breeders

In these heady days of New Rave and such, it was heartening to be reminded this morning of the last time British bands tried to pull off that trick. "Warming Up The Brain Farm: The Best Of The Lo-Fidelity All Stars" turned up in the post. And amazingly, ten years on, it sounds great.

'Superfluous' Ash lady proves she was born to be in the band

Emerging in 2001, these Detroit brothers lash the hard-livin' loucheness to traditional country ache. Frontman/songwriter Kurt Marschke's wail is Jaggeresque and there's lonesome balladry aplenty ("27 Hours", "Such A Crime") plus enough "Happy"-like fretwork to suggest what might have been had Gram'n'Keef really got it on. "Entitled" pits the sideways chug of The Breeders' "Cannonball" against early Replacements sneer, and dobro/pedal steel player Peter Ballard tints the big skies with a yearning airiness. Seriously impressive.

Major label debut produced by Talking Head Jerry Harrison

With the final series of Buffy over (and how could they kill off Anya so glibly? But don't get me started...), all that's left to console us sad (in both ways) fanatics is the music from the show, here slickly marketed with sleevenotes by Joss Whedon. Kicking off with The Breeders' blast at the theme tune, it rolls through the Dandy Warhols, Dashboard Prophets, Aimee Mann, The Devics and Laika. There are score fragments, too, notably Christophe Beck's "Dead Guys With Bombs".