intensity

Right now I'm listening to "Birdmouth" by Mistle Thrush from their last album, Drunk With You. I haven't heard it in a while, and it's giving me chills. (sigh) I still miss seeing them in concert. Lead singer Valerie Forgione has an intensity I've seldom seen elsewhere, and the rest of the band rocked hard too. As much as Kinski's become the always-reliable band for me here in Seattle, it's just not the same as seeing and hearing Valerie pour her soul out into the microphone. I don't recall ever skipping a Mistle Thrush show by choice, whereas I have decided that I don't need to attend every Kinski show (I just passed one up this past Friday, in fact).

Mistle Thrush is still officially "on hiatus", while Valerie is currently involved in a side project called Van Elk (an anagram of Val and Ken, the two members). Van Elk's got eight mp3s available on their site for free download, check them out.