Editor’s note: Donewaiting.com and U Weekly are proud to sponsor Stephen Slaybaugh and Kevin Elliott’s Bands to Watch 2007. We’ll be posting video interviews, mp3s and more. You’ll be able to see all of the bands live at Skully’s, Saturday January 20th. For more information on the event, click here.
MP3: “The Bay” by Church of the Red Museum
Stephen Slaybaugh writes:
The faces of the Church of the Red Museum will be familiar to anyone following local music, the bands’ members having played in such outfits as Go Evol Shiki! and Frostiva, but the jarring sounds of this new conglomeration are distinctly fresh ones. Forming near the end of 2005, the band quickly recorded and released a startling self-titled debut on local upstart label Manup in 2006. The band’s striking blend of macabre themes and Tin Pan–greased, chanty din bodes well for even greater things in 2007.
INTERVIEW:
(Photo by Kim Rottmayer)
A wide variety of critics have placed Ghostface’s first album of 2006, Fishscale, in their year-end lists. I don’t agree with that assessment, however, as I have a handful of “rap nerd” quibbles with that album, and there’s some songs I just don’t like. I did like the album, however, so when this sequel came out, I was ready to love it. And love it I do! After a short skit rings in 2007, Ghost starts ripping the old Eric B & Rakim “Juice (Know the Ledge)” beat to pieces, and doesn’t really let up. Though this definitely feels like a Theodore Unit album at times, the contributions from folks like Trife and Shawn Wigs don’t let their mentor down. The beats provided set a fine backdrop for the varied subject matter, especially in the case of “You Know I’m No Good,” Mark Ronson’s sultry funk bomb which also features vocals from Amy Winehouse. There are many ways to define quality, and what exactly an “album of the year” is. For me in 2006, More Fish came out at exactly the right time (right after that Nas album LET ME DOWN) and hit me where I live. Thanks, Ghost!
In a year where Columbus put out an ungodly pile of solid recordings, this one stood above the rest. Dragged Out is an instant Columbus classic that begs for hours of repeated listens. 
Sometimes you just have to throw up your devil horns and rock out. Josh Homme, Jesse Hughes, and their cast of characters put together a nonstop headbanger that helped get me through the year. Yes, it’s cheesy, but what’s wrong with that?
I got around to their 2005 album The Art of Rolling much too late to consider for last year’s list, but this year’s album from the Danish rockers builds even more on their promise as harbingers of tuneful rock with real soul. There are plenty of snazzy uptempo rockers on this plate, but ballad-ish “Don’t Leave Me Blue,” which oozes heartachy soul all over the place, takes the cake as the best song here and one of my favorite songs of 2006.
These Detroit boys’ debut on 
