The Silos

Cuba, the 1987 masterwork from New York group the Silos, is thought by some to be the holy grail of the alt-country movement. Founder Walter Salas-Humera has kept some form of the band going for two decades. The newest effort, Come on Like the Fast Lane, is the band's best since Salas-Humera solidified the group as a trio in 2001. Sadly relegated to cult status, the discography of the Silos is well worth discovering. Efforts such as Susan Across the Ocean (1994) and Heater (1999) are potent, heady folk-rock, music of an uncompromising subtlety made years before Uncle Tupelo supposedly kick-started an entire genre of country music played with a punk sensibility.