Vetiver "You May Be Blue"

"You May Be Blue" (mp3) is drawn from Vetiver's forthcoming Fat Cat debut To Find Me Gone, and they're sure to find more than a few like-minded folk under the commercial awning that covers Animal Collective, Amandine, Songs of Green Pheasant and Mice Parade. Vetiver's first record established the mutating collective as a sort of neo-folkie super-group, featuring leader/songwriter Andy Cabic of Devendra Banhart's band, Hope Sandoval, Joanna Newsom and former MBV drummer Colm O'Ciosoig. The new one features Devendra again, but more importantly, a sound that improves considerably on the first record's impressive promise, and provides evidence, much like Banhart's Cripple Crow, of Cabic's increasingly accessible and attractive skill as a songwriter and arranger. "Blue," in particular is a cantering, polished blues number full of elegant flourishes (especially the marvelous little guitar ornament at the 2:30 point), yet one that still somehow remains unassuming, in a George Harrison "For You Blue" sort of way.

To Find Me Gone will come out May 22 on Fat Cat.

ALSO: Over at goodhodgkins, Ryan has curated a group of "visceral song moments," with several bloggers, including yours truly, offering two songs each that do things that other songs don't do, or can't do. I picked the bridge from R.E.M.'s "Shaking Through" and the 4:51 mark of Frank Zappa's "Andy."

FURTHERMORE: Hardest-working video director in Cincinnati (and former pupil of the guy typing this) Pete Ohs has created a new video for the High and Low song "It's Time" (mov). Stick around 'til the end. It's adorable. Give him your business.