Author Archive

You Are Like Cookies And Like Cake In One

Eagle & Talon “Dropped Down” – Given that the singer grew up in Winnipeg and now lives in Los Angeles, it sort of makes sense that Eagle & Talon’s lyrics would be so fixated on differences in temperature, and that the music would come out feeling like the rock equivalent of a Finnish sauna. The band is at their best when they turn up the heat and launch into their hooks with a confidence and power that comes close to that of a young Sleater-Kinney. (Click here to buy it from the official Eagle & Talon site.)

The Pipettes “Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me” – Though it’s not quite as magical or as funny as “Dirty Mind,” this new single from the Pipettes keeps up their impressive run of singles. As with its predecessor, the craft in the songwriting and production remains strong enough to make the record seem more like a girl group hit that arrived several decades too late rather than just silly kitsch. Sure, the kitsch is there and cannot be denied, but that “and you might cry / for some time” hook is too gorgeous and heart-melting to be written off so easily. (Click here to buy it via the Pipettes’ official site.)

When It Hits You Feel No Pain

Dead Prez “Hip-Hop (Live in Brooklyn, 9/14/2004)” – There’s a lot of jaw-dropping musical highlights from Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and I’m sad to say that many of them didn’t end up on the official soundtrack. Hopefully someday we’ll get the double/triple disc deluxe version that ought to exist, but for now, this will do. Without having to compete with showstoppers by Kanye West and the reunited Fugees, the underdogs in the film get to shine, and in the case of Jill Scott and Dead Prez, stand out as revelations in the context of a live show. I can’t remember if it is The Roots backing up Dead Prez on this cut, but whoever it is, they transform “Hip-Hop” into a stomping monster, especially when they come back in after stic.man’s a cappella verse so heavy that it ought to make a thousand rock bands resign in shame.

As for the film, I just can’t imagine that anyone is going to make a movie that I’m going to love as much in this year. It’s almost enough that it features Dave Chappelle and an all-star roster of performers working at the top of their game, but filmmaker Michel Gondry pulls it all together in a way that I think surpasses every other film based around live music that I’ve ever seen aside from Wattstax. Gondry weaves back and forth through the film between private and public performances, in every scene capturing the unique thrill of the situation. Though it can be frustrating when he cuts out of a performance before it’s over, the editing is generally top notch, and pitch perfect in its sense of timing and narrative impact. You don’t even need to know the backstory of The Roots’ “You Got Me” to pick up on the fact that Erykah Badu and Jill Scott’s shared performance of the song is a special occasion, and similarly, you probably could go your whole life without ever having heard of The Fugees and still have been sucked into the anticipation of the moment when Lauryn Hill starts in on her verse of “Nappy Heads.” Gondry and his team put you in the moment so well that it’s almost difficult to imagine that actually being there could be as good as the final product of the film. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Casey Dienel @ Piano’s 3/11/2006
Baby James / new song / Dr. Monroe / new song / The Coffee Beanery / Embroidery / new song / Everything / Tundra / Cut Your Hair / new song / The La La Song

Casey Dienel “Everything” – Somewhere in the time just after I posted “Dr. Monroe” at the end of February and before seeing her play live this past weekend, I read Dienel’s MySpace page, which revealed her to be a very big fan of Pavement. This was surprising for maybe two seconds, and then everything that I liked about her music sort of snapped into focus with that frame of reference. She has the same sort of effortless melodicism, and the lyrics are informed by a similar sense of humor and wordplay. I’d originally pegged it as a Steely Dan sort of thing, but no, it’s Pavement. Of course! Seeing her perform, it was all the more obvious – her stage presence is similarly casual and low key, and she even sort of looks like Stephen Malkmus as a 21 year old girl with a piano. (Please do not read that last sentence as “Malkmus in drag.” She’s a doll.) As you can see above, Dienel actually did play a Pavement cover, and it kinda kills me that I can’t share a recording of it with you right now because it’s definitely the best non-instrumental cover of a Pavement song that I’ve ever heard. In some ways, it’s rather similar to that Mark Ronson cover of “Just” – it makes no attempt to ape Malkmus’ miles and miles of style, and simply aims to emphasize the timeless qualities of the song by putting it in the context of a genre that the original was referencing, however indirectly or sideways.

