its importance to you. Remind them that good friends should be GGG–good, giving, and God-fearing.

And remember: You are crazy–crazy for the eternal truth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Setting things on fire arouses me. Should I feel bad about enjoying a book burning in a way that my fellow congregates would likely disapprove of if they knew?

Yes.

Some people in my congregation have suggested that we simply burn a Barnes and Noble bookstore to the ground. What do you think of this idea?

That is a foolish idea. It would be much wiser to find the warehouse from which Barnes and Noble ships its stock of Dan Brown books and light that place on fire.

I am functionally illiterate. Can I bring a DVD or VHS instead?

Yes, so long as it does not star Charleston Heston or Kirk Cameron.

It’s FotoWeek DC, a celebration of local and international shutterbugs. But between the dozens of events featuring thousands of images from photographers in 39 states and 28 countries, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by choice. If you only have time for 10 events, make it these ones:

1. Night Galleries in D.C., Crystal City, and Rosslyn. Projections of award-winning photographs can be viewed on the façades of FotoWeek’s headquarters, as well as on a retail development in Crystal City at S. 23rd Street & Crystal Drive, and the wall of a vacant construction project on Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn—perfect for a midnight stroll. The projections will appear at dusk and will feature noted photographers and finalists in FotoWeek’s competition.
Georgetown: 3338 M Street, NW.
Crystal City: 2250 Crystal Drive, Arlington.
Rosslyn: 1200 block of Wilson Blvd.

2. Portraiture 2.0. If FotoWeek DC were a feature film, here’s where you’ll find the names that come before the title credits—names like Nicholas and Sheila Pye (whose film A Life of Errors was recently acquired by the Hirshhorn), Chan Chao, Victoria Gaitán, and curator Michael Pollack. These and other artists ‘ unconventional portraits will be shown alongside an international selection of video works. During the artists’ reception on Thursday, enjoy a beer tasting while you peruse the photos. Thursday, Nov. 12, 6:30p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center, 8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring. Through Dec. 5. Free.

3. NightVisions. It’s sort of like a high school slumber party with everyone from your AP art class: NightVisions encourages participants to pull an all-nighter with snacks, booze, music, and most of all, photography (no word on spin the bottle). From 6 p.m. on Saturday to 6 a.m. on Sunday, photographers can take night shots of the city and bring them back to FotoWeek HQ, where a team of photo editing pros will choose the best shot from each photographer’s set. That image will be printed and exhibited for the rest of the week. RSVP to nightvisions@fotoweekdc.org. Saturday, Nov. 7, at 6 p.m. to Sunday, Nov. 8, at 6 a.m. at FotoWeek DC Headquarters, 3338 M Street, N.W.

4. Bilateral Engagement. Model for Linda Hesh, whose “Benches” project embodies our turbulent political times. Hesh’s 2008 election-themed piece involved two custom-made benches, a blue one that says “For,” and a red one that says “Against.” Visitors to the Art Museum of the Americas at the Organization of American States can sit on either bench and tell Hesh what they are for (so far: freedom of speech, honesty, chocolate) or against (the war in Iraq, flip-flops, Hummers) to have their image and words included in an online photo gallery. Saturday, Nov. 14, noon-2 p.m. 201 18th St. NW. Free.

5. Fixation. The second annual photography/skate party moves from Fight Club to H Street Northeast’s Industry Gallery, and it’s certain to be packed. This year’s featured photographers, known for documenting the city’s subculture, are Aziz Yazdani, Drew McDermott, Angela Kleis, Pat Padua, Karon Flage, Joshua Yospyn, Amit Mehta, Nicole Aguirre, and Jay Westcott. Drink PBR with them and listen to musical performances by Yoko K, Ayyoko Confidential, and Suspicious Package, while getting your portrait taken by photographer Tracy Clayton in front of a backdrop by Cory Obendorfer commissioned especially for the event. Saturday, Nov. 7, 6-10 p.m. 1358 Florida Ave. NE. $10 suggested donation.

