When was the last time you were told stories while you slowly drifted off to sleep? Well last night I was. More accurately I was sung stories as I drifted off to sleep by a gifted lyricist by the name of Israel Nebeker.

I was given this album a few days ago, and I have spent quite a bit of the time since shooting in the studio going over it like I would a favorite book, reading it from cover to cover or rather listening from beginning to end and then repeating a good number of times trying to take it all in.

This duo is a sneak-up surprise that you can be sure will be stuck in my iPhone for a great time to come, and you can be sure they will be getting more and more play from the masses as it seems that they have become one of the new golden boy duos of the North West.

Of late I have thought that I was hitting critical mass when it comes to indie pop artists popping up out of the wood work, cloning or simply expanding on the sounds of other great Portland bands like the Shins or Death Cab for Cutie. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't in a place where I was going to hang up the genre or anything, but I was about to simply sit with what I already have in my collection and wait for something NEW to come down the pipe. My wait wasn't long though. A fine person by the name of Alex has been slipping me albums from great new Portland bands to give a listen to and share my thoughts about, and for introducing me to Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski's familiar yet unique creations, Alex will always be a friend of the site.

In general the album is driven by the strumming, plucking, friendly playing of Israel's guitar and the sometimes brushed and other times tightly tapped drumming of Ryan Dobrowski. These two have taken their music to a rare place where the instrumentals help tell just as much of the story as the lyrics. A good example would be the drum's almost steam engine like swish and chug in the beginning of the song The Story I Heard where JoJo is jumping that Utah train. Let's not forget the accompaniment in other songs where you hear all sorts of instruments come walking forth to make this album just that much more exciting. To get a real sense of this, check out this video the two recorded in Astoria where the band's numbers swell to a seven piece, sporting Israel and Ryan (of course), three violinists, a xylophone and cello. The variety in sound provided by the rotating cast of instruments lends to my excitement over this album.

My final thoughts. After listening to this album and doing some reading about the pair, I can't help but want to go for a good long bike ride with these guys and share in the adventures that helped create their wonderful new album. I bet there would be some amazing photographs to be taken along the way.

It's getting late in these parts, and I think I am going to head on to bed, but before you do the same head on over to Blind Pilot's website and get a copy of 3 Rounds And A Sound. This is an album I can't recommend nearly enough.

Jake has absolutely no choice but to give Blind Pilot's 3 Rounds And A Sound 5 Bacon Maple Bars.