As for “Everything,” it’s become my favorite song on her record, and I sort of regret not posting it straight away, but it’s really just one of those occasions when a recording sort of snuck up on me over the course of a few weeks. And those weeks were awful, by the way. As my worries piled up and my stress levels increased, this gentle, whimsical little song was there to calm me down and lift my spirits, and now I’m pretty much bonded with it forever. (Click here to buy it from Hush Records.)

Get Your Walkmen, iPods, Minidiscs, and Record Players

Portobella “Freakin’ In Stereo (A-side Mix)” – I had been putting this song off all week because I can’t seem to find accurate information about it anywhere. I’m not even 100% certain if this is the same Portobella that did Fluxblog favorites “Vive La Difference” and “Covered In Punk.” But you know what? It just doesn’t matter who it is, only that it’s this sort of mindblowing disco meltdown that offers both instant satisfaction every step of the way and delayed gratification by waiting nearly three minutes before dropping its second killer hook. Do you know more about this track? Please let me know in the comments box! (Click here for the Portobella website.)

Junior Bloomsday featuring Cadence Weapon “Your Perfect Gene” – No one should ever expect to hear a rap cameo turn up in a sweet shoegazing synthpop song like this, but Cadence Weapon materializes out of nowhere in the final third of this track and pulls it off as though it was the most normal thing in the world. More MBV hip hop, please! (Click here to buy it from Scratch Records.)

Also: NYC people really ought to go to the Maxi Geil & Playcolt / Soft / Heloise & The Savoir Faire Dancers show at North Six in Brooklyn on Sunday night. I’ve already made a commitment for that night (no, not The Sopranos – that’s being tivo’d for me), so I can’t make it. It’s very frustrating – I’m always thrilled to see Maxi Geil live, but I’ve also been wanting to see Heloise for a few years now, and one of the members of Soft is an old friend of mine, and I’d be happy to see them again.

It Happens In New York

Ursula 1000 featuring Cristina “Urgent/Anxious” – This is Cristina’s first new recording since she abandoned the record industry to become a full-time theatre critic following the release of her classic second album in 1984. Though she had apparently flirted with the possibility of working with some other producers on new material, nothing had actually materialized until she collaborated with Ursula 1000 last year. Judging by her performance on this track, time away from the recording studio has not done much to dull her wit or allure. She remains pop’s droll queen of high class decadence, and her voice still sounds remarkably youthful. On this track, she seems to be revisiting her bored, self-destructive character from “What’s A Girl To Do?” twenty-two years later as she’s putting on a confident front while she’s being eaten alive by her anxiety and narcissism. (Click here to buy the new song from Ursula 1000 and here to buy Sleep It Off from Ze Records.)

Elsewhere: NPR’s All Songs Considered has Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographer’s entire sets from their show in Washington, DC available for download right here. The New Pornographers set is a bit of an anomaly in that Kathryn Calder was too ill to sing on that night, forcing them to play an entire setlist of songs that did not feature lead female vocals.

Deep Down You Know I Wasn’t Fucking Around

Knife Skills “Our Summer of Teenage Lust” – Well, these people apparently had a much more exciting life as teenagers than I ever did. But somehow, it still rings very true to me, if just for details like “I skipped school just to ride in your car, listening to radio” are exactly the kind of mundane, potentially boring low-stakes rebellion that seems really exciting at that age if just because it breaks the routine of school. (Click here for Knife Skills’ official site.)

Mr. Lif “Long Distance” – It’s a sex rhyme, and a good one, but after all these years, it’s hard for a song like this to be particularly surprising. (Well, without being about male homosexuality, of course. A rap Brokeback would obviously be a big deal.) The sex rhyme is a classic hip hop archetype, and we can look at Mr. Lif’s lyrics and rate them against a wide range of similar songs by other rappers and go “well, it’s not as lewd as ____, or as misogynistic as _____, but the graphic descriptions of the sex acts are more creative than ______.” But can you even imagine the stars of other genres (especially white artists) doing something like this? I mean, songs that express sexuality are a dime a dozen, but can you imagine Paul McCartney or Thom Yorke singing unironically about exactly how they want to fuck you? It would be sort of mindblowing. Since Beck’s flirtations with the subgenre are PG-13 at best, and definitely laced with industrial-grade irony, the only high profile exceptions I can think of are “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails and “Flower” by Liz Phair, but it’s still not quite the same thing. (Click here for Mr. Lif’s official site.)