6. Yum!! Techniques and Demonstrations used in Food Photography/Contemporary DC Photographers Explore the Beauty of Food. Despite the irritatingly Rachael Ray–esque name of this session, it seems like a good one. Maybe you saw Julie & Julia and have decided that a food blog is your path to Internet fame, or maybe you’re just a really good cook and want to brag about it on Facebook. Either way, “Yum!!” (can’t forget that extra exclamation point!) will teach you lighting, camera position, exposure, and some tricks for taking photographs of food that make people salivate. Act fast and RSVP, because the Art Institute has opted to keep this session small. If you aren’t a photographer but are just interested in the food porn, come to the Art Institute’s food photography exhibition the day after. Then, the event will live up to its enthusiastic name—you can see delicious food and also eat it, as chefs will be on hand passing out samples of their work. Workshop: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 6:30-9 p.m. RSVP to dcurrier@aii.edu. Free. Exhibition: Thursday, Nov. 12, 6:30 p.m. Both at the Art Institute of Washington, 1827 N. Fort Myer Drive, Arlington. (703) 247-6864. Free.

7. Edward Burtynsky and the Industrial Sublime. Burtynsky is one of those pearl-in-the-oyster photographers—he pulls beauty from the muck. In this case, it’s the much-maligned oil industry and its global environmental impact, from the oil rigs to the highways. He’ll be talking about his photographs from the exhibition “Edward Burtynsky: Oil,” on view at the Corcoran until Dec. 12 (Another Burtynsky exhibit is running concurrently at Adamson). Wednesday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m. at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Hammer Auditorium, 500 17th St. NW. $15 for members, $20 for the public.

8. Eight Short Stories from Around the World. Eight photographers present their latest projects, which span the globe to include journeys through Central Asia to bodybuilding in America. City Paper’s own Darrow Montgomery will be discussing his ongoing series of Washington beyond the monuments, and will be joined by seven other locals—the renowned Frank Day, as well as Katie Falkenberg, Marvin Joseph, Louie Palu, Ivan Sigel, Sarah Voisin, and Terri Weifenbach. Sunday, Nov. 8, from 6-8 p.m. at Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St. NW. Free.

9. David Alan Harvey Presents… Fight Club was the place to be for last year’s FotoWeek, with “Fixations” drawing more than 700 attendees. This year, the alternative space presents a show full of new names and young talent recognized by Magnum photographer and Burn Magazine curator David Alan Harvey, who will also display some of his own photos. Harvey has selected Chris Bickford’s “After the Storm,” a meditation on a barrier island in the Atlantic, Michael Loyd Young’s “Blues, Booze, and Barbecue,” a road trip down Highway 61, and A. J. Wilhelm’s “Kabul Opium,” a glimpse of the hardships of heroin addicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nov. 7-14. Gallery hours Monday-Saturday from 1-6 p.m. 1250 9th St. NW. (enter through Blagden Alley on N Street between 9th and 10th Streets).

10. Any exhibit that Lucian Perkins has touched. Perkins, a Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist with the Washington Post, has laid hands upon four FotoWeek exhibits. Perkins curated three international photography exhibits: “Iraqi Voices,” “InsideOutside: New Images from Russia,” and “My Cuba,” offering surprising slices of life that break down preconceptions about these countries. His work will also be exhibited in a large group show called “Thy Brothers’ Keeper,” which examines human rights violations through the eyes of 25 international photographers. All four exhibits are on display Nov. 7-14, Monday – Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday & Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Thy Brothers’ Keeper: 3333 M St. NW.
Iraqi Voices: 3307-D M St. NW.
InsideOutside: New Images from Russia: 3306 M St. NW.
My Cuba: 3306 M St. NW.

Photo by Val Proudkii

First, Asa Osborne—formerly of Baltimore gnostic/punk quartet Lungfish—will perform with his guitar/organ project, Zomes. Lisa Selin Davis will read. That’s kind of a tough gig, though, considering the last person to put words in or around Osborne’s music was Dan Higgs.

