They Don’t Love You Like I Love You

If you’ve got access to a filesharing network, I recommend seeking out the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ songs “Maps” and “Y-Control”, both of which they recorded for a recent Peel Session. Both songs took me by surprise, because I wasn’t expecting much from the band. I had sort of written them off prematurely as a one-hit wonder band, and this proves that they can write solid music that can be geniunely emotional rather than just the sort of glib party rock on their EP. The songs also reveal who the real star of the band is – it’s not Karen O, but the guitarist Nick Zinner, who kind of marries the aesthetics of early 80s U2 and Dirty Of Luck-era Helium. “Maps” also reminds me of post-Slanted & Enchanted, pre-Crooked Rain Pavement. There’s a recurring bit of harmonics in “Maps” that sounds a little like the intro to “Texas Never Whispers” from the Watery, Domestic EP. I can’t imagine the Yeah Yeah Yeahs lasting for more than a couple more years, but I forsee a bright future for Zinner. He’s got style for miles and miles.

I’m seeing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs tomorrow night, they’re opening up for Sleater-Kinney. As of this writing, I have almost no enthusiasm for seeing Sleater-Kinney at all, but I’m mildly excited about the YYY set. It’s nothing against Sleater-Kinney, but they’re just about the last band I feel like seeing right now, though hopefully that will change by tomorrow evening. My interest in the One Beat songs has worn off quite a bit, and so I’m not exactly thrilled by the notion of sitting through the more tedious songs on that record, especially “Far Away”, “The Remainder”, and “O2”. I hope that the request-a-song survey on their website yielded a lot of response for the Hot Rock songs – that would be a nice surprise.

I’m Not The Man They Think I Am At Home, Oh No, No, No.

Also worth checking out is the cover version of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” that was recorded by a group of musicians assembled by The Mekon’s John Langford for This American Life. Landford found each musician through the classifieds, in an experiment to see if a real workable band could be created just by looking at one week’s listings. It went surprisingly well, in spite of the intentionally eclectic mix of musicians – a soul singer, an indie-punk drummer, an eccentric theramin player, a Christian rock guitarist, and an electric violin player who’s just started attending anger management classes. The song comes together in a very interesting way – the drummer and tablas players place a much stronger emphasis on rhythm than in the original, which compliments the reverb-heavy guitar nicely. It’s the violin and theramin that steal the show, though – it’s enough to make me wish that there were more songs in the world that paired those two instruments. To hear the radio segment, you can listen to the show in real audio here. (Advance to the 22 minute mark.)

…We Sure Do Need Him Now

I’ve been meaning to mention how much I love Harpers Bizarre’s version of “If We Ever Needed The Lord Before”, but I haven’t really had the words. I still don’t, but if you can find yourself a copy, I hope that it makes you feel as warm and happy as it makes me feel every time I hear it. There’s just something about it, it’s a wonderful recording. I especially recommend it for fans of the Beach Boys.