Sooooooooooooooooo. We’re going to have a little contest! I want you to come up with graphically sexual lyrics in the style of the indie/alternative icon of your choosing. Stephen Malkmus, Bono, Bob Pollard, Cat Power, Bjork, Billy Corgan, Sufjan Stevens, Eddie Vedder, Stuart Murdoch, Dan Bejar, Ian MacKaye – whoever you want. Just bring the raunch the way you think they would write it, and put it in the comments box for this post. (You should mention whose style you are aping along with the lyrics in the box – don’t make me guess.) A week from now, I’ll pick the one I like the most, and I’ll send an email to that person with a long list of promo cds, and they can pick five or six records from the list, and that’ll be the grand prize. Also, you can feel free to enter this contest more than once.

Update: Here’s the list of records up for grabs. I may add some more to this list later on.

It’s Not The Us And Them Or The You And Me

Irving “Jen, Nothing Matters To Me” – I have no idea how cynical the members of Irving may be, but if they wrote this song as a way to attract groupies, then they might be in for a very fun tour. The music evokes the sweetest, sunniest, poppiest swoon-alongs of The Cure, The Smiths, New Order and Pavement (well, “Gold Soundz,” anyway) while the lyrics are about being a “selfish boy” who is “emotionally unavailable” and unwilling to commit to anything. This is indie girl bait all the way. We’ve all met the guy in this song, and we know the kind of girls that he pulls. He’s aloof, apathetic, mildy self-loathing and painfully self-absorbed, but he knows it, and he’s warning this girl: “Please, no, don’t love me, go love someone who will treat you well!” But it’s reverse psychology! And she’s a goner, because it’s triggering the “oh, but I can fix him!” impulse, and she’s DOOMED DOOMED DOOMED. This song is a trap! (Click here to pre-order it from Eenie Meenie.)

DAT Politics “Turn My Brain Off” – It’s sort of hard to imagine that normal humans made this music, and not cartoon characters from some crazy postmodern kid’s show. But then, I haven’t seen any photos of this band, and the singers could very well be animated punk rock ducks. If not, they should look into it. It totally worked for Damon Albarn, after all. (Click here for the DAT Politics website.)

Also: Yo La Tengo’s annual covers-for-pledges marathon show will be on WFMU tonight from 8 – 11 PM EST. I will be one of the people answering the phones, so please do call in and request a song. I’m fairly certain that the minimum pledge for a song request is $70, which will also get you a WFMU t-shirt and several other goodies. If you want to get your request played by the band on the air, I strongly recommend getting your call in before the end of the first hour. Also, I would love it if one of you could get them to play “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp.”

A Night Misfiled Under Morning

Belle & Sebastian @ The Nokia Theatre 3/3/2006
Expectations / Another Sunny Day / Women’s Realm / Sukie in the Graveyard / To Be Myself Completely / Electronic Renaissance / The Boy Done Wrong Again / The Blues Are Still Blue / Piazza, New York Catcher / Funny Little Frog / (Stuart sings a bit of “Don’t Stop Believing” a cappella) / Like Dylan in the Movies / Your Cover’s Blown / Act of the Apostle I / I’m A Cuckoo / The Wrong Girl / White Collar Boy / Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying // Simple Things (brief, aborted) / Judy and the Dream of Horses / You’re Just A Baby

Belle & Sebastian “The Blues Are Still Blue” (Mark Radcliffe BBC Session, 2006) – I suppose that my opinion of this show is tainted by having seen the band play a generally superior gig the night before. There wasn’t anything terribly wrong with this show, though Stuart Murdoch was obviously less energetic (less manic?), and the setlist had sort of an awkward flow to it. (“Expectations” doesn’t quite work as an opener, “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying” is sort of an anticlimax at the end of the set.) I was thrilled to see them play “Women’s Realm” and “The Blues Are Still Blue,” since they were the two I was most hoping for coming in to the show, though I would have liked for them to play “Slow Graffiti,” “Seeing Other People,” and “Sleep The Clock Around,” since I know that they are commonly played songs on this tour. Oh well, I’m sure I will see them again sometime. Of the songs that I saw two nights in a row, “White Collar Boy” and “I’m A Cuckoo” came off better the second time around, and “Sukie” seemed considerably more confident. (Click here to buy the orginal recording from Insound.)

