I love your guts, The Weepies.

I think it takes guts to name a band The Weepies. Admit it, you're talking to someone and they tell you they have a band and it's called The Weepies, and the first thing you think is, "Great, maybe someday I'll come watch you trot out a whole show of your maudlin, dirge-like whateverkindofmusic, and then afterward my friends and I will commit ritual mass suicide."


Okay maybe you don't think that exactly, but you get my point.

But The Weepies don't make depressing music. At least it doesn't slap you in the face with the cold, lifeless hand of your inadequacies and failures. I don't know, actually I wouldn't describe their music as depressing at all. Sorry I'm spending so much time talking about this, but I'm just trying to clear their name. Pardon the pun. Let's move on.

I love The Weepies. I would classify them as folk music. BUT WAIT! I have played folk music and have participated in what is described as the New Folk music scene, the music scene that barely audibly emanates from the coffeehouses and Unitarian Churches of this country (USA). The Weepies started out as two solo acts from that scene, Deb Talan and Steve Tannen.

As solo acts Talan and Tannen were great, really really great. (You can find the solo releases from both Talan and Tannen on The Weepies website.) But there's a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts quality to The Weepies that is a common magic of any number of the great duos in history, Lennon/McCartney, Hall/Oates, Saliers/Ray, Timberlake/Chasez (kidding on that last one).

I have to admit I think Deb Talan is hot. She has maybe like the best smile ever. She looks like a girl I've known since we were 6 and whom I was in love with for most of the years of our lives before she married a total douchebag. But that's another story.

Talan and Tannen formed The Weepies and escaped what would most certainly have been death by obscurity in--and pardon my crass editorializing here--the cauldron of mediocrity that is the New Folk scene. I'm so glad they did.

The Weepies' newest record is called Say I Am You. I dare you to listen to it. You probably won't be able to stop once you start. Okay so I have to admit that the first time I heard Say I am You I wasn't hooked. But I have issues. It often takes me a while to catch on to something that later seems so obviously genius. That's my problem, though.

Say I Am You is full of subtly produced, understated acoustic gems. Standout songs on the record are "Take It From Me," "I've Gotta Have You," and the two most addictive songs on earth right now "World Spins Madly On," and "Riga Girls." I can't say enough good about the Talan/Tannen songwriting team. The songs are emotionally bare, intellectual without being obtuse, and catchy as hell. It seems like the duo's singing voices were meant for each other, harmonic soulmates, and I love the way the production on the record is simple so that the wonderful qualities of both voices, individually and together, really stay out in front and command most of the listener's attention.

Well, I really could go on and on about The Weepies. You just gotta buy Say I Am You, and when you love it you should also buy their EP Happiness too. Go...do it. Now. Go on....