Sometimes I feel like this blog isn't mine. I feel like I have a responsibility to the public to post good music even if I have nothing interesting to say. I guess I'm going to shut up sometimes and just post songs. I'll probably update more that way but with less substance. Is that better?

SO
what you need to know: Mark Robinson of Unrest and Air Miami is pretty much great.

Air Miami -
World Cup Fever makes me want to play soccer and score a goal with my head. Kind of dumb catchy song.

Unrest -
Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl is pretty frank. "I want to meet you. I want to fuck you all the time." Probably their best song. I guess Nirvana covered it once? Despite popular opinion, it is not about Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta.

Six Layer Cake is one of the first songs I would put on a numbers mix-CD. Not Numb3rs, numbers. It is from their best album Perfect Teeth, a CD I found in a local bargain bin like three years ago. Best bargain find ever. Except for the Steve Albini produced Fred Schneider solo album. What do you think they talked about in the studio? Love Shack? Surfer Rosa? Natalie Portman?

I write more when I try to write nothing than when I try to write something.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin comes from my hometown, Springfield, MO. Rumors have been flying about their recent tour: robbery? Fred Savage? Phil Dickey involved in a pyrotechnic accident? (That rumor turned out to be Metallica's James Hetfield, in 1992.) Tonight their song "Oregon Girl" will be played on The OC. Hopefully during one of three scenarios:

1. Ryan punches someone.
2. Julie tries to redeem herself for her past mistakes.
3. Sandy waxes his eyebrows.

Here's a song from their self-released EP, it's a Mommyhead's cover:

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Accident

OC totally stole my idea. This is SSLYBY playing on a talk show I had to do for a terrible media class about a year ago. We didn't even have a CD player for the shoot so we had to drive a truck into the studio and use its player. If Boris Yeltsin didn't come, some girl was going to have her boyfriend's band, Two Finger Tease, come and play. The show was worse than Magic Johnson's talk show, and everyone hated it. Especially Phil:



Be SSLYBY's friend on myspace and buy Broom. Fred Savage likes it!

I was talking about Joe Jackson at work the other day and it reminded me of how great his first album was. He's a classically trained musician who adopted the new wave style for his debut record "Look Sharp!" back in 1979. The album is most famous for the new wave hit "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" a perfect song for any self-important, romantic adolescent. What guy hasn't looked at a couple and thought, "I'm so much better than that jock?"

The majority of the album explores similar lyrical territory in catchy new wave pop. Not unlike Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson was an intelligent, frustrated teenager who wrote snappy punk rock for the lonely set. The year Gang of Four were attacking capitalism and The Clash were warning us of nuclear errors, Joe Jackson just wanted to sing about happy couples and gorillas.

The opening track sets a pretty high standard for the rest of the album. It opens with a scrappy guitar lick, followed by a running bass, and some of Jackson's most affecting lyrics. It's kind of strange to open a poppy new wave album with such a desperate, hopeless song, but amazing none the less.
One More Time

This is the song I always almost want to listen to at dance parties, but I'm afraid the piano break at 1:51 would just confuse everybody. Pure seventies strut and attitude, Joe Jackson at his most confident and sarcastic. The line "Check your watch and wallet now" always pumps me up for some reason.
Look Sharp!

Joe Jackson hates couples and so should you.
Happy Loving Couples

Sorry if EZArchive is being sluggish. Buy Look Sharp here.
Right, that's enough.

Name-checked by The Replacements, covered by everyone (Elliot Smith, Wilco, The Decemberists, Teenage Fanclub, etc.), and one of the most influential bands in all indie rock, Big Star perfectly captured various elements of pop past (The Beatles, The Byrds, and The Who) and combined them to create a stong prototype for the future. Unfortunately, they're probably best known for the song "In The Street" which was covered by Cheap Trick for the That 70's Show's theme song. I also recently heard their song "I'm In Love With A Girl" on a commercial.

Lead singer Alex Chilton is a pop genius, and one of the original cynical romantics in power pop. He best captured the feeling of adolescent romance in his own lazy kind of way. For me, lines like "I love you, well, never mind" and "I like love, but, I don't know" effortlessly depict the insecurity of teenage feelings in a simple, concise way.

