Author Archive

Everybody Is Running Away From Hell

Mary Timony “Friend To J.C.” – I haven’t heard all of her forthcoming album, but it seems as though Mary Timony’s Rennaisance Faire period has run its course, which I think will be good news for many of her longterm fans. To be fair, Mary wrote a lot of great material during that period, but it is pretty clear to me that the ideas were yielding diminishing returns – The Magic City > Mountains >>> Golden Dove. “Friend To J.C.” sounds more like Helium than anything else she has recorded during her solo career, mainly because the emphasis has been placed so heavily on the guitars. It doesn’t feel like a retread or a retreat, but rather the culmination of over a decade of songwriting. (Click here to visit the official Mary Timony website.)

Dälek “Eyes To Form Shadows” – I would be happy enough to hear this song’s distorted electronic textures in an industrial or noise rock song, but I’m thrilled to have them in a hip hop track. It’s only sensible – why NOT rap over loud drones? On one hand, it’s a shame that the only people who are likely to be interested in this stuff are preexisting fans of art rock and underground hip hop, but on the other, why shouldn’t there be hip hop made specifically for that audience? Hip hop has certainly come to the point where it’s so huge that it transcends its cultural origins, so why not have hip hop that swallows up every other conceivable genre? (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

P.S.A. (Bad Day)

Sorry, no new music today. I had a long night and I slept through most of the day and I’m still a bit out of it right now. Everything will be back to normal tomorrow morning.

R.I.P. Nick Kilroy. I never knew Nick personally, but I am definitely a fan of Gabba/Pod. His site was one of the early inspirations for Fluxblog, and he will most certainly be missed. There is a very nice tribute to Nick in the singles column on Pitchfork today, including rememberances by Scott Plagenhoef, Jess Harvell, Mark Pytlik, and David Raposa.

Is It Hard To Recall Where You’ve Been?

Lady Sovereign “Random” – “Everybody get random!!!” is a great party chant, if just because its nonspecificity implies such absurd possibilities and encourages a total lack of selfconciousness. Of all the UK hip hop that I’ve heard recently, this song seems the most plausible in terms of potential US crossover success. Missy Elliott is the most obvious influence here, but I think it’s more like a love letter to contemporary US radio hip hop in general. Lady Sovereign’s rhymes are playful and engaging, but the greater draw on this track are those drunk synths and that killer chorus. (Click here to buy it from the Cantaloupe Group.)

Bill Fay Group “Sam” – This selection is from a collection of recordings dating back to the 1970s which are only just now being released for the first time. Better late than never, I suppose – this song is astonishingly good, and I figure that the world is just a tiny bit better for it being out there. “Sam” is a stately ballad accompanied mainly by the extraordinarily melancholy sound of a church organ. The song is a bit on the maudlin side of things, but it’s tuneful and heartfelt and would probably feel absolutely devastating if you heard it under the right circumstances. (Click here to buy it from Other Music.)

Note to Mozilla/Firefox users: All you need to do is left click/save to disc. The mp3 links definitely work, believe me.

I’m Changing My Ways Where Money Applies

Sugar Minott “Please Be True” – What I find amazing about Sugar Minott is that he seems to effortlessly convey this feeling of profound contentment that makes almost all of his music feel like a sort of back-to-the-womb experience. There is something in his voice that never fails to express this very real, unaffected sentiment of peace and love. Maybe it’s all the weed. I don’t know. Even still, it doesn’t get much lovelier than this. (Click here to buy it from Soul Jazz.)

Crispin J. Glover (featuring Princess Julia) “This Is Not A Love Song” – No, this is not that Crispin Glover, sorry. Also: this is most emphatically not a love song, though it is a PiL cover made over as a “leftfield” disco number. It’s not exactly radical, but it gets the adrenaline pumping. (Click here to buy it from One Little Indian.)

