Big Word Girls With Secret Codes

Haunted House “Dramatic Beachouse” – Have you ever been right next to someone listening to music on very loud headphones, and the sound bleeds out so that you can hear the music, but only the high end is audible? For some strange reason, Haunted House recorded their entire album to sound a bit like that; obscuring their catchy, jaunty little songs by turning the treble waaaaaaaay up and nearly eliminating the bass altogether. It’s a bit offputting, but the results have a unique charm. The record reminds me a bit of Andrew WK and his attempts to make all of the sounds on his records seem as though they are all coming from a single source rather than a variety of instruments. There’s a similar intensity and focus here, as well as a shared love of rapid-attack piano plinking. (Click here to buy it from Adonis Music.)

Elsewhere: In today’s Utopia Burns column on Stylus Magazine’s Stypod blog, Todd Burns takes an Ira Glass-esque approach to mp3 blogging – he talks over the songs, commenting on the sounds as they happen. It’s a pretty intriguing experiment, and I think he kinda pulls it off. It’s a bit like sitting in on a very cool college lecture.

Also Elsewhere: Please don’t sleep on The International House Of Pussy. Anfunny is one of my top tipsters, directly responsible for hooking me up with some of the very best songs that have appeared on this site in 2004. At the moment, he has assembled a compilation of rare disco and pop songs from the late 70s and early 80s, including some excellent tracks by Noel, Brix Smith, and Miss Piggy, plus a Cristina song that I’ve been obsessed with for the past two weeks.