That said, Chilton's probably insane. My favorite Big Star annecdote comes from the recording of Third/Sister Lovers when Chilton purposely sabotaged a possible single by using a basketball for a snare drum.

Here's some tracks from Radio City:

Way Out West
You Get What You Deserve
September Gurls

I strongly recommend #1 Record/Radio City, their first two studio albums on one CD.

Busy busy busy. I just got back from Chicago and St. Louis, and I'm going to Kansas City and Seattle next week (Dallas and Chicago too, to change planes.) The short version of the story is I'm going to see Belle and Sebastian twice in two weeks.

I caught myself singing this song out loud the other day so I thought it was worth posting. They're called Oh No! Oh My! after a song by The Robot Ate Me. They changed their name from the Jolly Rogers because they claimed there were too many bands with the Jolly Rogers moniker. I wonder who would win in a fight between Hey Hey My My and Oh No! Oh My! (Not to mention insane Philly band Man Man and bedroom electro act Mylo.)

Anyway, they remind me of Of Montreal as well as other current synth-pop groups like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or Spinto Band. Visit their website, it's a pirate map. They're selling two CDRs of their work for two dollars, and they should have an actual manufactured release sometime soon.

Oh No! Oh My! - I Have No Sister

I'm not sure if I should post this. If it makes someone mad then I'll take it down as soon as I can. In fact, I'm only going to put this song up for a couple of days so get it while it's hot. It's from Plagues & Snakes, their new Austrailian Tour single. I like the first track, it's pretty calming. It kind of reminds me of Fugazi's I'm So Tired, just an interesting piano-based song.

About the single, Tim Harrington says, “It’s like two songs that are classic, but it’s lost the point. Like, what’s the point of doing two songs now? 45’s are doomed with mp3’s and all this stuff, but it’s such a great number - just natural two, it’s not as arty as three and not as fancy as one, which is so lonely. Two is interesting and cryptic.”

Les Savy Fav - When You Wake Up a Snake

You can download the single at emusic.

I was afraid to cruise youtube because I've heard how addictive it can be.

It is. Now I'm hooked.

Mostly, I've been cruising for old music videos. Here's one of my favorite music videos of all time. I hadn't seen it in a while and all the jokes and references are still really good. It turns out Mr. Show and Yo La Tengo are like chocolate and peanut butter.



And because I feel compelled to post a song with every post, here's one of my favorite Yo La Tengo songs. It's an Only Ones cover, and I think it improves over the original for two reasons:

1. Less sax.
2. Husband and wive harmonies are adorable, especially Ira's reading of the line "Baby, I'm in love with you" like he's looking right at Georgia. Or maybe he's looking at James McNew...

Now with fixed links:
Yo La Tengo - The Whole of The Law
The Only Ones - The Whole of The Law

Not to slight The Only Ones, an underrated band with that classic Modern Lovers/Velvet Underground style. They had one song that probably rates up there with "Teenage Kicks" and "September Girls" as one of those classic pop hits that never were.

The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet

I've always heard Destroyer was the more challenging of the New Pornographers (compared to AC Newman or Neko Case.) Despite the reputation, I picked up Destoyer's Rubies this week after I had been listening to the song Painter In Your Pocket non-stop. I really like it. He sounds like a cross between Cat Stevens and David Bowie (Glam-Folk?) He writes beautiful, hyper-literate lyrics yet his voice lends itself well to the various nonsense chants scattered through out the songs. (la, la, la; ba, ba, ba; etc.)

Plus, look at him, he's amazing. Can anyone tell me what book he's reading?

I can't wait to see him and the NPs play in Chicago next month. Here's a track from Rubies:

Destroyer - European Oils

You can buy Rubies here.

I'm pretty ashamed I haven't updated in while. The shame is almost enough motivation to update as much as possible even to the detriment of my personal and professional life. I might even post twice today.

Anyway, the new Mogwai, Mr. Beast, comes out on March 7th. They're working with Scottish producer Tony Doogan whose previous credits include Mogwai's Rock Action and several Belle and Sebastian releases. Guitarist/singer Stuart Braitewaite says the band "consciously tried to have some louder music on this album, because we began to realize that there was a big difference between our live shows and our records, and there was no real reason for that. We wanted to make a record we would enjoy playing live."