The New Pornographers @ The Nokia Theatre 3/3/2006
Star Bodies / Use It / The Laws Have Changed / The Bleeding Heart Show / The Jessica Numbers / July Jones / Mass Romantic / Testament To Youth In Verse / Twin Cinema / The Bones of an Idol / The Body Says No / Jackie Dressed In Cobras / (the band briefly improvises a bit of “Eye of the Tiger”) / It’s Only Divine Right / Sing Me Spanish Techno / Letter From An Occupant

The New Pornographers “Star Bodies” (Live at the Triple Door, Seattle 8/23/2005) – I was quite happy that The New Pornographers started off this set with “Star Bodies.” After having the album for several months, the song snuck up on me a couple months ago and became one of my favorite tracks on Twin Cinema, though I should note that I can pretty much say the same thing about every song on the album except for “The Bleeding Heart Show” and “Stacked Crooked.” (The latter has grown on me considerably, but I can’t imagine the former ever not being one of my least favorites in the band’s discography, though I do concede that it is a good song. ) There was very little difference in terms of quality between the two consecutive New Pornographers shows, though the “Eye of the Tiger” improv was priceless and “Twin Cinema” packed more of a punch coming later in the running order. (Click here to buy the original recording from Insound.)

Something Keeps Turning Us On

The New Pornographers @ The Nokia Theatre 3/2/2006
Twin Cinema / Use It / The Laws Have Changed / July Jones / The Bleeding Heart Show / Stacked Crooked / Mass Romantic / Execution Day / The Fake Headlines / The Jessica Numbers / The Bones of an Idol / From Blown Speakers / It’s Only Divine Right / Slow Descent Into Alcoholism / Sing Me Spanish Techno

This is the second time that I’ve seen The New Pornographers perform without Neko Case (Dan Bejar’s absence should be taken as a given with the exception of last fall’s Twin Cinema tour), and the results were much better than the somewhat nervous, underrehearsed debut of the line-up in Brooklyn last summer. Sensibly, the songs which demanded Neko’s vocal bombast were cut from the setlist this time around, leaving ace understudy Kathryn Calder in her comfort zone, singing parts better suited to her particular vocal gifts. Without the starpower of Case and with only one Bejar song played in the set, the show served mainly as a showcase for Carl Newman’s superlative songwriting and the band’s tight harmonies.

The New Pornographers “The Bones of an Idol (Live in session, Kathryn Calder lead vocal) – It was probably for the best that I missed this song at the full band’s show at Webster Hall last year, since it probably would have been sung by Neko Case. Though I enjoy Case’s warmer vocal on the LP version, I definitely prefer Calder’s take on this song – her regal cadence and demure persona is much better suited to this composition’s chilly grandeur. (Click here to buy it from iTunes.)

Immediately following The New Pornographers’ set, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, and three other guys were introduced to the audience by Newman as being a band that they had met at a festival in Switzerland called A Matter Of Trust. They proceeded to perform an extended version of Billy Joel’s song of the same name, which is lot more hilarious in practice than it probably comes off in print.

Belle & Sebastian @ The Nokia Theatre 3/2/2006
The Stars of Track & Field / Another Sunny Day / Funny Little Frog / A Century of Fakers / Sukie In the Graveyard / Electronic Renaissance / The Lonelineness of a Middle Distance Runner / To Be Myself Completely / Dress Up In You / Fox in the Snow / White Collar Boy / Mayfly / Your Cover’s Blown / Dog On Wheels / I’m A Cuckoo / Jonathan David / (Stevie sings a bit of “People Get Ready” while Stuart instructs the dancing girls that he recruited from the audience) / If You Find Yourself Caught In Love / The State I Am In // Judy and the Dream of Horses / Me and the Major

