Before appearing in the 2006 movie Once with friend Marketa Irglova, Glen Hansard wasn’t too well known on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, though, his brilliance has slowly been making the rounds. Each month, it seems, I find out someone else I know has been exposed to Glen’s music, either through the film, or because they caught a video of him on YouTube.

I usually don’t make music recommendations, but if you enjoy folk rock at all, or just like listening to musicians who really know what the hell they’re doing, you owe it to yourself to check out Glen’s band The Frames.

The band hasn’t put out an album since before Once came out, and because of that, Hansard is now more associated with Irglova via their collaboration as The Swell Season.

But The Frames are equally good, if not better – especially live.  They’ll be together again in early September at Electric Picnic 2010, an Irish music festival. Their appearance has fans – like me – hoping beyond hope that they’ll be getting back into the studio again soon.

That’s all I really wanted to say today, but I wanted to leave you with the lyrics of my favorite of the band’s many incredible songs:
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