Mogwai - Folk Death 95

And I think Pitchfork might have broken Jens Lekman's website today by linking it. He's put up some out-of-print EPs on his website but it's incredibly sloooooow. Here's a different outtake, an orchestral version of a song from his debut album "When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog," to tide us over until we can actually download those EPs.

Jens Lekman - Do You Remember The Riots? (orchestral version)

Stereogum has the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs song, Gold Lions. The rumor was that the Yeahs would take a folkier approach with the new album, Show Your Bones, due March 28. Judging from this song, I think it's just going to sound a lot like Love and Rockets. Hey Karen O, where's the flute solo?

From Earth, Sun, Moon:
Love and Rockets - No New Tale To Tell

Check out the Yeah Yeah Yeah's website if you want to see mildly disturbing pictures of rabbits killing people.

Final Fantasy posted a Joanna Newsom cover on his myspace. It's my favorite song from The Milk-Eyed Mender. Imagine if Owen and Joanna somehow got married and had kids, it'd be pretty adorable. Little harp-playing girls talking in alien voices and tiny violin playing boys with unkempt hair. Just keep them away from Devandra Banhart. He's creepy.

Final Fantasy - Peach, Plum, Pear
Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear

Possible catchy nickname for my fictitious celebrity couple: Owanna.

I'm terrible at making couple nicknames.

A lot of critics of complained about the post-punk explosion of recent years. Labeling it the atonal whining of a bunch of hipsters in tight jeans with the DFA's number on their speed dial. Or dancey punk sung by musicians with Public Image Ltd. ringtones on their cell phones and Gang of Four bumper stickers on their cars. Yes, it has spawned several forgettable bands. (Radio 4 anyone?) How many Bravery albums are already in the bargain bin at your local record store? (5)

However, it has atleast inspired a recent series of reissues for the originals. Entertainment! was a no-brainer for the reissue treatment. I'm pretty excited about the Delta 5 reissue coming out this month, as I've barely been able to access any of their music previously. Later this year This Heat, a band I have often looked for in used record bins, will reissue their material in a box set.

I really want somebody to reissue the Au Pairs' Playing With A Different Sex. I heard a song a long time ago and I have never been able to track this album down. Basically, Au Pairs were to sex and women's rights as Go4 were to capitalism. The song Armagh sounds like the James Bond theme with a saftey pin through its cheek. It features a didatic front woman (Lesley Woods) screaming about torture, sexual abuse, and Iran.

Au Pairs - Armagh

Here's another song I found:

Au Pairs - We're So Cool

If they can reissue Brazilian post-punk, why can't they put this back out? Is the man trying to keep feminist rock music down? Or is it just more fun to say Brazilian post-punk?

From their bio: "It all began on February 9th 2005, while singing a few songs for friends during one of the Julien's birthday parties, a fire broke out in the apartment. Luckily, no one was hurt, more fright than harm, but this inspired the two Julien's to think of a part of a Neil Young song sayin 'It's better to burn out than to fade away,' which lead them to name their group with the title of this song: Hey Hey My My."

At this point, I could probably make some cheesy allusions to the phoenix ("Rising from the ashes of this fire emerged the folk stylings of this Parisian pop duo...") but I'm not feeling too metaphorical at the moment. Another note, I think the more apathetic Neil Young fire lyric would be: "It's only castles burning." But I guess that's a jerk thing to say to someone whose apartment just caught on fire.

Hey Hey My My are a new band making the mp3 blog rounds. They're from Paris and consist of two men named Julien (no relation.) They cite Nick Drake, Frank Black, and Johnny Cash as their influences and have a myspace with pictures featuring the two Juliens and various farm animals (no relations.)

"Too Much Space" reminds me of a subdued version of those Neil Young covers on the Pixie's Complete B-sides. It's fairly melancholy but with a dancey stomp and driving bass line. About fifty seconds into the song, the drums drop out and a mournful guitar riff serves as a kind of chorus. One can almost imagine the song soundtracking the christening scene described in their bio. A bouncy, French party interrupted by a gloomy guitar strum of drumless fire. Geez. I thought I wasn't feeling metaphorical. I apologize. Anyway, it's really good and they have two more songs on their aforementioned myspace (Too Much Myspace?)

