One of The Curious Mystery’s brand-spankin’ new press photosThe Curious Mystery is, hands down, my favorite emerging band in Seattle right now. Like a languid, more mournful Black Mountain, their heady psychedelia sounds like messy garage cacophony and country western fucking on acid. Frontwoman Shana Cleveland’s plush voice is sex incarnate. I’ve been waiting for their K Records debut to come out for, oh, months (at first, it was supposed to come out in January, and then it got pushed back to May, much to my disappointment). And now it’s here, soothing my desert soul with tambourines that shake like rattlesnakes and guitars that howl like coyotes. While there are consistency issues that suggest the band’s still feeling out its sound, there are only one or two songs I’m just not into, and the process of defining that sound is intoxicating enough to keep me sated. The album does not come out until May 19 (sob), but don’t worry– I’ll remind you. Until then, you can hear three songs from Rotting Slowly on MySpace, or see the band play the Comet Tavern March 13 with Strix Vega and Contraband Countryband.