This Week In Wuss Rock

We mean it in the kindest, sweetest sense when we say wuss. Think Iron & Wine, Jose Gonzalez, Cat Power... we love us some wusses. While some of us Bonnaroo'd and others will Live Earth, we are quietly and sincerely pondering our navels with new records from Chris Bathgate, Lewis & Clarke and Jamie Barnes.

The former put on an intimate performance at the Cake Shop the other night, looping electric guitar with his quivering, almost Appalachian, voice. Tender and mysterious, the dude could be singing about WWIII or the extinction of whales or killing kittens but it'd still sound like a blissful night lakeside, spying on unicorns and making cakes over an open-air fire grill*.  With lines like "and I kissed your lips/with the safety off" from "A Flash of Light Followed By"^, featured on his latest album "A Cork Tale Wake," you'd be misguided to pass up a performance or purchase.

We already told you about Lewis & Clarke, but it's important to note this storytelling softie has a gorgeous new album "Blasts of Holy Birth" due this month, with three record release shows July 20-22 in Brooklyn, Scranton, Penn., and New Haven, Conn., respectively.

It took us a while to fall in love with his sophomore "Honey From the Ribcage," but when Jamie Barnes' music impacts you, you're paralyzed. The Louisville, Ky.-based singer/songwriter's new album "The Recalibrated Heart" is filled again with the folk and pop influences, with the heavily addictive theme "Conflict Diamond" leading the way. His lyrics are laced with thoughts on God, religion, struggle and love, with some fun fictions weaved in between. We saw him play to something like 10 people at the Living Room, his slight form straight, eyes closed tightly and his deft hands perfectly plucking some sacred songs... a touching performer.

* Is this possible? In Bathgate's world, sure.
^ Yes, this is the complete name