Since about last week, I've downloaded a lot of stuff for the man's projects(Giant Sand, OP8, Friends of Dean Martinez, his solo stuff and of course Calexico). Doing a search it seems only Orpheus is a regular member, who has mentioned them. And that is way less exposure that he deserves... so check them out guys. Amazing stuff all round.
I'm especially impressed with OP8's Slush which has Lisa Germano singing in her trademark style 'if this is not love, i hate you now'.

I'm actually only really familiar with Calexico, I've been meaning to check Giant Sand out too though. What would be a good cd to start with? I've heard some interviews on a radio station in Belgium in the past and he seemed a sympathetic guy...

You can easily find the 'is all over the map' album by giant sand on dc++. It reminds me of Wilco(songs like Classico have that jamming tendency) at places, but is just good. Their better album is supposed to be Chore of Enchantment which I've not been able to get. Oh, and OP8's Slush as I mentioned is a great album.

Check out this song by Friends of Dean Martinez http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/cl...545124-0084942

not bad, but it doesn't make me go wow! either... will investigate further though...

Yeah... its not a wow type of music... they've done stuff for silent movie soundtracks and are wholly instrumental(FODM that is).

yeah, i liked calexico a lot, but haven't heard anything else about him, but I'll be sure to check him out

hey Chiron, is it true that Gelb isn't good mates anymore with Burns and Convertino (Calexico)?

so did some further investigation and this is how I would list the Gelb-related bands right now

1. Calexico, still on top, have still only listened to Hot Rail & Feast of Wire (and "Alone Again Or") yet and have actually only Feast of Wire here, but I really really like them...
2. Friends of Dean Martinez, listened to at least a fair deal of Random Harvest just yet, and at first listening it's very good... though they might have put some more harder parts in it like in "Nowhere to Go"
3. Howe Gelb, listened to a bulk of songs from Confluence, and I liked quite a bit of the songs, especially "Saint Conformity", which I already knew from the radio...
4. OP8, only listened to three songs, yet one of which I really liked ("Crackling Water"), two others who were a bit too My Bloody Valentine-ish ("never see it coming", "round and round"), oh and to the reviewer of Slush at allmusic: Joey Burns's got a great voice, fuck you
5. Giant Sand, listened to most of Center of the Universe and well it didn't do much for me at first hearing... southern rock might not really be my cup of tea...

but I'll have to listen to this stuff some more, oh and Lisa Germano's solo stuff is quite nice, just not nice enough to buy, but it's been some time since I listened to any cd of her...

but I can say that Giant Sand's Is All Over the Map is quite a bit better than the other record