J. Graves' "Marathon"

This arrived unannounced on my doorstep a few days ago. Opening the package, I was surprised to see what was unmistakably a chest X-ray (I was a full-time health care consumer for a few months last year). "This record is my heart and everything inside of me," the artist wrote on the enclosed postcard, adding, "I'm just getting started." Indeed!

J. Graves is the performing persona of Portland based singer-guitarist-songwriter Jessa Graves. On Marathon, her first full-length, she chops out churning, chugging post-punk chords on a high-slung Telecaster, shadowed every step of the way by an agile rhythm section that can stop on a dime when the song's dynamics demand it, declaiming her febrile bulletins from the relationship wars in a clear, untutored voice that rings with passion and power. The sound is aggressive minimalism at its best, and the recording serves it well, capturing the band's fury while keeping Graves' voice above the fray. Marathon's a record you'll (sorry) want to go the distance with.