Dustin and the Furniture is one of my favorite musicians. Lyrically, (and this holds true for a surprising number of his songs) he manages to talk about a single person’s role in the universe in a way that is effective and useful, and to do it unpretentiously, with humor and candidness. Dustin can sing a song about myspace and have it not come across as lame:

Dustin can rap in a folk song and not seem like he’s making a joke about it:

But most importantly, Dustin can also write a good song without any of those gimmicks, and he’s done it over and over. I’ve never heard a Dustin and the Furniture song that I didn’t like. His live performances are flawless, with him taking the “bang on your guitar to keep the beat”-style playing to the next level, and his vocals are really unique for the kind of music he creates. Dancing on Nothing is a great introduction to some of Dustin’s best material, though a few of his more recent tracks really show off his abilities with percussion as well as guitar, vocals and lyrics, just to throw some icing on the proverbial cake. Here’s one more song, just because I can, and because I feel like I could pick any track off this album to impress someone: