Unknown pleasures

Incredibly, I came across something of real substance on MTV2 the other night. The programme, buried deep in the early hours of the morning, was called 'This Is Our Music: Chicago'. It featured interviews with the likes of Low, Rope, Sam Prekop of The Sea And Cake / Tortoise, Bettina Richards of Thrill Jockey and the founding fathers of the Kranky label, and music from Low, Rope (VERY out-there stuff indeed), The Sea And Cake, The Lonesome Organist and Bobby Conn.

Two things struck me in particular while watching the programme:

1. Is it not fair to say that Scissor Sisters aren't doing anything that Bobby Conn wasn't doing a few years ago? His latest LP The Homeland is (I gather) surprisingly quite overtly political, so he's managed to stay out of sync with (or ahead of) the zeitgeist - just as he'd want, I imagine. I saw him headline the smallest tent at Leeds two years ago, when, like an underappreciated intruder in the midst of the whole garage rock thing, he confused and delighted a pitifully small crowd with bizarre glam pop songs from his last album The Golden Age. Extra points scored for calling his backing band The Glass Gypsies too.

2. Having never heard The Sea And Cake before, I was mightily impressed with their cover of Bowie's 'Sound + Vision' (see: Feel good hits...). Does anyone know which album / EP does this appear on? And what of theirs should I try to check out first?