You and Me

Album Review

Landon Hedges is best known outside of the Omaha indie rock scene as the bassist in Conor Oberst's rocking side project Desaparecidos and in Tim Kasher's gentler Cursive spin-off the Good Life, but like seemingly everyone else in that fertile scene, he's got his own albums to do. Little Brazil is a quartet with Hedges on guitar and vocals, plus bassist Dan Maxwell, second guitarist Austin Britton and drummer Corey Broman, all fellow members of the second tier of Omaha indie notables. The obvious parallel is Sebadoh, but unlike Lou Barlow, Hedges has both a fairly bright lyrical and musical outlook and a knack for catchy indie pop tunes. The brief You and Me showcases both aspects, most notably in the jaunty sunshine pop (complete with acoustic guitars and handclaps) of the title track and the Apples in Stereo-meets-Pavement drive of the exceedingly catchy album high point, "Pointing Fingers." Hedges is perhaps a little anonymous as a singer, with a better than average but not particularly distinct voice, but his songwriting smarts are enough to pull You and Me through, and promise even better to come.