It Feels Almost Like A Holiday

Wir Sind Helden “Nur Ein Wort” –

my problem with German pop
is that I can’t sing along
the words melt into formless sounds
and no concepts emerge

to help me to enjoy this pretty song
even more than I already do
I have written these new words
as a rough phonetic guide

it is somewhat ridiculous, I know
I’ve already botched the meter
but it’s okay, it keeps the pace
I’m allowed some poetic license

these new lyrics to the song
they help me to sing along
my silly English lyrics for a
German catchy indie pop song

this sounds like Sleeper and Nena
“99 Luftballons,” kinda
it’s good for dancing, a new wave beat
it makes you sway from side to side

and in the second verse
she sounds so smitten but I read
the English translation and
and it seems that she’s desperate and heartbroken

this bridge feels so familiar, I can’t help but like it
Wir Sind Helden is big in Austria and Germany
not hard to understand why

with English lyrics to the song
Americans could sing along
the more I hear it, the more I love
this catchy German indie pop song

(Click here for the official Wir Sind Helden site and here to buy it from Amazon Germany.)

Morane “Living On A Traffic Island” – The summer is long gone at this point, but there is no reason to shun a perfect summery pop tune, especially when its central theme – finding tranquility in the midst of frantic movement – is particularly relevant at this time of the year. The music is perfectly suited to the lyrics, evoking easy going Brazillian pop while communicating the jittery restlessness of someone who is throughly rattled by the rush of the city. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Real Unprofessional, Like Them Eskimos

If you were wondering, I was in Missouri. If you’re now wondering why I was in Missouri, here’s at least 75% of the reason:

Kanye West @ Savvis Center, St. Louis, MO 12/14/2005
Diamonds of Sierra Leone / The New Workout Plan / Touch The Sky / Heard ‘Em Say / Get ‘Em High / All Falls Down / Slow Jamz / Through The Wire / Jesus Walks / Gold Digger

Kanye West “Late” – As you can see, this song was not in the setlist, but I can’t imagine that any of you haven’t heard the songs that were, even if you never bought the albums or listened to them intentionally.

A proper Kanye West/U2 bill surely would have drawn an interesting mix of fans, but this was a regular support slot for Kanye, announced long after tickets were sold out and as such, the audience was entirely comprised of U2 fans. Lucky for him, the people close to the stage in the ellipse area went wild for him, but the reception around the arena ran hot and cold, with many rockist jackasses booing him while he was onstage and later on, when Bono expressed how happy he was to share a stage with the guy.

The performance itself was an awkward mix of expert showmanship and good ideas not quite gelling as they should. He was backed by a DJ and a full string section, but the mix was horrible throughout the set, mainly resulting in the bass drowning out West’s vocals and the more nuanced parts of the string arrangements. With only a few exceptions, the songs were played in abrupt bits and pieces, rarely with any sort of graceful ending. However, many of the songs did come off well – the string interpolation of the musical hook in “Heard ‘Em Say” was gorgeous, “All Falls Down” seemed particularly well rehearsed, and “Jesus Walks” came across as the sort of arena anthem it ought to be.

The most exciting and memorable thing about this set was Kanye himself, and the sheer magnitude of his charisma. Unlike other U2 opening acts, West took full advantage of their ellipse stage design, jogging along the runway and working it just as well, if not better than Bono himself. The guy is a total natural, and definitely needs to tour more often. If he starts headlining stadiums himself, he really ought to consider stealing that ellipse concept. Really, anyone playing a room that size should. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

U2 @ Savvis Center, St. Louis, MO 12/14/2005
City of Blinding Lights / Vertigo / Elevation / Gloria / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – In A Little While / Beautiful Day / Original of the Species / Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own / Love and Peace Or Else / Sunday Bloody Sunday / Bullet the Blue Sky / Miss Sarajevo / Pride (In the Name of Love) / Where The Streets Have No Name / One // Until the End of the World / Mysterious Ways / With Or Without You /// Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of / Instant Karma / Yahweh / 40

U2 “Love and Peace Or Else (Live in Chicago 5/9/2005)” – Oh yeah, U2 played as well. This was my seventh U2 show (though two of them were not full concerts – Tibetan Freedom Concert 1997, and that show in Brooklyn from last year), and I’m pretty sure that in terms of performance, this was the best that I’ve seen them. Bono’s voice was very on, and he took full advantage of this by going for every vocal flourish that might not be within his reach on a regular night. I was pleased to see a show with a somewhat different running order from the one I caught at Madison Square Garden back in October. I was particularly pleased to see them play “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (which I haven’t witnessed since Popmart) and “Mysterious Ways,” which I’ve seen four times before, but this was easily the best of the five.

