Mediæval Bæbes - Mirabilis

The Mediæval Bæbes are back with their special style of Mediæval period-influenced music. Their new album, Mirabilis, is my favorite of the five I have. I've gone back to the other four to try and figure out why. I thought maybe it is because the vocals are more upfront and less atmospheric. Problem with that is my favorite song on the album, Lhiannan Shee, is as atmospheric as you can get. Maybe it is just the newness. Whatever the reason, it is good stuff. If your ears are looking for a rest from all that rocking out, and your brain would like to lose itself some lush and very feminine sounds, the Bæbes have what you are looking for. Check out Trovommi Amor.

Krumble - thirteen

In my last CD Baby order the bonus disc was Thirteen, the 2001 debut by Cleveland band Krumble. These bonus discs, as you might imagine, tend to suck but I always give them a listen because you just never know. Turns out it's pretty good stuff. Rocking sound with an edge. Solid female singer. A good first effort from a local band. I wanted to find out more about them so I went to CD Baby to read the album's page. No band listed there by that name. Huh? I tried a few variations but nothing came up. Odd. I did the Google thing and came up with their site. Turns out the lead singer on that album, one Theresa Carroll, has been replaced but you can click to listen to a couple of tracks with their new lead singer. Problem is, the link is broken. Search on Theresa Carroll--nothing. The band does have thirteen for sale on their site, so it appears that that is the only game in town. Problem is, I go to write this tonight and the band's site is pretty much gone now, replaced by a The future home of Krumble page. So here's this local band with some potential and, for whatever reasons, just disintegrates. I don't get to hear them get better. I don't get to hear their lead singer develop. Even CD Baby doesn't carry their album anymore and they carry anybody's album. For some reason it just struck me as sad, that's all. Take a listen to Vow and Awful Truth to hear what you missed.

UPDATE 2020: Theresa Carroll was also in a band called Spider Lilies around the time she was in Krumble. They reunited a few years ago and have an album called Everything on iTunes.