The Pazz & Jop Poll ’04 results are in. I’m not a fan of lists or polling, but I’m more interested than usual because I was invited to vote in the poll this year. This is my ballot. It was a tricky thing for me to do, since I haven’t made a year end list since back when I was in high school and I heard no more than thirty albums in a year. My albums list wasn’t very difficult to make, mostly because there weren’t that many full length records that held my attention in 2004. I do regret not including Ghostface and Mclusky – I wasn’t thinking. Though I do like the record a lot, I wish that I had dropped U2 and put another underdog on the albums list. My singles list is kinda arbitrary – I had about fifty other songs that could just as well have been in that top 10, which I suppose is obvious since I run a daily singles review site. I’m pretty ecstatic that Annie charted so highly on the singles poll, and that the Fiery Furnaces, Scissor Sisters, M.I.A., and Dizzee Rascal placed well on the albums chart. Good to see that my vote counted for something. I didn’t submit any comments, mostly because I didn’t know what to say and I had bronchitis when I had to get it done. Maybe next year.

The Bombs To Make You Blow

Excerpt from Radio Sumatra: The Indonesian FM Experience “The Most Radio” – Both of today’s selections are taken from recent compilations of recordings of contemporary radio in Indonesia and Cambodia curated by Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls. Bishop’s recordings have been edited down into a collage of excerpts, but the sound has not been processed or overdubbed. This first cut is from Indonesian radio, which is notable for its odd balance of regional tradition and local adaptation of contemporary US pop culture. This cut begins with a station ID that sounds like a repurposed generic bumper from the US, followed by an extremely catchy song by an unidentifed Asian pop-punk band. If you tune out the lyrics, the song sounds like it could be a big hit on American rock radio, but then out of nowhere it shifts into a baffling choral section that would be like Kryptonite to corporate programmers in the US. (Click here to buy it from Sublime Frequencies.)

Excerpt from Radio Phnom Penh “Re-Mixed Culture OR: The Graffiti Walls of Angkor Wat” – In the liner notes of Radio Phnom Penh, Bishop posits that Cambodia is a “re-mixed culture” due to the circumstances of its history in the second half of the 20th century. This goes a long way towards explaining the phenomenon of Cambodian record companies remixing and overdubbing traditional and classic recordings of Cambodian music to attract or maintain the interest of the younger generations. The original recordings have mostly disappeared, so the majority of the public only has access to the later versions in record shops and on FM radio. (Ha, sort of similar to how George Lucas has taken the original Star Wars films off the market.) (Click here to buy it from Sublime Frequencies.)

M.I.A./Diplo @ The Knitting Factory, NYC 2/5/2005

Pull Up The People / Fire Fire / Hombre / Sunshowers / 10 Dollar / Amazon / (intermission, costume change) / URAQT / Galang / Bucky Done Gun / M.I.A.

I think that Amy is overstating the lip synching thing – there were prerecorded vocals, but most of it was definitely live, complete with ad libs, mistakes, and some off key singing on “Hombre.” The room was packed so tightly that full-on dancing was out of the question, but almost everyone there was moving, especially during the end of “Galang.” (There’s always a few of those guys who stand perfectly still and show no sign of emotion, though I can’t understand why they are there to begin with. Do these guys go to dancey shows on a dare or something?) It was pretty clear that M.I.A. and Diplo were still figuring out the live show, but they were very impressive nonetheless. M.I.A. has enough natural style and charisma to make her more awkward moves seem like forgiveable quirks.

I haven’t noticed any reviews of the show that have mentioned the animated video loops that were projected on a screen above the stage. This is a shame, because I think that it added quite a bit to the overall effect of the performance. (To get an idea of what the imagery was like, have a look around her website to get a sense of her visual aesthetic.) I hope that she is able to further integrate video into her show, since it is very clear to me that her visual art is just as important to her as the music, and should not be separated. It would be fantastic if she were able to acquire a large flat screen backdrop similar to what U2 used on their Popmart tour, but on the scale of the average club stage. I think that she needs something as huge and overwhelming as the music itself.

Why Defrost A Frozen Kiss?