Before last night, I had not seen Belle & Sebastian perform live since they played at the Supper Club in New York City in the fall of 1998. What a difference seven years has made! Back then they were an amiable bunch of amateurs playing Stuart Murdoch’s exquisite compositions as best as they could, but today they are a polished band of professional entertainers, with Murdoch emerging at the center as a handsome, wildly charismatic frontman. The band’s showmanship was at its best on the numbers which allowed Murdoch to perform without his guitar or piano, freeing him up to gesticulate, dance, and even crowd surf during the rock section of “Your Cover’s Blown.” He was also quite funny. After explaining that he’s been somewhat glum on this tour, mainly due to moving from room to room and bus to bus without having much time for fun, Murdoch decided to bring up six girls from the audience to dance on stage for the show’s clear highlight, “If You Find Yourself Caught In Love.”

Belle & Sebastian “Me and the Major (Live @ the Barbican, 9/25/2005)” – As you can see above, the band played half of If You’re Feeling Sinister last night, which was obviously quite a thrill for this longtime fan, though I do feel that it’s sort of odd that they would almost completely ignore their middle period in favor of the newest and oldest songs in their catalog. I’d hate to think that they are omitting them because they think people do not like those songs! I’ll be seeing tonight’s show as well, so hopefully they will add “Women’s Realm,” “Slow Graffiti,” or “Sleep The Clock Around” to the next setlist. (Click here to buy it from iTunes.)

You Listen To Trash, But It’s My Rock And Roll

Howling Bells “Low Happening” – What is a “Low Happening”? As far as I can tell from this song, it’s when a bitter romance hits rock bottom, but then blasts its way down deeper with The Jackhammer Of Mutual Contempt. The guitars sound like bad weather, and the vocals convey soul and a delicate, wounded pride where a lesser singer would only get across anger and self-righteousness. Very impressive for a debut single. (Click here for the official Howling Bells site.)

Danielson “Bloodbook On The Half Shell” – Though nothing on it matches the unhinged, childlike glee of Danielson Famile highlights such as “Cutest Lil’ Dragon,” “Good News For The Puss-Pickers” and “Fathom The Nine Fruits Pie” (the latter of which could very well be the most joyous song that I have ever heard) , the restrained, decaffeinated version of the Danielson aesthetic presented on the forthcoming album Ships is not without its own charms. Much of “Bloodbook” unfolds at a slow, laid back pace that recalls some of Grant Lee Phillips’ best work, but Daniel Smith can’t hold back his impulse for manic reverie for long, so the song vacillates between the two extremes, resulting in a peculiar variation of the old alt-rock “soft to loud” formula. (Click here for the Danielson MySpace page.)

Of All The Things I Like About You

Fuck-Off Machete “What’s The Signal?” – The way I’m hearing this, it’s like being 100% certain about your feelings for someone, and being about 60% sure of how they feel about you. It’s bursting with anxiety, lust, and this BIG BIG LOVE that you can’t quite let loose for fear of total embarassment, but can’t help but betray whenever you’re around the person in question. (Click here for the official Fuck-Off Machete site.)

Los Super Elegantes “OK” – Set to a sweet, nostalgia-inducing keyboard part, Los Super Elegantes evoke a vivid scene outside a high school on a lazy afternoon. Kids flirt and mingle, aimlessly kill time in the park, and every invitation is met with a flat, passive “okay” that just barely conceals an obvious enthusiasm that’s just a little too dorky to fully express when you’re at that age. (Click here for the official Los Super Elegantes site.)

What’s Your Name? Because I’m Impressed

Dear Nora & Casiotone For The Painfully Alone “Hot Boyz” – If a song could look you in the eyes, this recording would be wearing sunglasses and looking just over your shoulder. It’s very difficult to suss out the intentions of this Missy Elliott cover – homage or critique, parody or self-parody? It’s really hard to tell, and it’s most likely somewhere off between those margins, though the male cameo does seem to tip in favor of academic irony. But regardless of what they meant it to be, it’s a mesmerizing and genuinely effecting affectation, recasting Missy’s brassy sexuality in the context of flat-voiced, stoned Liz Phair lo-fi in which every line is delivered with air quotes, five pages of foot notes, and the nagging sense that the singer is totally consumed by a self-doubt completely at odds with the lyrical content. Also: Beware the one-string guitar solo of total emotional desolation! (Click here to buy it from States Rights.)

