Jude - "King of Yesterday": "Glistening adult pop in the vein of Michael Penn or edgier Duncan Sheik, with (what should have been) crunchy radio-ready goodness, but it just wound up passing people by. Jude's multi-tracked vocals are especially nice."
Nada Surf - "Amateur": "Sweet and sad - but uptempo - indie rock from the 'lost' Nada Surf album - totally worth discovering."
Art of Noise - "Close (To The Edit)": "Nearly wordless pop songs are pretty clever in their own way, but it's hard for me to hear this song without thinking of its' video, particularly with the little girl diva and the chainsawing of the piano."
Red Aunts - "Detroit Valentine": "YES!!!! I am so excited to get this into Rhapsody. This song captured my attention many a year ago (somewhere in the mid-90s) with its aggressive manhunting lyrics and dangerously exuberant thrashing. Watch out for these girls, they're gonna cut you if you stand still and shoot you if you ruuuuuuuuuuun!"
Right Said Fred - "I'm Too Sexy": "I'm too sexy for your party, no way I'm disco dancing!"
Yelle - "A Cause Des Garcons": "It's kind of French electroclash, but I just love the part where she starts rapping about...er, it's in French, so I'm not sure, but I think about magazines and Marie Claire. Maybe it's the French version of "Lip Gloss", but someone's gonna have to translate it for me to be sure."
N.E.R.D. - "Run To The Sun": "A nice, mellow groove to close out the week. It's Friday, y'all!"
Kreidler- "Au-Pair": "I think yesterday's post reminded me of a more jaunty version of songs like this."
Joakim & The Disco - "A New Career In A New Town": "Bowie covers usually don't work because you just can't do better than Bowie and very few can even be as good. Here, you're dealing with a Bowie instrumental to start with, so you don't have to measure up to Bowie's vocals or delivery, making this playful and fun take on the track interesting in its own right. (Maybe I'm off base, but it makes me think a bit about Kreidler too.)"
Refrigerator - "Home Run Kings": "I wound up skimming the Revolver Distribution site for the first time in a while today and I stumbled back on this EP. When I did music distribution in L.A. in the 90s, I called on Dennis Callaci as the manager of Clairmont's Rhino Records and later learned he was in Refrigerator (he sings lead vocals on this track). The song seems like a hodge-podge of guitars, vocals and drums from other songs that were assembled into a new song, but one that still works - making something that jells together completely while still feeling strangely (pleasantly) off-kilter."
The Pointer Sisters - "He Turned Me Out": "This is the theme to Action Jackson with Carl Weathers and Vanity (!), so you know this song is quality. For being sisters, the lyrics suggest some fairly dirty stuff - but you could be easily be distracted from that by the 'new' sampling technology of the time: 't-t-t-t-t-turned me out!' Amazing."
Hercules And Love Affair - "Hercules Theme": "This is a pretty straight-forward disco tune - requisite strings and bass line are both in place - but the song still has a great slow burn groove and the strings/horn interplay is well-crafted. Is it 2008 or 1978? It's so good that it doesn't matter."
Underworld - "Jumbo": "Underworld plays this track cool enough to mask the flickering pulse running just under the surface, providing a track that's both laid back and energetic at the same time."
Jeremy Jay - "Airwalker": "I caught a part of Jeremy's set at SXSW and just realized I had never made him part of my SXSW `08 coverage. This song is one of my highlights from him - the vocals are a tad understated but the music sounds like a great 70s roller-skating groove."
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SXSW 2008 Recap
Ex-Boyfriends - "The Sound of Your Music": "The backing vocal 'oh-owoah-ho's are completely narcotic, while the guitars recall a blend of first-rate 90s indie rock, the kind that is simultaneously melancholy and exuberant - the drums in the chorus particularly supporting the latter."
The Lovin' Spoonful - "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice": "The song is kind of dopey, but the lead guitar part melody is the real star of the song - and its backbone as well."
Marianne Faithfull - "Sex With Strangers": "Beck sexes up Marianne Faithfull with a full Midnight Vultures makeover. She's all proper-sounding spoken word, but it still sounds like a slinky runway walk-off, punctuated by 'aaah's - probably by Beck - and dirty, burbling synths."
Franz Ferdinand - "The Fallen (Ruined By Justice)": "I don't know that I actually like this remix, but I do applaud how Justice totally re-invented this song in a way where the original elements can still be recognized without sounding at all like they did in the original version."
ZZ Top - "Rough Boy": "I know it makes the songs cheesier, but I love the synth-era ZZ Top tunes - even this 'sensitive' ZZ number. It's also probably because I have fond memories of its 'car wash in space' video, which is cooler than it sounds (but probably not nearly as cool as I remember it). They somehow found a way to get the ZZ Top car, girls, sci-fi elements, girls, searing guitar work, girls and Dusty all in one video and there's a certain magic in that combination."
The Kills - "U.R.A Fever": "I didn't like this track at first, but it's since grown on me. The minimalist programming of the initial verses still throws me off a little, but the stomping chorus, followed up by guitar stabs, is a great blend of dirtiness and crispness."
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