Busdriver “Lefty’s Lament” – It’s hard for me to hear Busdriver’s overstuffed verses and nerdy cadences without comparing him to America’s least respected rapper, MC Paul Barman. The style and sense of humor is almost identical, though Busdriver is blessed with a context more palatable to the majority of hip hop fans – ie, he is not an Ivy League educated Jewish suburban bohemian and thus does not need to overcompensate with selfdeprecating humor. The first half of this track is fine enough, but be sure to stick around until the faux-smooth r+b chorus kicks in around the two minute mark, since that is very obviously The Good Part. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

OOIOO “Be Sure To Loop” – Wow, OOIOO have a best-of album already. I suppose that it’s a smart idea, since it’s good for a lot of people to have an easy entry point for artier bands with more than a handful of albums. This is my favorite OOIOO song by far; a J-Pop style Krautrock epic that works the same magic as early Stereolab by stretching out a simple bubblegum hook into a droning pop mantra. (Click here to buy it from Polystar.)

Note: Please be patient with the server today, there seems to be some trouble. If you can’t download right away, try again in a few minutes or later on.

Love Makes Me Feel Alright

Bunky “Chuy” – Do bands choose ridiculous names like Bunky because they want to sabotage their own careers on some level, conciously or otherwise? Bunky’s new album is one of the best indie rock records that I’ve heard in the past several months, but it seems that they are doomed to obscurity because of an unfortunate name that practically demands that you not take them seriously, even just a little bit. That’s such a shame, since this song is so magnificent. “Chuy” is a big, sexy, delirious love song that hits its emotional high point in the chorus, as the singer/drummer accents her soaring vocals with loud cymbal crashes that make the power of her love seem like an enormous, unstoppable force of nature. After the solo, the song shifts from rocker to ballad as if it is gently drifting back to earth in a parachute from the lofty heights of that intense chorus. (Click here to buy it from Asthmatic Kitty.)

Lost And Found: If you lost a brown, green, and tan scarf at the Neighborhood #5 gathering at Revival last night, please contact me. I took it with me because I mistook it for my friend’s scarf, and he left a bit before I did. As it turns out, he had his scarf with him all along. Send me an email and I’ll get it back to you as soon as possible.

This Is Pretty Weird For Me Too

Dirty Projectors “Tour Along The Potomac” – Since I’ve adapted to iTunes, I’ve been more aware of the genre tags that people put on their mp3s. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of the music that ends up with the genre description “unclassifiable” is actually fairly easy to classify. I swear to God, I found a Wilco mp3 marked “unclassifiable”! Whatever. I’m not hung up on classification, and I’ve never been the anal record librarian type. (It’s pretty common, check ILM for some freaky debates about alphabetization methods.) I only mention this because this Dirty Projectors record truly is unclassifiable. This song alone is screwing around with at least four genres at once, and this is one of the more normal tracks on the album. It sounds completely out of time and I can honestly say that I’ve never heard anything quite like it, though it feels immediately comfortable and lovely. Oh yeah, and apparently the record is a “glitch opera about Don Henley.” I’ll just take their word for it. (Click here to visit the official Dirty Projectors website.)

Out Hud “It’s For You” – House of Jealous Kylies? Annie and Guiliani Down By The Schoolyard? Yeah, maybe, but I’m selling this song short if I leave it at that. I am in awe of this track, and I can’t seem to form a single critical thought when I hear it. Best dance pop song of the year so far, no contest. That build up around the 3 minute mark leading up to the phone ring and the breakdown – sublime! The keyboard groove on the outro – even sublimer! Out Hud have reduced my brain to mush, and I love it. (Click here to visit the official Out Hud website.)

I’ll Just Play My Music Louder

Katy Rose “Keeping It Together” – I suppose that Katy Rose owes her recording career due to the common record company tendency to flood the market with variations on a successful formula. In this case, V2 had a hunch that maybe the public liked Arvil Lavigne’s cute-badass-rock girl image, but desired an “authentic” version that sounded like post-Celebrity Skin Courtney Love adapting the screenplay of Thirteen. (Not a surprise: Rose is actually on the soundtrack to that movie.)