Linda Lamb “Twins” – Ah ha! Here’s another ideal song to be played at that hypothetical Rob Liefeld post-Apocalyptic dance party. Just imagine a bunch of Liefeld women in skimpy spandex leotards with huge hair, gigantic shoulder pads, and massive swords swaying wildly to this song’s harsh beats, or as much as they can without having their top-heavy torsos snap off at their freakishly tiny waists. This selection is from a compilation which also includes a P Diddy/Felix Da Housecat collaboration, but trust me, this is a lot better even if the curiosity factor is much lower. (Click here to pre-order it from Soul Seduction.)

Elsewhere: Happy baby boy with bubbles and Neu!

And: The annual WFMU marathon has begun! Please help to support the best freeform radio station on the planet.

Our Little Castle Is A House Of Cards

Marit Larsen “Don’t Save Me” – It’s remarkable how much that ABBA-esque ringing piano refrain adds to this song, kicking it up from being a lovely acoustic-based pop ballad to something far more classic and epic without being particularly melodramatic. This is quite simply one of the best, most masterfully composed pop singles of the year thus far. Rightfully, this track is blowing up in Norway at the moment, but with any luck, this should spread well beyond Scandinavia over the course of the year. (Click here to buy it from CDON.)

Dresden Dolls “My Alcoholic Friends” – It’s a strange thing. I listen to quite a bit of music that doesn’t have much of a connection to my own experiences and lifestyle, and 95% of the time, it doesn’t really make a difference to me one way or another. Dresden Dolls falls into the remaining 5% – I can’t help but feel as though I’m listening to music that is meant for someone else, and that I’m some sort of subcultural intruder for putting this song on repeat even if it’s basically the sort of jaunty cabaret/glam tune that ordinarily wouldn’t be so out of place on this site. It’s catchy and clever, but man, I just feel like I’m surreptitiously reading some teenage goth girl’s livejournal or something. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

The Death of a Ladies Man

Casey Dienel “Doctor Monroe” – The most immediately striking thing about Miss Dienel’s first album is that it is so incredibly low-key and unpolished that she makes writing these wonderfully catchy songs with clever lyrics seem nearly effortless, which is definitely not the case for most people. On the surface, she’s like a much much much less precious version of Nellie McKay, but the melodic sensibility is closer to that of Ben Folds, and the lyrics seem vaguely Steely Dan-ish to me. This is all rather startling for someone who is only 20 years old!
(Click here to buy it from Hush Records.)

Product 01 “Hot (Electro Vox Mix)” – You know how some people have a “type,” and they can’t help but melt whenever they meet a person who falls into that type? I’m like this with these glammy, sexy electro vamp songs, whether it be by Goldfrapp or Richard X or whomever. There’s really not that many people doing this sort of thing, so it’s still fairly exotic and it kills me every time, and I’m not sure if I can totally explain why. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

I’m An Ice Skater’s Bruised Knees

The Fiery Furnaces “Police Sweater Blood Vow” – Since they are the sort of band that clearly takes a lot of glee in messing with their audience’s expectations, I was a bit nervous that the Fiery Furnaces would do something to mess up the studio recording of this song, which I had fallen in love with on the strength of the acoustic KEXP session version posted on this site last spring. Though there’s a bit of overdub overkill as the song progresses, this Bitter Tea arrangement basically plays it straight as a jaunty Dylan-esque singalong, placing the emphasis firmly on the melody and the lyrics. It’s an amazing, highly accesable song, and surely the sort of thing that will win back listeners put off by the bizarre excesses of Rehearsing My Choir.

In addition to its relatively normal arrangement, “Police Sweater Blood Vow” also rates as being one of the most easily relatable songs in the Furnaces catalog with its frank, straightforward lyrics about the troubles of a long distance relationship. On the verses, Eleanor sings several lines about memories and places that are so specific that they seem dense and cryptic, but the lines that dig in deepest are the most obvious and matter-of-fact: “It’s only you who effects me,” sounding more like a diagnosis than a confession. “That’s not right babe, you’re here and I’m there,” the words falling flat from futility. “Tell me, babe, what time is it now?,” muttered on a cell phone to a person in some far-off time zone. (Click here for the official Fiery Furnaces website.)

