David Bowie - "Let's Dance": "I did this song for karaoke last night at my friend Courtney's birthday party. She thought I did a good job with it, but I wanted to go back and listen to the original to hear how it's really done!"
Ex-Boyfriends - "Private D": "This song reminds me of everything I loved about indie rock in the 90s. Not unlike the-dear-to-my-heart Superchunk, this song is melodic, it rocks - and dammit, when they harmonize with all their lungs while singing "...like a private detective!" in the chorus, I challenge you not to sing along with them. Hell, once you know it, you'll sing along with the whole chorus. It's like pop music wrapped in crunchy rock and filled with heart."
M83 - "Couleurs": "I first heard this song two months ago and I'm still obsessed with it now. PLAY IT! PLAY IT! PLAY IT!"
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - "Falling Slowly" - "This song won the Oscar last night for Best Song and I couldn't be happier. It's a beautiful and heartfelt tune that was far less calculated than its competition in that catagory, yet far more emotional. I only hope that a whole new audience will discover it now."
Killing Joke - "Love Like Blood": "This awesomely Goth-ish (Goth-esque? Avant-goth?) Brit-rock number shows just one of Killing Jokes' many faces, proving themselves here both dark and danceable."
Pino Donaggio - "Body Double (from Body Double)": "I watched Body Double the other week for the first time, while I was home sick. It had its moments, despite being a pretty brain-dead take on Vertigo and other Hitchcock, but this 'song' from the score stayed with me. This is the tune they play every time the male lead watches a mystery woman do a private dance - through his telescope. The synths are pretty 80s Euro-cheese - as are the breathy female vocals - but it's catchy anyway."
Jane Wiedlin & Sparks - "Cool Places": "Jane Wiedlin and Sparks' Russell Mael's low-key interplay makes them sounds like dorks trying to party...but that still makes them cool, doesn't it? New wave gold."
The Posies - "Coming Right Along": "I'm not really familiar with the Posies, but Rhapsody put this song in my (user-responsive) Personal Playlist and I was immediately fascinated by the dirge-like, ominous tune. There's something about the minimal presentation that plays up the dark, eerie qualities of the instrumentation. Heavy."
The B-52's - "Mesopotamia": "A warped history lesson featuring Fred Schneider, the B-52s walked like an Egyptian before the Bangles did, complete with the Kate/Cindy vocal harmonies that made their songs so glorious."
Beck - "Deadweight": "Lazy insects buzzing over South-of-the-border swaying winds up sliding down backwards behind sticky falsetto and fumbling Hammond organ fingerings. A great Beck tune that you can really get lost in."
Tsunami - "In A Name": "Wow, I haven't heard this song in so long. This is from the time that my best friend was turning me onto all this indie rock and noise pop, a lot of it female-fronted bands anywhere from Belly to The Frumpies. Tsunami was part of this group and it wasn't long before I was ordering 'how-to' guides on starting a record label from their label, Simple Machines. (Not that I started one, in the end...)"
The Whigs - "Like A Vibration": "We premiered this song - in an exclusive, live Rhapsody Originals version - several months ago. Now we're premiering the studio version on their new album, Mission Control. The good news is that, even when they took the song into the studio, it still rocks hard."
Guns N' Roses - "You Could Be Mine": "This song always makes me think of T2 and: "'You could be miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeee!!!!' Oh, Axl, what happened?"
The Bee Gees - "Nights On Broadway": "This one's for Stephanie. I can see why she likes this tune!"
Kent-"Elvis": "Fabulous Britrock, a la Buffseeds or darker Travis (think 'Re-Offender') - except that these lads are Swedish! Sadly, they didn't hit U.S. gold, so Americans never got to hear Hagnesta Hill - their next, and even better record, which only came out in Europe."
Kaiser Chiefs - "Everything Is Average Nowadays": "Depends on how you define average, no? I'll take this song as tongue-in-cheek and vote it definitely above-average!"
Isaac Hayes - "Run Fay Run": "Speaking of Isaac Hayes, here's a great Hayes instrumental number - all jittering with percussion, while an electric guitar machine guns peppers the track...and then the horns and strings kick in. Funky and tasty."
Hooverphonic - "2Wicky": "Remember when trip-hop was the big new thing? For those of you who don't, it was largely UK-based artists conjuring smokey atmospheres over sparse beats, usually with an altered soul sample somewhere in the mix. I realize this is a pretty rough distillation of the genre, but I think this track is still a great example of that concept, with the killer mood to match.
Oh - to the point of the soul sample, a huge chunk of this track comes from Isaac Hayes' cover of 'Walk On By'."
The PeeChees - "I Could Have Loved You": "Raucous, energetic and lightly abrasive - I dare you not to thrash and pogo to this rocker. Its brutal simplicity is part of its charms, especially with lyrics like 'I could have loved you / but you, but you / DON'T! LIKE! ME!' You could take the second to realize it's a song of unrequited love, but you should be too busy burning down the barn to notice."
Dinosaur Jr - "Goin' Home": "The softer side of Dinosaur Jr. I revisited this record over the holidays and I remembered how much I like it, but also realized how scary it is that it's now been 15 years (!) since it came out."
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