I haven’t been picking up much music lately — I go through little jags of purchases, then usually lay off for a while — but here’s the last five albums I bought (aside: I still buy music by the album even though I buy almost all music online now. Some habits die hard):

Jaxonville — Self-titled eponymous EP (there’s another term you never hear any more) by two Australian twin sister country singers. The Kasey Chambers parallels are obvious and, although these two can definitely sing and this EP is well-produced, they’re still rough around the edges. I saw them play at a free concert last week at a county park — I have no idea why they scored a gig like that, which typically goes to local bar bands, but I did enjoy them.

Sharon Little — Perfect Time for a Breakdown — I’d never heard of her until I saw her open for Robert Plant and Alyson Krauss at their recent local concert, and at the end of the set, I headed straight for the souvenir stand and bought the CD. She was that good. This album doesn’t quite capture her stage strengths but it’s still a strong debut.

The Best of Simon and Garfunkel — I still haven’t gotten around to converting my vinyl(which includes several S&G albums), and Amazon MP3 put this on sale for cheap, so I just bought it for a few bucks to add to my collection.

Vampire Weekend — And we have another self-titled eponymous debut. These guys are too cool by half for an old man like me (they’re all recent white-boy Columbia grads who somehow have brewed up a stew of music heavily influenced by modern African sounds) but I really like “Mansard Roof” and “A-Punk.”

Southern Culture on the Skids — Countrypolitan Favorites. There are two groups of people: Those who like S.C.O.T.S. and those who should. Here, they cover (and fricasee) various popular tunes from the “countrypolitan” era of the 1960s and 1970s. They turn “Wolverton Mountain” into a rave-up and mop the floor with George Jones’ “Let’s Invite Them Over.” And then, for some reason, they cover T-Rex’s “Life’s a Gas” out of the blue, putting down the coolest guitar fuzztone you’ll hear anywhere. Still not convinced? S.C.O.T.S. usually serves fried chicken and vanilla puddin’ at its concerts. Really.