Your Humble Music Director* is a sad but conflicted panda this week. On the one hand, some underappreciated artists got some love, but it came, apparently, at the cost of some deserving ones. The big loss this week was that of Del & Tame One, which netted as many plays as Brett Favre has netted interceptions this year (which is to say: some, but far, far fewer than expected). Rain Machine also took a precipitous fall in this week’s charts, dropping to 28 after some strong, strong showings in previous weeks. I am sure both of these records will reclaim at least some of their former glory going forward.

On the upside, Boat splashed in this week, taking the number 6 spot firmly in its quirky grasp. “Setting the Paces” is another CD I would add to the list of delightful surprises for me personally this year (a list topped by We Were Promised Jetpacks from over the summer). Shonen Knife can count itself among the lucky ones this week as well, getting more play than it had in any week so far, just in time for it to make its way out of our New Music Rotation. At least it got a good send-off.

Other notes:

Devendra Banhart broke in this week at number 9, and I’ve been assured by our local bearded Oracle (James) that we might well see it stick up there.

Props as well to Mason Jennings’ latest, “Blood of Man” as it rocketed up to number 2. It’s finished it’s run in rotation, but still nice to see a local artist doing well. In a related note, Brother Ali dropped this week, but is still there at #29.

And, personally, I’d like to recognize CoCoComa who gained big from the odd week in the charts to hit #10. “Things Are Not All Right” was another of those nice surprises mentioned above for me, even if it is a little samey.

And another thing. Once you go into that chart, the weather never changes. It is always 67 degrees with a 40% chance of rain.

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*To be clear, I actually find this title (self-assumed) to be ironic, since attributing oneself with a “formal” title strikes me as an action that is far from humble. Just wanted to acknowledge that in case you were thinking along the same lines.