Hey Hey My My - Too Much Space

Wasn't it exciting to learn about producers? I think it is an overlooked part of one's musical education. It's when you learn the producer's role and you start figuring out musical connections. I'm talking about when the producer transforms from this faceless, headphones-wearing enigma to an actual person with a personality. In my case, I soon discovered many producers were musicians themselves who simply have a talent for mixing and creating sonic landscapes.

Often I become a fan of a producer's own music through the bands they worked with. I had heard Remain In Light before I ever heard any of Brian Eno's solo work. I had been rocking out to Surfer Rosa long before I purchased a record by any of Steve Albini's bands. Similarly, I think fans of Kanye West's Late Registration would be well served to seek out Jon Brion's film scores.

Let's Active is a band I found through such a connection. I discovered them because the lead singer Mitch Easter went on to produce and engineer for REM, Dinosaur Jr., and Pavement. I bought Cypress/Afoot shortly after becoming enamored with the REM albums Easter had produced.

Every Word Means No is one of my favorite songs of all time. I think it gives the listener three thoughts upon first hearing it:
1. It is somehow instantly familiar.
2. Mitch Easter sounds like a whiny woman, but in a good way.
3. The New Pornographers probably have a huge Let's Active poster on their studio wall.
Every Word Means No

Sometimes Let's Active is called jangle pop's Joy Division. I can see that in this song when the gloomy verse is suddenly interrupted by an optimistic chorus. It is almost like both worlds in one song.
Room With a View

I post this song mostly because I think REM's The One I Love borrowed quite liberally from it.
Lowdown

OMG it's a theme post. Knife requested the The Feelies cover of What Goes On, and I thought it would be generous of me to post a few more Velvet Underground covers while I was at it.

The Feelies - What Goes On
Big Star - Femme Fatale
Galaxie 500 - Here She Comes Now
REM - There She Goes Again
Yo La Tengo - It's Alright (The Way That You Live)
Cat Power - I Found A Reason
Rilo Kiley - After Hours

Until Boy Least Likely To covers Sister Ray, that's all I have/remember for now.

The Feelies are a classic post-punk band from New York. Their name is a reference to the futuristic shows in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. REM cited them as huge influence, and the above album cover served as an inspiration for Weezer's debut cover art. Their CD's are kind of hard to come by since they are mostly out of print (I saw a copy of their debut album, Crazy Rhythms go for over fifty dollars on Amazon).

I first heard them by finding one of their songs on a file sharing program:

The Feelies - Higher Ground

The jangle-pop, REM influencing sound is definitely there. Also, there's some great Television-like guitar interplay and a kind of hypnotizing drone to it. I really wanted to hear more.

Luckily, I was able to find Only Life, the album containing the above track, in the used section at a local record store. The gentle, mustached store owner commented on The Feelies' hypnotizing power as well. Later, I would find Crazy Rhytms at a Vintage Stock. I still cite this as my luckiest music find. I mean every Vintage Stock has like thirteen copies of Monster by REM, but I probably found the only one that has any Feelies records. Here's some tracks from Crazy Rhythms:

Fa Ci-La
Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except For Me and My Monkey) (Beatles Cover)*
Loveless Love

And I guess if anybody likes those, I might post their Rollings Stones and Velvet Underground covers.

*I guess there probably wouldn't be two songs with such an obscure title, but just to clarify.

The dB's are an often neglected band in the indie pop canon. They were one of the best power pop bands. Forget Big Star, The Raspberries, or Let's Active; this is where it's at.

I think I already mentioned my jangle pop phase. (By the way, All Music defines jangle pop as "an American post-punk movement of the mid-'80s that marked a return to the chiming guitars and pop melodies of the '60s.") It was kind of an aborted phase because I couldn't even get Dream Syndicate's first album. However, I was able to pick this up; it's a combination of The dB's first and second records, Stands for Decibels and Reprecussion respectively. It mixed the pop of Big Star while predicting that cool jangly guitar sound that REM would later popularize.

I was practically in love with it for a month in 2002. At the time, I was working on promotional material for a fake record store in my electronic publishing class. Therefore, I named the fictional store after this band. It was called dB's records and its slogan was "stands for decibels." Luckily, my teacher was a not a Chris Stamey fan, and thought this was very clever.

Speaking of Chris Stamey, he left the dB's shortly after Reprecussion for a solo career. He most recently recorded an album with Yo La Tengo. Meanwhile, the dB's have quietly reunited and plan to perform live sometime in the near future. The tour will feature the original lineup that recorded their first two albums. Their website has more information and a new song.

