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Next month Fire Records is releasing Little Sand Box, a sprawling eight-CD box set collecting the solo output of Giant Sand visionary Howe Gelb—six commercially issued albums, a live effort, and a previously unissued disc of piano pieces. Both on his own and with Giant Sand, Gelb has always been a little erratic, but that’s partly due to an unfettered adventurousness and desire to avoid repeating himself. He’s more than succeeded on that point, expanding the wheezing desert rock he first pioneered when Giant Sand formed in LA into a wonderfully lopsided, ramshackle vision of American music in all of its bastard glory. I’ve always admired those qualities in him, but in recent years it caused me to stop following his work as closely as I used to. There are only so many hours in a day.
Today’s playlist:
