It’s been awhile since I did a covers series, but we’re going to do it differently this time. Namely, more bite-sized.*
1. Solid Gold – Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins) – A slick update of a classic dude song. Less homoeroticism, more hot flight instructors. (One can hope.) [from Synchronize|buy]
2. Cee Lo Green – No One’s Gonna Love You (Band of Horses) – I’m not sure why Cee Lo decided to cover this, but it turned out pretty nicely. He could sing my grocery list and sound good, but who knew Band of Horses had soul? [from The Lady Killer|buy]
3. The Forms – We Didn’t Start the Fire (Billy Joel) – Jingle jangle of unorthodoxy. Like the song was split in three, spun at different speeds, volumes jacked, and re-joined akilter. New gold. [I've mentioned them before.] [from Guilt By Association V.2|buy]
4. Ernie Halter – Black Coffee In Bed (Squeeze) – The beautiful melody inherent in the original is spotlighted perfectly here, slowed down and allowed to live free. This guy has some serious vocal chops, of which I am quite jealous. [from Franklin & Vermont|buy]
Archive for the ‘Listening Assignments’ Category
Mini-Blankets v.4
In covers, Listening Assignments on January 17, 2011 at 12:23 pmListening Assignments 1.12.11
In Listening Assignments, Uncategorized on January 12, 2011 at 2:41 pm
1. The Dirty Diamonds – Where Are the Words? – What is this, 1989? New, old, odd, even. Sounds like old birthday candy, saved for just the proper occasion. [from Monster Ballads EP|free!]
2. Greg MacPherson – Visitor – This slow-burner closes Greg’s album of broken dreams and open roads. A song of contemplation, hypnotism by white lines, red brake lights smeared through rain-spackled windglass. Maybe the most important thing about the destination is the journey. [from Mr. Invitation|buy on iTunes or Amazon]
3. Yoyoyo Acapulco – Strange Word Desire – Something is amiss here. Something has gone seriously awry. I’ve taken the wrong path through the woods and ended up in a technicolor clearing. There’s a squirrel playing a ukulele with his eyes closed. He’s singing about Sonny and Cher. A purple deer is playing kazoo. The scene is blurred, as if witnessed through a brutal heat swell. Through the glare, I see the squirrel transform into Chris Isaac and the deer change into Helena Christianson. I wake up, sweating. [from The Pleumeleuc Experience|buy]
4. The Tallest Man on Earth – Pistol Dreams – Somewhere between the melodic pickings of Iron and Wine and Cat Stevens lies Swede Kristian Matsson, the Tallest Man on Earth. Makes me yearn for new classics like The Graduate and Harold and Maude, if only for the soundtrack Matsson could provide. [from Shallow Grave|buy]
Listening Assignments 1.23.2010
In Listening Assignments on January 3, 2011 at 10:51 am
1. Wye Oak – My Neighbor – This song is like going through a jangly car wash of guitars, being soaked in riffage and the gleeful splashing of cymbals, and emerging sweaty and satisfied. [from My Neighbor/My Creator EP|buy]
2. Jonsi – Boy Lillikoi – Light-blades flashing, sunlight stabbing, sunblood spilling, fiery rebirth from pools of molten mercury. [from Go|buy]
3. Panda Bear – Slow Motion – Slow Motion? More like stop motion. More like snapshots, snapped milliseconds apart, snapped back together with snapped finger buttons. A shot-snapping, lurching, horizontal escalator. You’re traveling without moving, pulled in three directions by warped piano strings. [from Tomboy 7''|buy]
4. The Dears – Omega Dog – Piquing my interest in the new Dears’ record coming out in February is this little ditty. At first tight and smart, a little Prince funky, eventually developing into a darker and grittier, desolate urban wasteland-type track. Reminds me a bit of one of my favorite records of all time Radiohead’s OK Computer, complete with clashing feedback at the back end. [from Degeneration Street (out 2.14)|pre-order]
Listening Assignments 2.16.10
In Listening Assignments on February 16, 2010 at 1:04 pmIt’s better to be late than dead and gone…
1. My Luminaries – A Little Declaration – Heaviness. Lightness. Guitars. Footstomping. Power. Pop. Chorus. Late ’90s nostalgia. Stuck. Happy. [from Order from the Chaos|buy]
2. the Script – Breakeven – John Mayer tweeted about this track a few weeks ago and prompted me to scour my music collection in order to refresh my memory. This song should have been huge in 2008. Still could be in 2010. Tell someone. [from The Script|buy]
3. Fyfe Dangerfield – When You Walk Into the Room – When this precocious gentleman took a break from singing for Brit blog-faves Guillemots to write and record his first solo album, no one expected it to immediately top the band’s last effort. But with the first gleeful kick-and-piano-filled 20 seconds, Fyfe Dangerfield the solo artist was born fully formed. [from Fly Yellow Moon|buy]
4. Yamon Yamon – Alonso – Press play. Bask in the warmth. Quick, guess where Yamon Yamon are from? … Take your time… Who guessed Sweden? Somehow, this fearsome foursome has spun together a lush and beautiful album with strands of thread performers like Elliott Smith, Vampire Weekend, and Illinois-area indies like American Football left by the wayside. Unexpected, to say the least. [from This Wilderlessness|buy]
Listening Assignments 11.10.09
In Listening Assignments on November 10, 2009 at 10:31 am
1. The Elephants – Take It! – Exhuberantly encouraging, beautifully constructed, and abruptly ended. There’s a pie in the sky and it’s yours if you want it. Take it! [from Take It!|buy]
2. Jookabox – You Cried Me – It’s important you know that we are going to dance naked around a fire and howl at the moon. This is a fact. [from Dead Zone Boys|buy]
3. Decibully – Prom Jam – It’s a shame when bands this good get dropped from awesome labels like Polyvinyl and even worse when albums this good (and anticipated) get shelved for well over a year [read about it @ the Onion AV Club]. This is masterfully paced, a lullaby-into-crescendo, a young love’s swansong. [from World Travels Fast (out TBA)|myspace]
4. Will Stratton – Vermont – I’d be a lot more upset about this sounding too much like Red House Painters if it weren’t so damned good. A really enjoyable little EP, raw and echoed and radiant. [from Vile Bodies EP|free download|No Wonder LP|buy]
REPOST: Listening Assignments 10.16.09*
In Listening Assignments on October 25, 2009 at 10:42 am
1. Devendra Banhart – Goin’ Back – A cursory search reveals “Baby” to be currently everywhere on the blogosphere, for good reason: it’s one of the year’s best. It shocked me when Banhart signed with Warner Bros. and I wondered how he would make a commercially successful record…consider me silenced. He’s damn near Jackson Browne-meets-John Denver on “Goin’ Back” and these two tracks find him staying true to his loose-freak-folk sound, but with an melodies irresistible to any human ear. [from What Will We Be (out 10.27)|pre-order]
2. Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land – Love this band. Like the song. It’s the first studio track we’ve heard since their amazing LP The Midnight Organ Fight (2008), so I’m willing to give some room. There’s more patience here than I’m used to with them, the edges slightly less dog-eared, but the lyrics as cutting as ever. “Let’s call me a baptist/call this the drowning of the past/she’s there on the shoreline/throwing stones at my back.” [buy the Midnight Organ Fight]
3. Vega – Well Known Pleasures – With a name like Vega, you’d better be a synth-pop outfit or a street-fighter-theme-song cover band. Thankfully, this band is the former. With Alan Palomo (of Ghosthustler and Neon Indian) at the controls, Vega has evolved into the musical manifestation of a Grand Prix arcade game, the center lines of the road whistling by in a white blur. [from Well Known Pleasures EP|myspace]
4. Local Natives – World News – This song fills me with feelgood. If I saw them live, during this song I wouldn’t even watch the band. I’d watch the faces in the crowd, smiling. I’d watch the toes of the people around me, tapping. I’d listen for the collective sigh of two hundred hearts, finally content. [from Gorilla Manor (out 11.3)|pre-order]
*hosting issues seemingly resolved.