Here's some tracks from Stands For Decibels/Reprecussion:

Black and White
Bad Reputation
Living A Lie

Meanwhile, an update on my pursuit of The Life Pursuit, a foreign language blog has posted a coupe of track I had yet to find. You can find them here. Credit goes to my friend Adam, whose love of mp3 blogs may have exceeded my own.

These songs are pretty close to my top ten for the year. If you're a good indie kid, you probably already have all this stuff.

10.
Boy Least Likely To - Be Gentle With Me

9. It's funny that Colin Meloy is so verbose (with lyrics about magistrates, verandas, and being "purloined in Petrogard") but the one phrase that stands out above the rest from Picaresque is the simple "And if you don't love me let me go."
The Decemberists - The Engine Driver

8. It was hard to pick just one song off of Apologies To The Queen Mary, but this song is just too good. No offense to Dan Boeckner, but doesn't everyone think Spencer Krug should just sing all the time?
Wolf Parade - Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts

7. The Fiery Furnaces EP finally gave me the motivation to check them out. I was a little apprehensive after hearing about how challenging they were, but I became interested in this new, more accessbile collection of cast-offs. I was immediately won over by the three song suite which opens the record. These are the last two songs of that eleven minute stretch.
Fiery Furnaces - Here Comes The Summer/Evergreen

6. I can't listen to this in the car. I start singing along and dancing. I got caught by my friend Adam one time. "I saw you on the way to work...you were, uh, singing and dancing." Crap.
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations

5.Quote from my friend Holly: "The vocals of this song make me want to take a shower
they're all...
well, she sings really well. " Leslie Feist makes girls want to take showers.
Broken Social Scene - Shoreline

4.I'm just going to say "Oh my gooooooood."
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr.

3.Can we make this guy more famous than the video game? I've never heard strings this delicious that weren't made out cheese. String. Cheese. Get it, son? Since when did I turn into Foghorn Leghorn?
Final Fantasy - The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead

2.Combining all the things I didn't know I liked: Acapella, Kate Bush, and throwing footwear into various bodies of water.
The Futureheads - Hounds of Love

1.And this song combines all the things I already knew I liked. Post-punk guitar. A strangely twee pop sensibility and nostalgia. Lyrics that remind me of Jonathan Richman or River Cuomo's better moments. Basically it feels like a lost Buzzcocks song. The way the Buzzcocks could write a song like "Ever Fallen In Love?" or "What Do I Get?" and you could totally relate. This is that kind of song.

Eddie Argos has a knack for creating happy moments and genuine laughs. The way he can remember the last time he saw Emily right down to the second. The fact that he wants kids on school buses to scream her name. The fact that he wrote the song about an actual girl named Emily Kane that he liked when he was fifteen. This is my favorite song of 2005:
Art Brut - Emily Kane

Expect the rest of my list tonight. For right now, I just found another track from the new Belle and Sebastian album, The Life Pursuit, due February 7th. It has that same kind of poppy stomp that Step Into My Office, Baby had. I think my favorite so far has been Funny Little Frog.

Belle and Sebastian - White Collar Boy

I guess some of these choices are cheating.

I'm not sure where this track came from originally. I think Gorilla Vs. Bear posted it at some point. I think it's better than the original and features one of the better beats of the year.
Kanye West - Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Capski Refix)

The weird voice that enters the song around 1:49 makes the song. He sounds like an opera singer or something.
Iron & Wine/Calexico - He Lays In The Reins

Unfortunately this song was played over the speakers on repeat for nearly an hour while I was waiting at the gates for Lollapalooza. They used it during one of their informational segments on what was allowed into the park and how to survive the heat. I'm just now getting into a place where I can enjoy it again. However, before the tragic incident, it was one of my favorites of the year so it deserves a spot.
Spoon - I Turn My Camera On

I don't think this has been officially released, but I believe it was performed this year. It's a Magnetic Fields cover.
The Shins - Strange Powers

I didn't include any MIA because for some reason I associate her with 2004, specifically Galang. I also still kind of associate Annie with 2004, but since her album wasn't domestically released until May of this year, I think it can be included as one of my favorite 2005 songs.
Annie - Heartbeat