4 Peaks Gets Bigger, Better; Modest Mouse Re-Announced

What did you expect? A color photo?Perhaps the most fitting way to describe the Wiyos, a trio of Brooklyn old-time music specialists, is as follows:
"Hey there, mac. These wild boys of the Wiyos, are real crackerjack wiz kids, ya see. They play the swing and the jive and the rest of it like a real barrel full of bullies, they do. They're sweeter than rhubarb and hotter than the temper on a redheaded Irishman, ya see, mac. They toot and strum and really just keep it dandy, and you can take that right to the bank there sports fan."
That, as you may have guessed, was my best impression of how I've always imagined the average 1930s journalist spoke (gleaned mainly from the few Ruth-area, hardly intelligible baseball game radio broadcasts that I've heard in snippets on ESPN Classic). The Wiyos are not from that era, but they do damn good job of making music that might convince some they were post-Depression troubadours clicking a washboard and plucking a washtub bass on a street corner asking only for pennies and spare johnnycakes.

Listen to enough bluegrass and you’ll be Living in a Band down by the River.The first time I saw Yonder Mountain String Band was at Portland's Roseland Theater in 1999. They were opening for Leftover Salmon in a room that seemed much too large for their acoustic instruments, and I remember the band's infectious enthusiasm was hitting my group of friends at the back of the room with full-force.
We were all blown away, and after their show, when we spied mandolin player Jeff Austin standing near the bar we decided to introduce ourselves. It was a forgettable meeting, to say the least, as we practically threw ourselves at the poor guy, telling him how "awesome" we thought the band sounded.
It would be another two years before I had the chance to see Yonder Mountain perform again, this time on the East Coast in Asheville, N.C. at a little rock n' roll dive called Stella Blue's. This time, we caught Jeff in front of the venue a couple of hours before show time. He was on a payphone, and we boisterously approached him, not even considering he might want some privacy for the phone call.