As the title tells, today, I bought six 7" records. Here they are and my initial thoughts on them.

Akron/Family - River b/w Morning on Michigan

Starting off with some nice sounding shaker and guitar action, the song includes nicely lightly overlapping vocal lines, an actually interesting half-time change, some Ethiopian sounding guitars, and a justified triumphant ending.  Very nice start.  "Morning..." starts with some oddly tuned, possibly micro, possibly lazy, guitars and a loping vocal pattern.  A cool out-of-context string part comes in near the middle and provides some change to the mantra that follows through the song.  Interesting tune, but not up to par with the more produced A side.  The NASA photo on the cover does suit both tunes nicely, though.  B+

Carlos Giffoni - The Absence of Essence

This double 7", one black and one white vinyl, is from noise maestro Carlos Giffoni.  Starting with the white 7", "The Absence" kicks it with a constant static-y sludge that reveals some nice rhythms that slowly thin out into nothing.  "Lift" picks up on a lower pitched rhythm then into an oscillating pattern that is more separated in pitch than the others.  I don't quite understand the organization of this piece, it seems to fade before it needs to due to the 7" length.  Over to the black 7", a more saturated tone comes in playing with rhythms and density.  The shifts in downbeat are really nice in this one.  Final tune "Angles and Arcs" comes in with a sweet sludgy bassline in 5/4 and is slowly overtaken by a quicker looping pattern that fades to the end.  I'd say a really nice combination of material - definitely not on the extreme side, but seems very thoughtful.  This makes me want to revisit the Giffoni records that I have on Important Records.  This is on Arbor and comes in an edition of 400.  Also, features some awesome drawings, too.  B

Centipede Eest - Metal Moon

I'm going to veer away from describing what things sound like since that may not be very interesting.  Centipede Eest is a Pittsburgh group and have two albums, an EP, and maybe a couple 7"s out.  This one is new, maybe a month old.  First tune - "Metal Moon" sounds like some of their previous work but adds a nice piano and more structural shifts.  They tend to work on this minor key dirge rock, not quite classic rock, not quite blues.  I think one of the things that always misses me is the actually song - the production and arrangements are always cool, but sometimes I miss the root of the song.  The b-side is tight, indulging in some worldy tastes.  Percussionist Sam Pace's talents are used nicely in this with some nice trap work and what sounds like steel drum.  I think there are a bunch of 7"s of his solo work in Gangwish coming out soon - should be nice!  Track reminds me of a more electrified On Fillmore, minus the bird calls.  On New Ruins Recordings, NU-004. B

Watershed - Brainville b/w The Throes

Pretty excited to hear this one.  Watershed, and later Watershed 5tet, was a nice collection of Pittsburgh musicians led by the very impressive Ben Opie on saxophones.  I have a few more connections to these folks, even though this recording was made while I was in my early teens.  I was able to play in HiTEC with Opie and 20-some other folks.  I have been playing music with guitarist Daryl Fleming for the last few years.  He pops up on Happener-Magicker and I just finished engineering his latest acoustic record.  And cellist Erin Snyder's experimental string trio, EQ, (er...quartet) performed at my old group Vale and Year's first release show in 2004.  But enough about that.  The first tune, Brainville, is a Sun Ra composition with a nice head and some great passages where the saxophone, guitar, and cello play around each other.  Nice solo by Opie, as well.  This tune is one of the earlier Sun Ra pieces, from 1956, I believe, so there seem to be a few more traditional turns thrown in, but definitely a nice version!  A live recording of Steve Lacy's "The Throes" is on Side B.  The sinister cello stop really shows how Watershed was a unique group working within the jazz realm.  The repetative opening slowly devolves into a loose collection of guitar fingerpicking, cascading sax notes, and a general down pitch direction.  Interestingly, there is not a solo section in this take, but more of a direction in the music that provides room for all the players to mess around. Released on Manny Theiner's Pop Bus, 1995.  A+

Fleet Foxes - Mykonos

I've been looking at this record for a while since the artwork is so great.  Finally, picked it up and realized that I've already heard this tune.  But its a great tune - I'm a sucker for the harmonies and the great melodic turns, not to mention the gatefold sleeve.  B-side "False Knight on the Road" opens with a bit of distractingly unnatural reverb, but its a nice song using a lot of traditional chord patterns.  Released by the large Sub Pop.  A

Richard Swift - Kisses for the Misses b/w Paisley Park

For the last few years, I've basically fallen off some of the Jagjaguwar and Secretly Canadian releases.  I was a huge fan of Richard Youngs, Early Day Miners, Julie Doiron, Spokane, Manishevitz, early Okkervil River, and Songs:Ohia.  But much of what I've heard lately hasn't been as interesting.  Granted, much of the music made around 2000 doesn't need to made anymore since it would just be rehashing old ideas.  That said, I think a lot of these artists (well, some aren't really bands anymore) haven't transitioned into something that captured my interest the way earlier work did.  When I first heard Richard Swift, I thought that he might bring me back into the fold.  But the more I heard, the more it seemed trapped into trying to tap some Nilsson vibe.  I suppose this record doesn't change my mind much.  It is pleasant, but not something I will return to often.  C