Avant-folksters Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice have accumulated an enormous discography of various ephemera in their short history. Ian Johnson recently reviewed one of these pieces in Stylus’ Rubber Room, claiming that Harem of the Sundrum “recalls the bleakest of Leonard Cohen.” We asked lead Wand, James Toth to contribute some songs for the Stypod. The results:

Turner Cody– Cry With Me

I cover this on a new 7″—this song, and all of Turner’s amazing Buds of May album, is my favorite secret of the past few years. Total time machine vibes, gorgeous lyrics; this seriously puts songwriting folks like me to shame. Easily the most underrated dude I know of right now.

[visit an unofficial website here, read an interview here]

Death Vessel– Mean Streak

I’m not a big fan of the ‘dude sounds like a lady’ thing that’s big in certain circles right now, but somebody sent me a promo of this album and I just happened to be feeling adventurous that day and threw it on while I drank and answered email. It took me about 45 minutes to get past the first song, which is positively one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard all year. I actually taped this on repeat for the car and I never get sick of it. Something about the phrasing, lyrics…you can hear the devil in it somewhere.

[visit the website here, buy an album here]

Feathers– Past the Moon

Like Chet Baker’s vocal stuff + Layers of Onion / Hangman’s vibes = jaw
dropping / tremendous. I wish I could write a song this good.