Confetti

Rising up from the pumpkin patches of rural Michigan, guitarist/vocalist Dave Boutette's Confetti is an earthy, ten-song reason to take a long Sunday drive. Sparse, simple, and warm as a hung over August afternoon, each track is a showcase for the ex-Junk Monkey's clever wordplay, amiable melodies, and wry observations about everything from "Graduation Day" traffic to funeral singalongs ("Move Along"). Boutette's at his best when he puts his motor-mouth into high gear — the Buddy Holly-glockenspiel-meets-spitfire-Bob Dylan-splendor of "Casual Thing" would be worth it simply for the line "I got a bow tie/I got a tux with studs/Stand back girl I got Canadian blood/It cuts through ice and it cuts through mud" — and there's an honesty in his voice that's genuinely comforting; he finishes each line with an exclamation point that's confident without coming off as smug, putting him somewhere in between Alex Chilton and Elvis Costello. Boutette's a songwriter that relieves the Midwest of its tendency to spew forth an endless sea of singer/songwriter banality, replacing its tired clichés with protagonists that are as mischievous as they are heartfelt. Confetti follows you around the house like the last half of a bottle of good local wine; Its charms are rustic, bittersweet, and dangerous, and it will inevitably goad you into finishing it, despite the swift kick of the impending morning.