Exebelle & the Rusted Calvacade - The Antipoison Creek Sessions EP

Exebelle and the Rusted Calvacade might be Virginia's best-kept secret. And at $2.99 for their Antipoison Creek Sessions four-song EP, they're also Virginia's biggest steal.

It's self-produced, lo-fi, folk-country with a mountain stomp and a rock 'n roll swagger. From the mandolin-laced rockin' first song, "Flood Walls" and lonesome-highway country sound of "What If We Fell?" to the Shins-esque "Lonesome Canyon", you're getting a helluva bang for your buck. These songs are grade-A solid. Toss in the fun "Bees" -- a cross between "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds (I'm not kidding), and you've got Exebelle's first EP of 2009, definitely in my top 10 albums of the year... probably in my top five. I'm very eager to hear "C.A.F", their second EP, which was recorded in July. I need to go download it!

Exebelle and the Rusted Calvacade stepped out of obscurity to be one of my favorite bands of this year. I'm expecting big things for them in the remainder of 2009 and in 2010.