Listening Assignments 9.28.09
In Listening Assignments on September 28, 2009 at 3:42 pm
1. The Dodos – Fables – After getting a ton of buzz with their spoons-on-faucets debut Visiter, this SanFran trio is back in a more refined way. It sounds professionally recorded (gasp!), tighter, clearer. It’s less hairy. I like it. [from Time to Die|buy]
2. Chromeo – I Can’t Tell You Why (The Eagles) – The Eagles really don’t suck as badly as hipsters want to believe and this is case-in-point. Chromeo is undoubtedly cool and makes this song sound positively unwussified. [from !k7.com|buy]
3. The Avett Brothers – Laundry Room – There is something disarming about the way these two simple voices intermingle. It’s as if there was some acoustic tractor beam sucking me closer to the stage, doe-eyed and hanging on every word. (Even if the album cover looks like Ma Fratelli from the Goonies.) [from I and Love and You(out 9.29)|pre-order]
4. Owen – Ugly On the Inside – I’m a big fan of Owen (Mike Kinsella), but I’ve got to admit a lot of his stuff sounds very similar. Flawless, rhythmic fingerpicking along with limited melodies that border on predictable (if you’ve heard him before) have become his hallmark, for better or for worse. It’s for the better with songs like this, which throws a really nice curveball at the 1:57 mark. Lyrically, it’s as poignantly bitter as ever. “The lighting in this room doesn’t do a thing for you and your complexion/I’m sorry but it’s the truth, you look like the goddamned living dead.” Preach it, Owen. [from New Leaves|buy]
Listening Assignments 9.7.09
In Listening Assignments on September 7, 2009 at 3:08 pm
1. Richard Swift – The Atlantic Ocean – Love this piano riff, the playful Casio hooks, the bounciness of it all. Totally weird, totally underrated musician who always has a mangled ace up his sleeve. [from The Atlantic Ocean|buy]
2. Jeremy Enigk – Late of Camera – Sunny Day Real Estate’s enigmatic frontman is finally playing himself back to relevance, where he belongs. [from Ok Bear|buy]
3. Midlake – Roscoe (acoustic) – I admit that I’m more than anxious to hear Courage of Others (supposedly out this year!), so I’ll supplement that desire by posting a beautiful alternate cut of one of the highlights of The Trials of Van Occupanther. The original was just named the 39th best song of the 2000′s by Pitchfork. [from Oak & Julian|buy]
4. Cocoon – Hummingbird – It’s simple and pretty and has tons of heart. I woke up this morning with the melody in my head and had to find out what it was. This is the answer. [From Back to Panda Mountains|buy]
Listening Assignments 8.28.09
In Listening Assignments on August 28, 2009 at 12:40 pm
1. Washed Out – Feel it All Around – You should buy this EP, because it’s only $3.99, and because it sounds like the amazing lovechild of Miami Vice and Grizzly Bear. If nostalgia was a drug, you’d be so high right now. [from Life of Leisure EP|buy]
2. The Wooden Birds – The Other One – There’s a reason this sounds like American Analog Set and that is because this is the new project from AmAnSet’s Andrew Kenny featuring an all-star cast of performers and friends. Which means it’s time to break out the lemonade, put your feet up, and bask in the glow. [from Magnolia|buy]
3. Little Birdy – Brother – This song is all well and good, biding its time with what sounds like a simple-enough Stevie Nicks-esque folk song, until the 1:44 mark. And then you’re like a fish on a line. [from Confetti|buy]
4. Zion I – Doin’ My Thang – It’s been awhile since I’ve had any hip-hop on the blog, but I will always be down with new hip-hop that sounds like old hip-hop. This song is like cruisin’ down the avenue, top down, in slow motion, blinded by sunlight bouncing off all that chrome. [from True and Livin'|buy]
Listening Assignments 8.18.09
In Listening Assignments on August 18, 2009 at 4:14 pm
1. Magic Wands – Black Magic – It’s pretty easy to get the kids dancing these days. Just toss a dirty guitar hook over synthed drums and handclaps and group-sing. Still, my hips are affected, here in my chair. It’s like some kind of…black magic? [from Magic, Love, and Dreams EP|buy]
2. The Swell Season – In These Arms – Everyone’s favorite Oscar-winning non-couple is back with emotional vengeance this Fall. Hear an amazing acoustic set of a lot of new stuff on NPR, here. [from Strict Joy (out 10.27)|pre-order]
3. Kings of Convenience – Mrs. Cold – Another blog/fan fave is coming back after a lengthy layoff (and side projects like The Whitest Boy Alive). Ukulele work from 1:22-1:37 alone makes me incredibly excited. This goes down like cold lemonade in the shade. [from Declaration of Dependence (out 10.20)|info]
4. Ida Maria – Keep Me Warm – “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked” punk/rocker shows a beautiful soft side. This album is surprisingly diverse. [from Fortress Round My Heart|buy]
