LAURA VIERS | FIRE SNAKES
In 2004 or 2005 I was living in Madison and my friend Kate and I took a trip to Borders to look for new music. I'm kind of having a hard time remembering how it could have been the case that going to a store, randomly choosing a CD and scanning it underneath a pair of headphones to sample tracks could have seemed like the most reasonable way to find new music... but hey, those were the days. (Admittedly, those were well past the days, I think it was just nostalgia, even then).
In any event, one of the albums I picked up was Laura Veirs - Year of Meteors. It was so intricately conceived, the music was so original, and her voice was really distinctive. It was the triumvirate of qualities I needed to really like an album. Fire Snakes is the first track on the album, and it's where I started when I decided I was going to buy it, so it's where I'm starting you all. I find a lot of the songs on the album cool. She seems like she's still active, but I evidently haven't done a good job of keeping up with her. Shame on me.