Rose’s music, particularly this import bonus track, is all about the fetishization of fucked-uptitude and psych-ward chic. I sincerely believe that this kind of lyrical message is deeply irresponsible when aimed at a target market of teenagers who are caught up in their heightened teen emotions and are often all too eager to self-diagnose and then act out on psychiatric disorders that seem dramatic and sexy. This is all blatant self-mythologizing; a deliberate attempt to glamorize serious problems. Rose’s persona comes down to “I’m off my meds, don’t you want to fuck me?” It plays into the despicable sexual fantasies of adults and the most selfdestructive impulses of teenagers. In sociological terms, this is all very gross.

That said, this is an excellent Modern Rock song. It’s got just the right amount of menace to it without coming off heavy handed, and the chorus really goes for the teen rebellion anthem brass ring. Hole is the most obvious reference point in terms of style, but there’s more to it than that. Rose’s vocal delivery on the verses reminds me of Billy Corgan in his faux-goth Machina phase mixed in with bits of Shirley Manson. This sounds like music concieved in an echo chamber of mid-to-late 90s radio rock, and I have no doubt that it actually was given Rose’s age and sensibilities. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)



Enon “The Nightmare of Atomic Men” – I love the title, it’s so Silver Age! Enon are going for some kind of sci-fi funk sleaze thing on this song, and it’s pretty successful on those terms if you aren’t distracted by the indie cutesiness of the female vocals on the chorus. (I find it catchy and endearing, personally.) There are some excellent keyboard sounds on this track – I especially enjoy the string hits and the wet synth bass. (Click here to pre-order it from Insound.)

I Gotta Rubicon

The Hank Collective “God Slick” – An email exchange from yesterday:

Hey Mike, this was just passed along to me by a member of the band. It’s really, really good! I’m definitely posting something from it tomorrow. I won’t tell you what it’s like, I’ll let you be surprised, but it’s very joycore. Just be sure to listen to the songs from the 2004 album.

Whoa. I’m sitting here smiling my head off right now. I assume your reaction was, “This EXISTS?!?!” Sort of Beat Happening on ecstacy. That’s AWESOME.

Yeah, “this exists?” was pretty much it. I’m still not sure how to describe this stuff. It’s like imaginary music or something – the kind of hypothetical music that writers dream up but never actually exists. It has that strange “lost classic” sound to it, as though it was just unearthed from a time capsule from 1991.

Ah yes, very true. Like the made-up band on the pop radio station in Wes Anderson’s version of Grand Theft Auto. (i.e., Grand Theft Auto: TWEE CITY).

(Click here to buy it from The Blue House.)

Circles Looping Circles Again

Psapp “Rear Moth” – This could very well be the most romantic, elegant song in the world to feature the sound of a squeeze toy as punctuation to its rhythm. The singer’s voice is close enough Laetitia Sadier to announce “RIYL: Stereolab, Electrelane, Pram,” but this is more than just a surrogate for the Groop. There is something kind of magical about Psapp’s record that I find difficult to articulate – it has Stereolab’s exociticism and low key sexuality, but also a whimsy that seems somewhat precious and child-like. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Empire State Human “Digital City” – The travel brochures for both Digital City and Paradise City claim to have girls who are pretty residing within city limits, but I reckon that the girls in Digital City are a lot cuter. This is a shameless retro-80s pastiche, but it’s solid stuff – if this was actually Duran Duran, it would be my favorite song in their discography. (Click here to visit the official Empire State Human site.)

For Better Or Worse

Marijata “No Condition Is Permanent” – I want to think of this song as being optimistic, but that’s not really it, is it? It’s more about the solace that comes from knowing that nothing lasts forever, good or bad. It’s a sentiment that can yield defeatism, or a faith in resistance and opposition. It’s pretty clear to me that this is a song of faith and reassurance – who would ever bother to make music as intense, funky, and passionate as this to get across a sad sack message? This is a selection from the new volume in the excellent Ghana Soundz series, which collects Afrobeat, funk, and soul gems from Ghana in the 1970s. (Click here to buy it from Other Music.)

