Grinding guitars, choral ambience and screaming banjos – I love eclectic music

I'm a music snob – I admit it.

I hate on other people for listening to Pink and Britney Spears and Green Day (since "American Idiot"). I make fun of emo and screamo and any other "mo" that I come across.

I don't watch MTV, although MTV2 isn't out of the question. In my opinion, and I think many people will agree with me here, music is art. There are many different kinds of art, and each genre has its masters.

But bad art is bad art, a bad song is a bad song and I can tell a bad song when I hear it. Or rather, I can pluck a album or two out of the river of overproduced, market researched, sugar pop deluge of mediocrity that the music industry uses to over-saturate us with every year. But enough about my fickle musical tastes – here's some stuff I've been listening to lately:

- The Avett Brothers, "I and Love and You" EP – This grungegrass band from North Carolina is comprised of two brothers and a guy on the stand-up bass. The album dropped Sept. 29, and I've been listening to it everyday since.

They're a band that plays with their guts - and you can hear it. The lyrics are amazing but the vocals, the way the words are sung, really reach out and grab you. One of the best tracks is the title track, "I and Love and You," but my favorite is "Laundry Room." And there's a great live acoustic performance of both of songs on the "All Songs Considered" Web site on npr.org.

– The Dead Weather, "Horehound" – This is a fairly new alt-rock group, but they've got chops. It's made up of Jack White of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita and Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs.

Heavy on distortion, guitar and that gritty hard rock feel, they released their first album in July. Mosshart sounds like Janis Joplin back from the grave, and it's a bit spooky, but that just makes it cooler. My favorite track is "Hang You From the Heavens."

– Volcano Choir "Unmap" – This band is the latest project from Justin Vernon, the creative force behind the band Bon Iver (pronounced "Bon-ee vair", meaning "good winter" in French).

Bon Iver group that took the stage at this year's Sasquatch festival at the Gorge, along with some other really great acts. Last year, Vernon and Bon Iver put out one of the year's best albums, "For Emma, Forever Ago." Now he's teaming up with the indie band, Collection of Bees, to take another shot at the year's best lists for '09.

"Unmap" came out Sept. 22 and it's a very singular project for sure.

For the most part, it has a haunting choral sound and is mostly technical and layered ambient music, a style that keeps with the Collection of Bees sound. But the last two tracks, "Still" and "Youlogy" are reminiscent of "For Emma, Forever Ago," and just like that album, this is a CD that must be listened to as a whole. To be honest, "Unmap" won't be everyone's cup of tea, and I only really liked a few tracks, but I recommend everyone listen to "For Emma, Forever Ago" if you haven't already.