The "Ice Cream Man" a.k.a. Matt Allen is a dude who rolls around the country in an old van named Mitch giving away free ice cream. We caught up with him at O.H.W.O.W Gallery (Our House West of Wynwood) on NW 7th Ave and 32 Street during a Basel week party. There were several hundred people there and free booze, but the people could not deny their hunger for gumball eyed pink panthers, or a cool, refreshing chipwich . Allen is from Long Beach and for the last four years he's given away ice cream
Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category.
Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells more like the Kinks than Neil Young. [Editor's note: That's why we put it on our indie-rock list.] We likewise discarded Shearwater's near-masterpiece Rook, despite the fact that the albu