TTC “Ebisu Rendez-Vous” – I haven’t been very fond of the French hip hop that I’ve heard in the past, but this is fantastic. Like the best non-American hip hop, this is not an attempt to ape popular US rap (new or old), but rather something different and distinctly European. This track is entirely comprised of spacey electronic robo-textures that evoke images of a sci-fi future as well as a peculiar mixture of languor and restlessness. (Click here to buy it from Ninja Tune.)

The Only Mirror In The Room

AK-MOMO “Greasy Spoon” – Okay, I think I have this figured out now: I dig nu-folk when the folky elements are recontextualized and obviously postmodern (like, say Cocorosie, or Stephen Malkmus and Mary Timony’s appropriations of Ren-Faire Brit folk psychedelia), but whenever it seems that the artist is aiming for authenticity (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, etc, etc), I am turned off, big time. AK-MOMO fall into the postmodern camp, setting their beautiful lullabies to a distant backdrop of vintage optigans and melotrons that imply a nostalgic past. It’s like the musical equivalent of Guy Maddin’s vaseline-lensed movies (ie, The Saddest Music In The World), but less academic and more poignant. (Click here to buy it from Parasol.)

Relaxed Muscle “Sexualized” – I can’t believe that I’ve never actually posted this song – in my mind, this is a big Fluxblog classic. (A direct result of putting it on so many mix cds, I suppose.) This is Jarvis Cocker’s frantic, in-the-red anthem of sexual frustration. The character in the song sees sexuality in every facet of life and pop culture, but it is always inaccessable or forbidden, which drives him mad. The guitars are overheated and manic; the vocals convey a palpable anxiety and desperation. This is the sound of futile lust and horny impotence, and it fucking ROCKS. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Drunk At The Funky Pickle

Cadence Weapon “Oliver Square” – First line: “It’s corrupt where I’m from, Edmonton.” Really? I had no idea. My ignorance is revealed – the only things that I associate with the city of Edmonton are a gigantic mall, the Oilers, and cold weather. I know that I wouldn’t normally expect excellent hip hop music to come from Edmonton, but here it is. The track is built around keyboard textures that sound like a funky malfunctioning Gameboy, but the main attraction is Cadence Weapon’s solid flow and wordplay, which is sort of like a brainer, less bombastic version of Ludacris. (Click here for the official Cadence Weapon website.)

The Jealous Lovers “Fight For Survival” – This has a lot of the same “weird kids fucking around in their basement” appeal as the Moldy Peaches’ first album, but with the folky elements replaced by lo-fi funk. The production values are very amateurish, resulting in a track in which all of the parts of the arrangement sound distanced from one another. The horns and percussion sound like field recordings, and seem as though they are meant to be heard as quotations in the context of the song. The bassline and the keyboards may as well have footnotes attached to them. The disjointed sound works for the Jealous Lovers, and goes a long way in distancing them from the colder, less organic sound of many of their post-Electroclash peers. (Click here to visit the official Jealous Lovers website.)

Fluxblog has been nominated for a Bloggie in the Best Entertainment Blog category. You can vote here. Thanks to everyone involved in nominating the site, I really appreciate it.

Does This Look Like A Facelift That Would Lie To You?