Then, in February, J. Robbins—fresh from reissuing the late ’90s masterpiece For Your Own Special Sweetheart and performing on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon with the reunited Jawbox—will perform his first ever solo show. Marianne Villanueva and Steve Fellner will read.

Dates and details after the jump:

December 4, 2009
Readings from Lisa Selin Davis (Belly)
Musical Performance by Zomes (Asa Osborne of Lungfish)

February 19, 2010
Readings from Marianne Villanueva (Mayor of Roses)
and Steve Fellner (Out Loud)
Musical Performance: J. Robbins Sings J. Robbins
(First ever solo show! New interpretations of Jawbox songs and other works from his canon)

This is a free event.
Program Begins at 8:00 PM
The Writer’s Center is located on the Red Line
at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD

It’s one thing to write a break-up record. But recording it while your ex looks on?

“The songs were an actual communication, because he was very present,” says Sarah Assbring, referring to the recording sessions for Love Is not Pop, her latest album as El Perro del Mar. She built a studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, several years ago with her then boyfriend, and although they broke up over a year ago, he’s still the sound engineer. “He was more or less looking me in the eye while I was doing the vocals.”

Awash in echo and atmosphere, Love Is not Pop is a remarkably spacey album for an artist who cut her teeth making sweet, sad, girl-group-sounding indie pop. Lyrically, though, the record is grounded. When Assbring sings lines like “We’ve been together for so long/I gotta get smart” and “It is something to have wept as we have wept,” she says, she means every crestfallen syllable.

Assbring—who opens for Peter Bjorn and John tomorrow at the 9:30 Club—says it’s no accident that Love Is not Pop’s title lends itself to several interpretations.

“I wanted to communicate that way of reading it differently, depending on what kind of state of mind you are in,” she says. “I was facing a new love, and at the same time my old relationship was dying, so in that sense Love Is not Pop made total sense to me. At certain times I felt that love is everything but pop. Which sometimes is true, and sometimes it’s not true.”

She wrote the record last summer in Paris, and says she always thinks hard about the complexities of placing certain words together: “I want to write pop songs but not necessarily simple love songs.” Perhaps conversely, she also writes quickly. “The heart and soul of the lyrics are the most important thing, and if I overwork it then those things are lost.”

Assbring’s first two records, El Perro del Mar and From the Valley to the Stars, were Spectorian and economical—twee yet downcast takes on classicist popcraft. But for Love Is not Pop, she tapped producer Rasmus Hägg of the Swedish dance duo Studio, with whom she crafted a more sophisticated sound with hints of minimalistic, Balearic-style disco.

That meant compromise, something that Assbring, who owns her own studio, wasn’t used to. ”One of the first things I said to Rasmus,” she says, “was that I wanted to move into a more synthetic sound.” But Hägg, in turn, said he hoped to move away from electronics. So they recorded the album using almost only analog instruments and tweaked them electronically afterward.

For Assbring, the evolution is striking. “I tend to react to things I’ve done previously. I knew pretty quickly after I did the last album I wanted to do something dramatically different,” she says. “I need to have some sort of mysterious element that is hard to put your finger on. I wanted to take my music into a place that was even more hard to distinguish.”

There’s an intentional strangeness to the record, Assbring says, one reflected in the video for the first single, “Change of Heart.”

The clip features the Golden Power, a bronzed gymnastics duo from Hungary who balance on each other in seeming slow motion. The video’s director, Filip Nilsson, first saw the Golden Power perform at the Lido music hall in Paris, “and he was totally just fascinated by it,” Assbring says. “He got hold of this clip, and at the same time he was very into my single, and he just couldn’t let it go. He sent me a test of what it would look like, and I couldn’t let it go, either.”

For Assbring, the moment was as serendipitous as a quickly and perfectly conceived lyric. ”It was also this instant thing,” she says. “It just went really well with the weirdness and the mystery.”