How To Get To Purest Hell

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They “Lowlife” – With a pulse-pounding beat and jittery horns, They Shoot Horses… evoke the fun sort of paranoia, i.e., the kind that does not directly involve yourself. This is more like the vicarious thrill of watching characters get put through the wringer in pulpy genre fiction, safe from the possibility of actually being the person at risk of being knifed by a lowlife in some noirish scenario. (Click here to buy it from Buy Olympia.)

Mark Ronson with Alex Greenwald “Just” – With the help of the horn section of the Dap Kings and the singer from Phantom Planet, DJ Mark Ronson foregrounds the R&B grooves that were always present in the Radiohead original, resulting in the very best Radiohead cover (with vocals) that I’ve heard. The transposition of Johnny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien’s lead guitar parts to trumpet and saxphone is particularly inspired, and though I do wish the vocals were more soul/R&B to match the rest of the arrangement, Greenwald does a fine job. It’s definitely a lot better than my performance of “Creep” with the Super Karaoke Fun Time Band last night! (Click here to visit Mark Ronson’s MySpace page.)

I Flit, I Float, I Fleetly Flee, I Fly

Max Tundra “So Long, Farewell” – The first time that I heard this, I spent the full duration of the song with a slack-jawed look of giddy disbelief on my face. I’m not kidding or exaggerating at all! It’s kind of amazing how perfectly this Rodgers & Hammerstein classic from The Sound Of Music suits Max Tundra’s distinct aesthetic. Tundra infuses the familiar showtune with the hyperactive cheer and sunny electronic textures of his 2002 classic Mastered By Guy at the Exchange, bringing out the best in the song and in his production style. (Click here for the official Max Tundra website.)

Simon Bookish “Terry Riley Disco (Max Tundra Remix)” – This sounds about as much like “Terry Riley Disco” as that Stereolab song sounds like “John Cage Bubblegum,” which is to say, it’s much closer to the second half of the imaginary genre assignment than the first. Simon Bookish speak-sings about his “mixed-up genre for a mixed-up world” in a tone and accent reminiscent of Klaus Nomi when he wasn’t in opera mode over an inspired track by Max Tundra that begins as a mesmerizing slow burner before shifting into something far more manic and explosive around the halfway point. (Click here for the official Simon Bookish site.)

At The Risk Of Absurdity

Hot Chip “Arrest Yourself” – No matter how much funk they sneak into their keyboard grooves, there’s just no way that Hot Chip can avoid sounding drowsy with those diffident, dispassionate vocals. This is no complaint, mind you. There’s a rather appealing tension in their mix of seductive beats and lackadaisical vibes. It’s like “back to mine” bachelor bad music for the terminally indecisive. (Click here for Hot Chip’s official website.)

Tender Forever “The Feelings of Love” – The song is awash in a sea of laptop melancholia; pulled down deep by the undertow of bittersweet nostalgia for the passionate early days of a romance; and lifted up by gentle hand claps and sweet self-harmonization. My first thought upon hearing it was to wish that I had posted this track on Valentine’s Day, but now I think that it’s much more appropriate for it to pop up a few days later. (Click here to buy it from K Records.)

Here Is Where Time Is On Our Side

Talking Heads “Road To Nowhere (Early Version)” – Little Creatures is such a frustrating record. Even though it is home to three of David Byrne’s finest songs, I reckon that it signifies the beginning of the Talking Heads’ decline even moreso than the similarly uneven Speaking In Tongues. Even still, it’s a fascinating record, the sort of thing where even the weakest tracks are strangely compelling thanks to the car-crash magnetism of tacky mid-80s production, clever lyrical themes, and the sort of keyboard settings that I can’t imagine ever sounded cool, even in the context of 1985. The album’s aggressive tastefulness and intentional retreat from the experimentalism of the band’s work with Brian Eno took it to the top of the 1985 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, though as Robert Christgau notes in his corresponding essay, it was mainly due to that year being alarmingly short on great records, much less albums that could garner any sort of critical concensus at the time.