Taylor Savvy “Treat Him Like A Lady (Sometimes)” – I never realized how much Taylor Savvy sounded like John Mayer until I heard this song. It’s all in the voice, of course (though Savvy isn’t quite as reedy or affected as Mayer), because this track sounds a lot more lite FM/boy-band than acoustic Starbucks rock. It makes a lot of sense for Savvy to play up any similarities to Mayer, whether it is intentional or not, given that his whole act is about subverting his pretty boy looks and smooth pop with peculiar lyrics and his Justin Timberlake-meets-Chippendales stage show. If Savvy is going to send up the music made by men to seduce women, John Mayer is an excellent contemporary reference point. Bonus points: Savvy’s lyrical advice in this song (basically, you should treat men with tenderness and affection sometimes) seems like something that Mayer would actually write, given the level of humor and self-awareness that he displayed on his recent VH1 special. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Roots Manuva “Colossal Insight (Jammer & Mizz Beatz Remix)” – Though Roots Manuva is not quite as extreme as many of his UK hip hop contempories, it would be difficult to confuse his music with any current American rap artists. His vocal flow is fluid and somewhat conventional, but his tracks are often cold and trebly in a way which is obviously influenced by European electronic artists, whereas American electronic hip hop beats come out of the funk tradition and tend to emphasize warmer low-end frequencies. This track is particularly indebted to modern American r&b (especially on the chorus), but sounds as though it was programmed by a person immersed in Europop and UK Garage. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Elsewhere: This realvideo clip of Joan Rivers interviewing Alia “Maeby” Shawkat and Michael “George-Michael” Cera on the red carpet at the Golden Globes is priceless. Shawkat and Cera are clearly uncomfortable in the situation but play to their comedic strengths while Rivers seems more than ever like a batty old lady. Make sure that you watch the entire clip, because those last few seconds are hilarious. Also worth checking out, though not quite as funny, is this clip of Rivers interviewing “old friend” Jessica Walter, who she introduces as being Barbara Walters.

Also: Fluxblog appears briefly in an MTV News story about Music For Robots and a band of teenagers from Brooklyn called The Hysterics. I recommend the song by their frontman Oliver Ignatius on the MFR site – it’s very catchy and sounds a lot like Elliott Smith’s jauntier tunes.

Lose My Concentration

Basement Jaxx “Oh My Gosh” – I don’t know who this singer is, but she’s fantastic. Even as an instrumental, this song would be sexy and sassy, but this girl puts it over the top without coming off as hammy or overly affected. This single is taken from the forthcoming Basement Jaxx greatest hits compilation, which in a purely de facto it-has-every-great-Jaxx-song-except-for-“Cish Cash” sort of way promises to be among the year’s best releases. (Click here to visit the official Basement Jaxx site.)

Chica + The Folder “I’ll Come Running” – When dealing with source material as strong as this Eno song, there is a limit to how badly things can go. Luckily, this is a very inspired cover version, as it recasts the song’s narrator as an Eastern European woman, and renders the music entirely with cool, serene digital tones. (Click here to buy it from Hausmusik.)

If You Wanna, Let’s Skip The Sauna

Mutronium “I’m All Over You” – As the northeastern United States settles into a deep freeze, it’s probably a good idea to break out some summery pop for the sake of escapism. This song is an excellent Cars pastiche complimented by some noisy lead guitar straight out of the Joey Santiago playbook and dynamic programmed percussion that flirts with Big Beat, but remains grounded in contemporary power pop. In terms of pop-rock music, this is the song to beat in 2005. (Mutronium is an unsigned band. If you would like to contact the band, please email mutronium @ hotmail.com)

Benny Sings “Little Donna” – I suppose that a lot of my extreme fondness for this song is a direct result of growing up listening to lite FM radio. Like Phoenix, Benny Sings is unironic about this sort of pop music, and write and perform their material with considerable skill and intelligence. Unlike Phoenix, modern pop sounds are kept to a minimum, so songs like “Little Donna” could possibly pass for an actual AM radio hit from the 70s to most laypersons. Be warned – this song is insanely catchy. I feel like I’m never going to get this song out of my head, and I don’t really mind. (Click here to pre-order it from Dox Records.)

