Santa Fe's Red Letter Records has released its first compilation CD and will celebrate that fact by hosting a party at Warehouse 21 (1614 Paseo de Peralta). Bands performing include oneDOWN, The Hollis Wake, Raine Vivian, Enigmatik and Brian Botkiller, all of whom are featured on the disc. Admission is $1, or $5 for admission and a copy of the CD. The release contains 19 tracks by mostly northern New Mexico bands representing about every rock genre imaginable. Find more information at www.redletterrecords.org. ... In other local CD news, newly formed bluegrass troupe Raising Cane have released their debut, and The Foxx have added three tracks to their 2003 EP, dropped some dough on cover art and released a proper album. Look for both at local-music friendly record stores all over town. ... On a sad note, Club Rhythm & Blues will close—by all indications for good—on Monday, Jan. 31. The Nob Hill establishment has been a haven for local blues and roots musicians for the past seven years and has hosted its share of national touring acts as well. Club manager and local blues legend John Patrick Nieto cites a sputtering economy as the main reason behind the closure. It's a sad ending to yet another chapter of Albuquerque's music history. ... On a painful note, Black Maria bassist Brian Banks slipped and fell last week, breaking Gordon Andersen's pen ... no, wait ... he broke his own tibia in three places. He's scheduled to spend this week hopped up on morphine while getting to know the three screws and metal plate that have a new home in his leg.

Since extinguishing his Bowl of Fire, Andrew Bird has come on strong as a viciously talented singer-songwriter or the Randy Newman stripe. The Mysterious Production of Eggs comes two years after Bird's debut solo outing, Weather Systems, confounded Bowl of Fire fans and won Bird an entire cache of new ones. According to Bird, the new album was scrapped three times and re-recorded in as many different studios. But whether he's just a perfectionist or a pretentious, obsessed manic-depressive, the guy has made an incredible record—the best of his career.