El Perro del Mar performs with Peter Bjorn and John tomorrow at the 9:30 Club at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25. Image courtesy El Perro del Mar’s MySpace page.

Vortex with author's traveling companion

Washington City Paper: What’s your name?
Luca Vortex: Luca Vortex.

That’s not your real name. That’s a punk name.
That is how everybody knows me.

How old are you?
33.

Are you familiar with go-go music?

Go-go like a dancer?
[Your correspondent and his traveling companion, both Washingtonians, attempt to explain go-go music to LV. Chuck Brown, Rare Essence, and the Junkyard Band are mentioned. Your correspondent asks his companion to remind him what the Junkyard Band's biggest hit is. His companion reminds him: "Sardines." They sing "Sardines" for LV.]
Is the Junkyard Band something with Nick Cave?

No…it’s like…it’s hard to explain…it’s native to Washington…and African-American…these guys cover popular R&B hits, but with a different beat…
They revisit the songs?

Yes, they revisit them…funkily…
That sounds good. I do not know it. I want to know it.

What do you think about when you think about Washington?
The flag.

What do you envision when you think about the city?
I think about something big…something mysterious.

Mysterious?
Like there are big buildings. And mysterious things hidden inside them.

I guess Washington is mysterious.
Does Lincoln have something to do with Washington?

Yes. [Your correspondent and his traveling companion explain the Lincoln Memorial.]
OK….Is the goal of this article to bring more Europeans to Washington?

No.

[Author's note: After the conclusion of this interview, your correspondent's traveling companion deemed Luca Vortex "cute."]

A Friday item, in which we feature a playlist suggested by one of our critics—or by a friendly guest.

Christian McBride has laid down records with so many jazz icons that to list them here would be sort of obnoxious. (It would also require us to discuss the latter-day work of Sting.) Suffice it to say that whatever jazz greats were alive in the ’90s, McBride played with them—and made their records a better place to spend some time.

Mike West, City Paper’s jazz guy-in-chief, calls McBride “the most revered bass player of his generation.”

More important, perhaps, is McBride’s statesmanlike work as a bandleader and composer. McBride’s new band, Inside Straight, which backs him on this year’s Kind of Brown, represents a return to a traddier brand of music (what the bassist describes as “right down the pike, straight-ahead, swinging jazz”) after the forward-leaning funk of the Christian McBride Band. Not to say that the dude’s playing it safe or anything…but if John McLaughlin wanders into Blues Alley this weekend, he’s not gonna hear anything to turn his hair unwhite.

Still! A man’s allowed his guilty pleasures. In anticipation of his four sets this weekend, I phoned McBride to solicit a playlist of his favorite non-jazz songs. Predictably, they’re heavy on the low end. (Hey, a bassist has to look out for his own.) Also predictably, one of the songs is by Sting.

Playlist & videos below the interview.

Washington City Paper: You’ve said that the inspiration for Inside Straight was so that they’d let you back into the Village Vanguard. How did it turn into an album?

McBride: Well, we should clarify—it wasn’t that I was banned from the Vanguard; I just hadn’t played there for a long time. And I thought that was a gross oversight on my part that I hadn’t. What am I doing? I’m supposed to be a jazz musician, and I haven’t been back to the Vanguard? That’s inexcusable! But of course, I had to put a certain band together to play the Vanguard.

And then?

Then it took about a year for us to play again, and it was determined that my next CD would be with that band. We played the Monterey Jazz Festival, and it was in that run in Monterey that we had a “name the band” contest, and we had submissions sent to my Website to name the band. Anyway, this couple sent “Inside Straight,” and I thought, “That’s perfect.” Philosophically and everything.

And what happened to the Christian McBride band?

Well, everybody seemed to really like the quintet—even for a month after the initial vanguard arrangement, the guys in the band, the people in the jazz community…plus it was also a combination of the guys in the CMB, in the old band, getting so busy doing other projects, it became increasingly difficult to get all the guys together at the same time. Ron Blake joined the Saturday Night Live band 4 seasons ago, which pretty much eliminated his being able to work on Friday and Saturday. And what kind of band doesn’t work on Friday and Saturday?