The dvd side of the dualdisc reissue presents the music in pristine surround sound so crisply articulated that even an ape-eared non-audiophile like myself could notice the superior quality of the mix on standard television speakers, though I’m not sure if it did much other than to call attention to my misgivings with the album’s production aesthetic. “Stay Up Late,” the world’s greatest song about babysitting, and “And She Was” benefit the most from the dvd audio treatment, though that could mainly be because those two tracks are so strong that the super-clean production only brought out the best in the compositions, whereas lesser tracks like “Creatures of Love” and “The Lady Don’t Mind” are swallowed whole by regrettable arrangements and horribly dated guitar tones.

Of the bonus tracks, the main draw is the early version of the album’s third great song, “Road To Nowhere.” Stripped of its backing vocals and reduced to a comparitively spare arrangement, the demo feels noticeably lonely, standing in stark contrast with the inclusive feeling of the final version, with the new context changing the meaning of the song considerably by forcing the impression that Byrne is using the royal we when he sings “we’re on a road to nowhere.” (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Talking Heads “Fela’s Riff” – Only five years earlier, the Heads were up to something a lot more exciting, resulting in a surplus of strong material that has now resurfaced as bonus tracks on the reissue of their finest album, Remain In Light. I posted the early version of “Once In A Lifetime” recently, but that track seems rather tame in comparison to “Fela’s Riff,” an intense Afrobeat/krautrock instrumental that now ranks among my favorite recordings by the band. It blows me away that they would dream of ditching a track like this. Bands go their entire career hoping to capture something as magical as this, and they opted to leave it on the cutting room floor. Going on the title, I would guess that the band felt that the song was overly derivative of Fela Kuti, but man, that is just no excuse! The four outtakes would have made a brilliant stopgap EP.

The videos of “Crosseyed and Painless” and “Once In A Lifetime” being performed live on German television on the dvd side of the dualdisc are just as jaw-dropping. The band is at the peak of their powers and augmented by several additional players, jamming for a couple minutes before launching into a jerky, sublime take on the former song that outdoes the quite remarkable LP version. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Beautiful And Broken At The Knees

The Streets “When You Wasn’t Famous” – …and now we shall all wait patiently until this song inevitably turns up in an episode of the next season of Entourage. This new single finds Mike Skinner bored with the fact that he can easily pick up girls now that he’s famous and resolving to hit on other pop celebrities since that poses the same challenge as when he was a nobody. It’s snotty, smug and self-absorbed, but his characteristic wit and attention to narrative detail saves the track from seeming like a cut-rate English Eminem. And of course, the ridiculously catchy chorus does not hurt at all. (Click here for the official site of The Streets.)

Blitzen Trapper “Whiskey Kisser (Kittenz Remix)” – It’s interesting how whenever these pimp strut basslines get mixed up with cartoonish country affectations, the result is that the funk mutates into this weird, wobbly bounce. This track in particular makes me imagine Reed Richards or Plastic Man dancing while warping their super-elastic limbs to the beat. (Click here for the official Blitzen Trapper site.)

You Feel It In Your Legs And In Your Heart

Jenny Wilson “Love Ain’t Just A Four Letter Word” – On a Valentine’s Day when the sentiment of my own heart is closer to that of “The Classical” than most any earnest love song, this bittersweet art-pop/cabaret ballad from Jenny Wilson sits in a comfortable middle ground between cynicism and romance that feels like some kind of emotional truth to me at the moment. I’ve posted this song before, and my estimation of it has only improved in the time since I’ve found it as it has become a playlist staple that feels just as right on both good and bad days. (Click here to buy it from Rabid Records.)

Dreamdate “The One I Need” – This is a song for those of you who may be feeling some kind of romantic bliss on this day. Oakland’s Dreamdate are the next in a long line of indie pop bands who specialize in one of the genre’s best selling points – sweet, extremely low key love songs ideally suited as a soundtrack for cuddling after exchanging flowers and chocolates. “The One I Need” sounds a little like Unrest, and a lot like Electrelane with a crush. (Click here for Dreamdate’s MySpace page.)