Head Cheese

Tanakh had functioned as a loose collective around founder and vocalist Jesse Poe, the turnover accounting for rangy explorations into pastoral folk, droning psychedelia and strains of Eastern European and Middle Eastern melody. But Poe found a steady group of musicians to work with in 2003, and the result is the studied, beautifully languid Ardent Fevers (Alien8). Straight outta Florence, it's Tanakh's monomanias.

5. Joseph Campbell: Jesse longs to have Joseph Campbell fill the extra seat in our van. He's dead, of course, but, man, that guy could tell stories. Plus, it always helps to have an ancient in the van.

4. Intercontinental music community: Tanakh has the cream to save Gato Barbieri's ass. Hold on, Gato, we're coming.

3. Dangerous curves: Whenever Jesse's driving, it's better to be on the smooth Autostrada than bumpy back roads. He takes curves too strong when his overactive imagination is busy conversing with Joseph Campbell, waking everyone up from dreams of truly dangerous curves across dirty sheets.

2. Lost in translation: Oretta, our drummer, is also our navigator. She spends entire evenings calculating distances on MapQuest, but never knows where we are or who we're performing with. We wouldn't have it any other way.

1. Vague angels: The latest from Ted Leo's younger brother Chris. Someday he and his rhythmic legs will play in your town, and though you might feel like staying in bed and reading Vernacoliere that night, you should not.