Alone On A Mountain Top

Au Revoir Simone “And Sleep Al Mar” – It’s actually kind of refreshing to hear something as creepy and lecherous as this song come from an all-girl band. There’s no shortage of songs about older men desiring sexy young boys and girls, but good luck making a top ten list of songs sung from an adult female perspective about lust for teenage boys. This song is considerably darker than Au Revoir Simone’s previous material, but the band doesn’t overdo it, keeping the sinister vibe fairly subtle and cinematic rather than over-the-top and theatrical. It’s rather like a feminine version of Thom Yorke’s piano-based songs on the last two Radiohead albums. (Click here to visit the official Au Revoir Simone site.)

Architecture In Helsinki “Do The Whirlwind” – Though I normally use the word “joycore” as an adjective these days, this song would fit into a hypothetical genre of the same name rather comfortably along with recent music by the likes of United State Of Electronica and The Go! Team. “Do The Whirlwind” sounds like a direct descendent of the Tom Tom Club’s classic “Genius Of Love” not just in its floaty, low-key funk, but also in how it employs cutesy vocals to deliver deceptively heavy lyrics. (Click here to buy it from Remote Control.)

The Trendsetters Make Things Better

M.I.A. “M.I.A. (Arular Version)” – One of the things that I find most impressive about M.I.A. is her ability to make a string of seemingly random (but highly specific) images, references, and slogans seem like a fully formed polemic while rarely ever making any direct statements. Anyone who is even remotely informed will be able to read between her lines – there’s not a lot of room for ambiguity here, though obviousness is in short supply. It’s not entirely absent – “you can watch tv, watch the media/President Bush doing takeover” is pretty blunt, but it isn’t didactic. It’s just matter of fact. American imperialism isn’t big news to M.I.A., which is refreshing given that on some level, most anti-Bush/anti-Iraq war songs produced by Americans seem vaguely surprised about it. (Click here to visit the official M.I.A. website.)

Masha Qrella “Last Night” – In my experience, most hybrids of folk rock and electronic music have resulted in tepid yuppie pop that often sounds like standard AAA singer-songwriter fare with a tacked-on “trip hop” beat. Masha Qrella’s approach to merging acoustic and electronic elements is far more organic and much less selfconcious. “Last Night” is particularly inspired as it bridges two sections that sound like My Bloody Valentine if they did MTV Unplugged with a stunning, understated instrumental bridge which ranks among the most beautiful things that I’ve heard in months. (Click here to pre-order it from Boomkat.)

Elsewhere: Everybody knows that UK indie rock types are almost uniformly thin and pretty. But do they wear nice shoes? Find out over at Popstars Feets, a blog which gives new meaning to the word “shoegazer.”

All the Good Times I’ve Been Misusin’

The Wonder Band “Whole Lotta Love” – This is the A-side of Stairway to Love (Atco, 1979); the B-side is a whole lotta “Stairway.” It’s about as disco as Nazareth’s Expect No Mercy or Ram Jam’s “Black Betty,” which is to say there’s plenty of trouser-cuke buttrock boogie and poly-pantsuit-wedgie boogie in each. This would still get a teenager pantsed in most American high schools, but even with a Love Boat beat and some fem-vox behind it you can’t get more Neanderthal-jock than asserting you’re gonna give a girl every inch of your love.

Thelma Houston “96 Tears” – I haven’t heard Aretha Franklin’s version of the ? and the Mysterians cover-band stalwart, but I love her early-‘80s bubblegospel take on “What a Fool Believes”. Thelma’s “96 Tears” eats at the same table, but forsakes some of Aretha’s multi-voiced camaraderie and party-jam looseness for the dinky artifice of low-budget fuzo-disco circa 1981. She doesn’t have a lot of momentum for her voice to ride on here; the song unpacks at a relaxed midtempo and not much happens. The real money is the lyrics. All good soul girls have schadenfreude and instant karma in their library of stock emotions, and Thelma, world-class pro that she is, works it. (Click here to buy the Aretha album. The other two records are currently out of print.)



(Jody Beth Rosen is the author of Freezing To Death In The Nuclear Bunker and is the editor of Southside Callbox, which is currently on hiatus.)