An Alabama band with three guitars is bound to get some notice from Patterson Hood of Drive By Truckers, and notice he did, talking them up to everyone who would listen and lending a hand to the band as they made their third record with David Barbe. Barbe and Hood got The Teens in touch with their inner Big Star on Hardware Healing, layering the vocals and adding a bit more gloss to the proceedings, as well as steel guitar and keys. Finally, the planets seemed to finally align for the Alabama quintet. The Alex Chilton meets Crazy Horse single “Neil Armstrong” pricked up a lot of people’s ears and led to high-profile tours with DBT and Lucero, raising their profile considerably outside the South.

Deaxteens have always displayed diy ethics. The band managed to capitalize on their growing notoriety by parleying it into a distribution deal for their label Cornelius Chapel. Released through Thirty Tigers and Sony’s Red Distribution, the new record Singlewide is released in conjunction with fellow Alabama indie Skybucket Records. Singlewide dispenses almost entirely with the blazing guitars that played so much of a part in their early music. The band approached the record with a Creedence state of mind, building every song around an acoustic guitar and really pushing the harmonies. They found a sympathetic production ear in Nashville maverick Mark Evers, solidifying his role as the go-to guy for recording oddball Nash Vegas stuff like Bobby Bare Jr. and The Silver Jews.

The Dexateens are no stranger to rocking, but with the help of Evers, Singlewide finds the band exploring more of their quiet side. “New Boy” is a beautiful song reminiscent of the slower Two Cow Garage material that seems ripe for drunken singalongs. “Hang On” is just as lovely, a chiming Big Star homage that screams to be played way too loudly on a car radio. The record builds to the closing “Can You Whoop It”. Former Silver Jew Dave Berman makes a guest appearance, responding in a robotic affirmative to the seemly rhetorical question. It’s that song that seems to embody the Dexateens aesthetic: the narrator avers that he likes Ronnie Dio, Vaseline and living “in the space that compromise provides”. That simple statement crystallizes succinctly the two worlds that Dexateens straddle. Equal parts soulful croon and raging bombast, Singlewide makes every song seem like one you’ve sung along to a million times. If they have any say in the matter, Dexateens will have you sing along a million times more.

Despite Matisyahu’s recent effort to become the leader of the NY Hanukkah celebration, Yo La Tengo has that position on lock down.

With another installment of their annual 8 Nights of Hanukkah starting this Sunday (December 21) at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ, Yo La Tengo has been going strong with the festive holiday concerts since at least 2001 (that we know of). And even though not one of the secret guests have been announced (besides Todd Barry), all of the shows are completely sold out. So for those of you who don’t already have tickets, here’s a clip from last year’s festivities of Yo La Tengo with special guest Alex Chilton playing the classic Kinks song, “Till The End Of The Day”.