Were you tempted to sneak some dirty fusion into your first set at the Vanguard?

[Laughs] No, no, no, no, no, no. That is not the place to do that. I didn’t need to do that. That’s what I’d had the CMB for.

So we asked you to put together these “top 10 favorite non-jazz songs.” First of all, you cheated. You tried to sneak in a second Stevie Wonder song at the end.

Oh, did I send you 11? I’m sorry!

It’s cool. The other artist you doubled up on is James Brown. Is that just ‘cuz you played with him, or….

He’s been my childhood hero—he has been the central focus of my entire musical universe since I was 8 years old.

Wow.

I saw him perform live when I was a kid and I became obsessed with his music. Obsessed might not be a good word—I’m at, like, a historian status now. I like to think I’m part of this James Brown Experts task force. There’s this guy named Alan Leeds who does a lot of essays on James Brown…anyway, I’m part of their little circle now, so James is my hero.

What happened when you were 8?

I saw him at the Academy of Music in downtown Philly. It ruined me.

So you picked “Soul Power.” Have you seen the new flick? The one from Zaire 74?

Oh yeah, I saw Soul Power before it came out—I told you, I’m part of the James Brown Elite task force, so I had a chance to see one of the test runs before it hit the theaters. That is a really, really great documentary. Everybody in that movie is in peak form…from Bill Withers to Big Black and the Fania All-Stars.

On “Every Little Thing,” Sting seems to be playing an upright. That why you chose it?

No, out of all the Police hits, that just seemed to be my favorite one. I just gravitate towards it. [Laughs] And when i joined Sting’s band and we’d play that song, I’d have try really hard not to smile too much. It’s just such a cute song.

How’s Sting as a bass player? You teach him anything?

[Laughs] Ah, no—I was just there to play the parts. He’s a good bass player. I mean, he certainly plays—he has a certain way that he likes his music played, and obviously nobody can do it better than him. So I was really honored that he asked me to play in his band. He would just sing. But there were a number of times…it was actually kinda cute—he was so used to singing and playing at the same time, there were moments where it was uncomfortable for him—so there were a number of times when he would put his bass on and turn the volume down. Because to only do one at a time was a struggle for him.

Public Enemy—that mainly a Philly thing, or does it go deeper?

That was my high school thing—I was class of 1989, and that was my high school’s unofficial theme song. ?uestlove and I grew up together, we went to high school together—I mean, you remember, when Public Enemy came out they were huge. and ?uestlove and i just loved them. Fact, I remember seeing Flava Flav in a burger place in downtown Philly right around the time that “Fight the Power” came out. He was just crazy—that politically aware rap, that positive rap…man, this was one of the seminal songs of that era.

When’s the last time you fought the power?

Oh, goodness—every day when my wife tells me what she wants me to do. My wife is the power.

Christian McBride’s Friday “Non-Jazz Playlist”:

1. Soul Power – James Brown

2. Got the Feeling – James Brown

3. Love TKO – Teddy Pendergrass

4. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic – The Police

5. Fight the Power – Public Enemy

6. If You Think You’re Lonely Now, Wait Until Tonight – Bobby Womack

7. Lady in My Life – Michael Jackson

8. Ball of Confusion – Temptations

9. Fantasy – EWF

10. Summer Soft – Stevie Wonder

11. Superwoman – Stevie Wonder

Christian McBride and Inside Straight perform at Blues Alley at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., tomorrow and on Sunday.

Tittsworth:

-A man has our elevator filled to the brim w/plants. Its like a 2 acre jungle crammed into a cubicle. he’s complaining the door won’t shut.

-i think i just discovered the malkovich floor of my building? what exactly is going on the 3rd floor? :-)

-Mother fucker, I’m trying to watch the lost boys!!

Wale:

-dear ucb..i will go to breakfast w/ yall but i am NOT goin to eat a Dinosaur sized pancake at “The Griddle”

-everybody askin what kinda shoes im wearin…haa

-09 airmaxes http://pic.gd/38d0d6

Casper Bangs:

-is listening to some old songs he wrote and thinking that they are not that good.

-The Whitespace 7″ should in stores soon, but it’s available now here: http://www.dischord.com/release/ws01/whitspace

Tabi Bonney:

-My bookbag smells like it’s been eatin chicken behind my back…literally

-Somebody somewhere has candy paint…on their house though.

-I think I’m just gonna say “Jordan!” after I have sex or something from now on.

Thanks in part to Don DeLillo’s 1973 novel Great Jones Street, it didn’t take long for the rock-star-toiling-away-in-seclusion narrative to go from the stuff of critical legend to obvious fodder for parody. Nevermind that two years later saw the release and instant canonization of Bob Dylan and the Band’s long-buried The Basement Tapes—the inspiration, in fact, for the DeLillo character Bucky Wunderlick’s “The Mountain Tapes.” And so for listeners, the brilliant, hermetic artist has persisted, both as a reductive, suspect concept and as an undeniably seductive one. Listed here, some examples of the latter.

The D.C./Baltimore psych-folk act Le Loup retreated to a cabin in North Carolina to record much of its latest album, Family (out now on Hardly Art) and the result is druggy, country-fried, and poppy. Take “Grow,” which sports what might be the best pairing of Beach Boys harmonies and the “Be My Baby” beat since, well, the Beach Boys. But the real innovation here is space: Where past Le Loup songs were concise and linear, Family’s breathe and frolic and expand. The band—which performs Saturday at the Black Cat with Pree—recently recorded a session for All Our Noise. Check it out:

More records made in wooded seclusion after the jump: Reluctant backwoods Svengalis, some latter-day Johnny Cash, and brassy mountain ditties!

Dandelion Gum by Black Moth Super Rainbow (2007): The members of this blissed-out post-rock band cloak their identities with costumes, pseudonyms, and video-heavy performances, hoping to emphasize their music by de-emphasizing the personalities making it. As the group has acknowledged, this strategy of willful obscurity hasn’t exactly worked out. No kidding: When you record your breakthrough record in a Western Pennsylvania cabin and sing trippy, hypnotic songs about witches, you’re more or less asking to be typecast as backwoods Svengalis.

American Recordings by Johnny Cash (2004): The cabin that the late Johnny and June Carter Cash built in Hendersonville, Tenn., in the late ’70s is definitely that, rustic patina and all. But in the early ’90s, when Johnny began collaborating with producer Rick Rubin for a tetralogy of morose, mostly acoustic albums, the space became a full-fledged studio, which is now run by Johnny and June’s son, John Carter Cash. You can’t find a knobsman more pro than Rubin, but in this case, he simply captured Johnny singing and strumming in his living room. How the Man in Black then wound up with this terrifying Anton Corbijn video, I can’t quite say:

Cabin in the Woods by Retsin (2001): The name says it all. Tara Jane O’Neil and Cynthia Nelson met in the early ’90s when their bands, Rodan and Ruby Falls, shared a tour, and they soon became romantic partners and musical collaborators. The final Retsin album, made more or less in isolation in upstate New York, is dusty and acoustic, drawing as deeply from the well of American folk music as the ’90s indie-folk milieu. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Retsin contributed to a Jandek tribute compilation around the same time.

Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project by Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn and Ginger Brooks Takahashi (2003): This between-album project found the Olympia, Wash., singer Mirah retreating for a month to the Blue Ridge Mountains with an eight-track and some fellow musicians. There, she recorded some playful ditties—more washboard band than precise, lo-fi folk—and found sounds. And then she laid down this brassy jam, which recounts, doo-wop refrain in tow, the month-long experience:

Image courtesy of the Cash Cabin Studio MySpace page.