Pavement - "I Love Perth": "65 seconds of giddy, smart pop. Previously only on vinyl, this track finally sees the light on the new expanded edition of Wowee Zowee - and it's about time - it's easier to play over and over again without having to move the needle now!"
Kahimi Karie - "Good Morning World": "You can't possibly top a petite Japanese girl whispering/cooing a song about doing what you want and greeting the world head on - with the right makeup, of course - over a Beck-like pastiche of 60s pop and 90s sampling. Not to mention that this song was also svengali'd by two men - the dirty Scot who wrote it (Momus) and the Japanese producer (Cornelious) who made it sound good. It's the ultimate plastic version of 'I'm Every Woman' and it's commercial-ready!"
Robbers On High Street - "The Fatalist": "It continues to freak me out by just how much Robbers On High Street are - for a lack of a better way to put it - Spoon. If you told me this song (from a new ROHS online-only EP) came from Spoon's Gimme Fiction, I might buy it. This is in no way a dig at ROHS because I love Spoon and they do a decent job of being Spoon, especially with songs like this...but it's still just a little eerie."
The Aislers Set - "Catherine Says": "Welcome back from Turkey Day, y'all. I'm tired from all the driving, but trying to get back in the saddle. To help everyone wake up from their turkey-induced sleep, here's a cheery, girl group-style song that's allegedly about Aisler frontwoman Amy Linton's grandmother or aunt falling and dying alone in a subway station. Still, with the handclaps, you'd never think it was anything less than upbeat unless you gave good listen to the lyrics."
Rod Stewart - "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy": "As I think I've established by my posts about KISS' "Strutter `78" et al, I do kind of like disco rock. I prefer the guitars over the shimmering keys, but still the same driving four-on-the-floor beat. I also like songs with a third person narrative, which Rod employs with (little) taste here, sounding more like a steamy Danielle Steele scene than anything else...which is not to say that it's not fantastic. In fact, the whole song just sounds kind of...seedy. Oh, 70s Hedonist Rod, where have you gone? We miss you!
Almost as good: Mike Myers as an elderly Scottish dad with Coke-bottle glasses belting this tune out with bagpipe accompaniment in So I Married An Ax Murderer."
Robert Plant - "Tall Cool One": "This song rocks! I know I'm supposed to keep the Led Zep stuff on the top of the pedestal, but there's something really smooth and stylized about this track. Plant just sounds so bad-ass, even if there's some late 80s/early 90s rock gimickry to it...and he grabs - literally - from Zep tracks...but he gets away with it. Score!"
Whitey - "Leave Them All Behind": "After making its first appearance on the Making XXX soundtrack two years ago, this track finally sees a formal release. I first fell in love with this song when Cut Copy DJ'd this at SXSW last year, then finally found out who it was when I overheard my co-worker Esra playing the track one month later back in NYC. It's a great slice of energetic rock melded with pulsing keyboards and echoing shoegazer-type vocals, all over a driving beat."
Versus - "Blade of Grass": "It's sad that this song has almost 45 seconds of intro that's practically inaudible, because it's what keeps people from discovering the great song behind it. When they kick into the 'ooo's in harmony with the guitars, it's a rush - both beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time."
P.J. Harvey - "Wang Dang Doodle" (Peel Session): "This is raw and rockin' P.J. Harvey at her best. P.J. wails, growls and riffs while drummer Rob Ellis ads in percussive touches and scary falsetto shrieks, while still doing justice to this Howlin' Wolf original. You hear a touch of British when she yells out 'All Night Long!' but it just puts her fingerprint on the tune."
Buzzcocks - "Ever Fallen In Love?": "All hail to the original! Pete Yorn may have decimated it and the Fine Young Cannibals did an interesting (if dry) version, but it would be hard to top such amazing punky brilliance (not to be confused with Punky Brewster). Like pop on speed!"
Danger Doom - "A.T.H.F. (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)": "You have to love a song about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force...who I love all the more after last week's new episode - 'Hand Banana.' I would love to describe it, but I don't want to ruin it. Suffice it to say that it might be the best 10 minutes of television that I've seen in months. Trust me, find it somehow...online, as a repeat on Cartoon Network, when it comes out on DVD...I don't care, just find it.
