I went to high school in Humboldt County (Yes, that one, the one that inspires the imaginary doob.  No one ever says "Hey, redwoods, right?"). It can inspire near instant claustrophobia and it almost always smells like a wet paper bag, but damn, it makes good music!

I wanted to give a shoutout to our HumCo readers (707, 4 lyfe- What?) and give ya'lls a heads up about the most excellent Strix Vega making the long sojurn up here from behind the Redwood Curtain. They will be touring (and headed to SXSW) in support of their early March release Estranged Meadow.

Strix Vega has an early Wilco / Calexico-ey alt country sound to them, if you added blues for dipping with Tom Petty sprinkled on top. It is fabulous road trip music.  I love it when the local boys make good! Check em out here on their MySpace page.

They will be playing at the Comet with The Curious Mystery and Contraband Countryband on 3/13/09.  Doors are at 9:00.

If you are ever lucky enough to see "Rural Rock and Roll," the exceptional documentary by Jensen Rufe, do it. It gives just a snapshot of the kind of truly phenomenal bands in the area and the struggles they have to go through to do what they love in an isolated area without having to leave to take their music to the next level. I appreciate that it asks why the record industry so often ignores "the little guys," when they clearly have so much more to offer than the larger cities in many cases. It is sometimes sweet and sometimes sad, but always rockin! The soundtrack is one of my very favorite things to listen to when I can't seem to make up my mind.

Here is a little taste.