Fischerspooner - "In A Modern World": "I was originally going to post that, despite coming from a somewhat milquetoast record, this track has a subtle charm - but then I noticed, in the spoken word interlude, that the female narrator says "call everyone you know / text everyone you know". Text?? Why not tell folks to get a ringtone? I just hate unecessary cell phone references in songs and I wished they had left it out."
Grand Duchy - "Seeing Stars": "I get a little skeeved out when famous musicians put out records with their significant others, especially when the significant others are not as well known. While I had this trepidation about Grand Duchy, featuring Pixies' Frank Black/Black Francis and Mrs. Black/Francis (Violet Clark), it defies those concerns, even if it's still easier to evaluate this on its own merit when you forget about who the dude is in this band."
Michael Jackson - "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)": "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be feeling, after his passing. I love songs like this, but it's hard to reconcile that Off The Wall/Thriller magic with his latter works, if not his personal activities since then as well. No matter what you think, it's hard not to agree that something so right went wrong, somewhere along the way."
Swell - "Song Seven": "The elements of this song are rather simple, allowing something subtle like additional electric guitar in the last section of the song to be powerful, despite its otherwise minimalist addition. The drum part during the (wordless) chorus has always been a favorite of mine, even if it too is a simple part."
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - "The Pains of Being Pure at Heart": "From Slumberland, the label that brought you the Aislers Set and Velocity Girl...
This is the song where The Pains of Being Pure At Heart hit that Jesus & Mary Chain, that Vaselines, that twee-pop-but-rockin' sweet spot that all the reviewers anoint them with generally. This is the song where it really all happens - and it's already named after them. (Imagine if they had actually put this self-titled song on their self-titled album...)
I also meant to include them in my SXSW `09 recap. So, better late than never:
It took a while for them to really amp up (no wonder, since they were playing a million shows down there) but once they hit a groove, it was good, sweet-n-buzzy fun, as one would expect from their record."
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SXSW 2009 Recap
Wire - "Map Ref 41 Degrees N 93 Degrees W": ""I'm not sure if they're singing about map-as-metaphor or map as, well, map. It's Wire, so it could be either. Here (on 154), they're only two albums out from their debut, yet they've already morphed their angular rock away from visceral punk and towards a more detached artiness, but without abandoning their stumbled-into melodies."
The Walkmen - "In The New Year": "I'm a little surprised that it took me so long to come around to this song. It's got a off-kilter retro-garage vibe much like that of the Rock*A*Teens (as well as the similar, if more centered, sound of Cut Off Your Hands), but it didn't really take with me until more recently. Then again, it always seems to take me a while to get into Walkmen and Rock*A*Teens songs because I have to get over the rough edges, which often become the parts I love the most."
Adam Franklin - "Surge": "Swervedriver frontman Adam Franklin rolls out some tasty solo work on his record Spent Bullets, which kicks off with this track. Despite being relatively mellow with acoustic guitar fairly prominent in the mix, there's still some classic Swerv-y elements, like the energetic-yet-melancholy melodies, without being derivative of that past work."
Pitbull - "Hotel Room Service": "This song is obnoxiously catchy. I'd quote you some of my favorite lyrics, but I try to keep this a family blog."
The Horrors - "Scarlet Fields": "Last time around, The Horrors were a goth-punk band that didn't really float my boat. Now they've apparently moved on to a more nuanced sound with elements of shoegaze and British new wave. Needless to say, I like them much better now, but particularly the keyboard lead in this song."
New Order - "Love Vigilantes": "I recently heard this song when I was going through airport security, which was kind of cool, but a little disconcerting too. Hearing songs that are arguably about death when you're going through metal detectors is kind of odd."
Casiokids - "Fot I hose": "Short and wordless, this song is pretension-free dance rock that somehow simultaneously sounds both exactly like you would expect from that description and yet constantly surprising."
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