Hand Banana: 'Tonight...you."'
Blondie - "War Child" (Extended Mix): "I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Blondie's 'last' album (pre-hiatus, anyway) The Hunter is a great album. Nor would I say that it's up there with most of their previous work. However, I think this album is a fascinating portrait of a splintered band trying out new and different directions as it falls apart. The songs on this album are stranger and darker than ever before and - 'Island of Lost Souls' aside (a clear, sad grab at 'The Tide Is High II') - not deserving the drubbing that it usually gets. I would even argue that it is a more consistant listen than its predecessor, Autoamerican. This particular track, 'War Child' (here in an extended version) is full of menace, with a cool sharpness not heard from Debbie Harry since 'Youth Nabbed By Sniper' (from their 2nd record). If you think 'Rapture' is the end of the line for this band, give this a listen."
Throwing Muses - "Limbo": "A twisted, amazing Muses song, but one I always wish I could tweak a little. The drum/percussion track and the bassline have this amazing groove that really propel the song - but when the jangle-fuzz guitar lead comes in, it kind of overtakes the groove - and that's what I would tune down in the mix. Still, about half-way into the song, when singer Kristin Hersh intones 'Daddy's next door...Daddy's next door...' with just the drum part and the snakecharmer backwards guitar, you do kind of feel like you're being put under a spell."
Deftones - "Cherry Waves": "As one of my coworkers just said, walking past my desk: 'What is this? It almost sounds like a heavy shoegaze band?' And yet - surprise! - it's the Deftones. This song is not actually that different than some of their previous droning-yet-rock explorations (i.e. 'Minerva'), but is now somehow prettier and spacier than how they've done it before. Maybe we can call it dirge-shoegaze..."
Marilyn Manson - "New Model #15": "With today being Halloween, it seems like all the music-related features put Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson front and center. Instead of joining in on the 'Marilyn is spooky!' movement, I'd rather highlight one of my favorite MM songs from his underrated modern Glam opus, Mechanical Animals. With 'New Model #15,' Marilyn forgets the evil inside and prepares himself to be processed and reproduced for the masses, complete with handclaps and T. Rex swagger."
Stars - "Ageless Beauty": "The whole song is carried by the lush female vocals (even with the hint of Stars' male singer Torquil singing in higher register), but when the vocals start cascading over each other in the chorus, it sounds just like heaven."
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - "Our Hell": "I never thought I'd like to hear Metric stripped down to its core, but after hearing some Metric tracks acoustic earlier this year, I realized the songs still held up without the synths. Now Metric frontwoman Emily Haines steps out on her own to present more songs in this low-key vein. Her Metric bravado toned down and replaced with a certain fragility, these songs engage with piano and whispers, but make no less of an impression."
Beck - "We Dance Alone": "It's Beck's usual twisted take on 80s funk, but there's something darker to this track than his previous forays in this direction. I'm not sure if it's his near-mumbled rap or the dark atmospherics that creep in during the last third of the song, but there's definitely a creepy mood in with the funk."
Olivia Newton-John - "Physical": "Xanadu was on TV the other day, somehow, and it made me think 'wow, this movie killed the career of everyone in it...and Gene Kelly!' And I thought it was true until I realized that Xanadu pre-dated the mega-hit of 'Physical'...that ONJ had persevered...despite the fact that I swear she's singing "let's get into physical" in this song. WHAT??? Uh...anyway...enjoy, if you will, ONJ's tribute to bangin' and think of her in the video, showering vigorously with all her clothes on..."
White Zombie - "Thunder Kiss '65":
"'I don't try anything, I just do it...wanna try me?'
This song not only samples from classic Russ Meyer (Faster Pussycat Kill Kill), but it's also one of my favorite songs to play on Guitar Hero, which is quite possibly the best video game ever made. It's kind of like Dance Dance Revolution, but with a guitar control - including a whammy bar - instead of a normal controller, plus awesome rock songs to play along with, such as this one. I never cared that much about video games until this one and now I am obsessed with it. I can't wait for GH2, out next month, which apparently includes 'Strutter' by KISS. Strutter!"
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