Have you just finished a book you can’t stop talking about? Is there a CD you’ve been recommending to everyone you know? Want to share your recommendations with Birmingham magazine’s readers? Contact Carla Jean Whitley to learn how you can be included in Currents.”

listen

Wild Sweet Orange, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy Wild Sweet Orange’s members grew up listening to punk and indie music around Birmingham. But on their full-length debut, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy (Canvasback Music), the band proves they know how and when to be understated. Preston Lovinggood’s smooth vocal is the highlight of the opening track and first single, the haunting “Ten Dead Dogs.” The punk influence is more obvious on “Either/Or,” a rocking track that escalates till Lovinggood is near shrieking along with Taylor Shaw’s powerful guitar riffs. Both “Sour Milk” and “An Atlas to Follow”—my personal favorite—again demonstrate the band’s versatility, particularly as Atlas tiptoes between pop and Americana. Wild Sweet Orange has made noise around Birmingham for years with their thoughtful, suburb-inspired rock. Expect the buzz to catch on in cities and suburbs nationwide. —CARLA JEAN WHITLEY

MY tunes

Luke McKay Barista, Urban Standard “Akron/Family, with brilliant combinations of multi-instrumental talent and powerful lyrics, has become my go-to band. In particular, their self-titled debut album seems to be stuck in my CD player right now, and the volume seems to be stuck very, very high. On this album, the original four members— Seth Olinsky, Dana Jannsen, Ryan Vanderhoof and Miles Seaton—display an almost disturbing mastery of musical versatility as they make melody out of nearly anything that can be held. Deviating from more conventional musical pleasantries they also use found noises that spread creaky, boomy, electrostatic-y and beepy layers throughout the record. All this is intertwined with lyrics that leave me suspended in some mixed state of uncertainty and yearning that keeps me begging for more. I wish I could personally quote the whole album to you. Please listen to it.”

MUSIC makers

Let’s get this out of the way—there’s a big name in The Boxmasters, and he (and the band!) will be playing Zydeco on July 29. You won’t want to miss Billy Bob Thornton’s performance. That said, let’s talk music. The Boxmasters (Vanguard Records) offers more than the novelty of yet another big-name actor doubling as a musician. Thornton’s solo album Beautiful Door was wellreceived, and with The Boxmasters he presents gritty, authentic country tunes. The first of the album’s two discs is filled with original tunes. On the second, the band may not make you forget they’re covering hits like The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” but they certainly do make them something new and memorable. It’s been five years since Emmylou Harris’ last solo album, and with All I Intended to Be (Nonesuch) she returns with a voice as impeccable as ever. Sam Phillips’ latest album, Don’t Do Anything (Nonesuch), begins quietly, tension building like water waiting to boil. The bubbles continue to burst throughout as Phillips’ smoky voice carries the listener through dark tracks like “Shake it Down” and lighter fare like the spunky “Little Plastic Life.” On Three Flights from Alton Nido (Vanguard Records), Greg Laswell’s voice sounds airy and light. Laswell’s lyrics float on a bed of acoustic guitar and gentle percussion.

learn

It seems like green has become even more of a buzz word here lately. As Earth Day approaches every April, there’s a new ingenious product or event designed to help save the world. And with gas prices on the rise, even the least green among us are searching out ways to become and conserve—their money, if nothing else! The trend is even spreading into boutiques and clothing stores, both through organic materials and fun products. We found these amusing ways to bring the green indoors on a recent visit to Urban Outfitters at the Summit. Miniature Indoor Bonsai Tree Garden, $12  Everything you need for a miniature Bonsai  garden is inside: seeds, soil, compost, a terra cotta pot and instructions on how to help your tree thrive. Choose from a variety of trees—we picked the Japanese Black Pine tree. Venus Fly Trap Growing Kit, $8 While looking at this in the office, one editor commented that she’d never seen a Venus fly trap outside the movies! Here’s your chance to grow your own. The kit includes a miniature greenhouse, as well as soil, seeds and tips on how to bring this unusual plant to life in your own home. A less sensational but equally attractive sunflower growing kit is also available. Instant Cup of Flowers, $5 It looks a lot like Cup Noodles, but we think this indoor flower growing kit is a lot more exciting than flavored ramen. Love flowers but lack the outdoor space? This indoor kit offers a fun alternative for gardening novices. We chose morning glories, but you can also find cosmos, daisies and poppies.

read

A Sarasota strip club and September 11th terrorists come together in unexpected ways in the new novel The Garden of Last Days (Norton, $24.95) by Andres Dubus III . The next time you are stuck in an airport read Dear American Airlines (Houghton Mifflin, $22), the new novel by Jonathan Miles. The internal dialogue of a lonely man stuck in an airport, trying to get to his daughter’s wedding and writing a long letter to American Airlines about this supposed delay. The real story, though, reveals the tale of a lost life and years of regret. In reality, far more heartbreaking than a $10 voucher for an airport meal. The unescapable burden of personal responsibility, and what friendship really means is at the heart of David Guterson’s new novel The Other (Knopf, $24.95). Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars, weaves a fascinating tale of fate and what we do and don’t do in the name of friendship. The 10th work of historical spy fiction by the celebrated novelist Alan Furst, The Spies of Warsaw (Random House, $25) is an entertaining and exciting descent into the darkness of a Polish city on the brink of World War II. Atmospheric and beautifully paced, this new novel continues the author’s winning streak of spy novels. While it reads like fiction, it is all too true. The Monster of Florence (Grand Central, $25.99), is the story of a serial killer (never caught) who for two decades stalked the city of Florence, killing courting couples only on Saturday evenings and under a new moon. Written by American novelist Douglas Preston and Italian journalist Mario Spezi, the duo’s digging got Preston thrown out of Italy and Spezi thrown in jail. But the resulting book is a fascinating look at a vicious crime spree.

E D I T O R ' S PICK

Humorist David Sedaris puts together another hilarious collection of essays woven together seamlessly by such disparate items as a parasitic worm in a mother-in-law’s leg, a dingo, the purchase of a human skeleton, and an overwhelming deisre to quite smoking, while in the nicotine-laden heart of Tokyo. Sedaris’ new book is When You Are Engulfed in Flames (Little, Brown, $25.99), the funniest thing you’ll read all summer.

WHAT THEY'RE READING

Kara Till Ganter Librarian, Briarwood Christian School The Airmen and the Headhunters: A true Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II by Judith M. Heimann “Heimann has researched an amazing triple-trouble trauma: A World War II flight crew crashes in headhunter country, simultaneously occupied by the Japanese. My grandfather’s squadron did the same thing, so I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into this one! Survival stories have a way of increasing perspective.”

Brett Cantrell Audit Associate, KPMG Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee “The story in this book is told in three parts, with each being told concurrently. The pages are literally divided between the three ways the story is being told. This really leaves the reader wanting more as the writer jumps from perspective to perspective. It deals with love, age, death, fear and relationships in a cathartic way.”