Lindi Ortega - Tin Star

OK, this one isn't exactly new (it's been out for a couple months), but I simply cannot get enough of Lindi Ortega's latest single Tin Star (or any Lindi Ortega song for that matter). Her old school country sensibilities bring a big ol' smile to my face. And that voice...Wow! Makes me melt every time.

Eric Church - Give Me Back My Hometown

I'm dying to hear Eric Church's new album The Outsiders. I posted his CMA performance of the title track a couple weeks ago, today, we have the just released video for Give Me Back My Hometown. February 11th cannot come soon enough.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Cinnamon and Lesbians

No one writes slack anthems better than Stephen Malkmus. From the opening line: "Shanghaied in Oregon, Cinnamon and lesbians" I was laughing and completely sucked in to it's stonerific godness... and oh yeah, the video's freaking hilarious too. It's seriously up there on the laugh meter with Superchunk's Crossed Wires video (note to self: go watch Superchunk's Crossed Wires video when you're done posting this).

Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons - Hurricane

So last week, I got an intriguing message on Twitter from the fine folk at No Surf Music (give 'em a follow ‏@NoSurfMusic) who suggested that I check out the Hurricane video by Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons. Of course I had to check it out as I generally trust those guys. Well, 10 seconds into the video and I was completely out of my mind bonkers. This song is ridiculously bad ass. ROCK 'N' FREAKIN' ROLL! We're talking new favorite rock band here people. I will definitely be picking up their new album Hey Kid when it comes out.

The Distillers - City of Angels

Here's a Friday Flashback to 2002 with The Distillers and their video for City of Angels off the Sing Sing Death House record.

Frankie Ballard - Helluva Life

Frankie Ballard is certainly an artist to look out for in 2014. His single Helluva Life is steadily climbing the charts (it's now in the Top 20) and his second album Sunshine & Whiskey drops next month. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more from him, especially as I see more and more people compare him to the great Gary Allan.

Eric Church - The Outsiders

All last week we looked at my best of 2013 lists (thanks for checking them out if you did...if you didn't, there's still time). This week, we'll take a look at some music that I'm definitely looking forward to hearing in the first quarter of 2014. So let's get this 2014 preview rolling with one of my favorite country singers, Eric Church. His performance of The Outsiders at this year's CMA Music Awards certainly turned some heads. Country music purists bristled (it doesn't take much) at the heavy metal-esque guitars (my question for them is what's a country purist doing watching the CMAs in the first place?). I for one, thought the performance was freaking bad ass. In fact, it reminded me of similarly killer performance two years prior at the CMAs when Miranda Lambert debuted Baggage Claim. Eric's new album, The Outsiders, drops on February 11th...this will likely be the only time I'm first in line for Church.