“Love and Peace Or Else” was far better in St. Louis than in the 10/8/2005 MSG set, as was the rest of the so-called ‘heart of darkness’ mini-set that also includes “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Bullet The Blue Sky.” Though I quite enjoy “Love and Peace,” this is by far the weakest part of the Vertigo tour – for one thing, these three songs in a row feels more than a little redundant on a musical level, but more than that, there are very troubling political implications in the repurposing of the latter two songs that Chris Conroy discussed in his incomplete review of the tour:

But every night, when “Sunday Bloody Sunday” begins, I check out of the concert completely…It all comes down to a lack of meaning. I feel very strongly that any and all political and social impact that the righteous idealism of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” represents has been leeched out of the song by decades of overexposure. It’s been cast and recast to stand in for so many conflicts that it’s just not saying anything specific about anything that matters…Shouting “This is your song now!” is even more of an insult; it’s giving the audience free rein to wear the cloak of righteousness for five minutes, to pretend that they Really Care and that Violence Is Wrong, before they return to the world where it’s OK to say things like “I think we should just bomb the hell out of all of ’em” and be greeted by serious nods and murmured assent. When R.E.M. say “This is your song now!” before singing “Losing My Religion,” it’s a different scenario; both songs are overplayed popular hits, but one is, at heart, a pop song about personal emotions, and the other is much more outward-looking and focused on something that is obviously not universal: disgust at armed conflict.

“Bullet The Blue Sky” suffers from pretty much the exact same identity crisis. It’s been played on every tour since it was written, largely because the band don’t have any other songs in their catalogue that will allow them to show off bruising hard-rock chops. It, too, is a profoundly anti-violent song — it was written in disgust at how the American military was used to subjugate dissent in Central America — but every time it gets trotted out, Bono desperately tries to make it new and relevant by pointing it at some other conflict. On the Elevation tour, he came the closest he’s come to successfully making it matter again, turning it into a sharp attack on gun violence with a hammy-but-haunting riff on the murder of John Lennon by Mark Chapman. Seeing that song shoved down America’s throat when it was played on the first leg of Elevation was remarkable: here was a band that actually did have the balls to say something that large segments of the audience might not like; here was a band who wrote songs that represented their ideals, and performed them with conviction. But after September 11th, the band dropped that level of interpretation from the song, and hearing it played in New York City became a disturbing experience: inside the arena, it felt like the audience was taking the song up as a battle cry, as a “we want revenge” violence fantasy, losing themselves in the brutality of the music and not in its lyrics of
condemnation for the exercise of force.

On the Vertigo tour, “Bullet The Blue Sky” has become spectacularly muddled. It’s obviously impossible to sing a song about the American military abroad in this climate without having that song be about the Iraq war, and Bono knows it; he’s been incorporating “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” into the lyric, and suddenly the song becomes bizarrely, schizophrenically, pro-soldier — at last night’s show, Bono quite literally dedicated the song to “the brave men and women of the United States Military.” How are we supposed to take that? Obviously conflicts like the Iraq war can produce a difficult line to straddle — it’s virtually impossible to respect what the soldiers are being required to do, but it’s impossible not to respect the impulse to serve one’s country in the name of idealism. A song about hating the sin but loving the sinner could definitely be a rich gold mine for the band to explore, but “Bullet The Blue Sky” is not that song. “Bullet The Blue Sky” is a song of condemnation, of outrage. How the hell are we to take this confused, empty version?

I definitely agree with Chris on this score, and came into the show on Wednesday night with some strong bias against this segment, but at least this time around it didn’t feel as though the band was sleepwalking through “Bullet the Blue Sky” – it actually did have some power to it. This doesn’t change the fact that I’d very much like to never see the song played live again in my life. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

That Look That Says Exactly What You Think Of Me

Nellie McKay “Cupcake” – Nellie McKay has an obvious gift for melody and a lovely singing voice, but too often gets caught up in a sort of cringe-inducing preciousness that is on the outermost perimeter of what I can tolerate from an artist. The theatre camp cabaret affectation is fine with me because it’s clearly her gift as a musician, but her lyrics tend to be strangely long on forced wit and short on humor, making her political music come closer to that of The Capitol Steps than, say, Jon Stewart rocking out at the piano bar. “Cupcake” makes the most of her gifts and hems in her faults, presenting an elegantly crafted tune that’s one part old school AM radio ballad and two parts musical theatre as she stumps for gay marriage in the context of a traditional love song. (Click here for the official Nellie McKay site.)

Ladyfuzz “Monster” – Is there an aural equivalent of squinting? If there is, then do that with this song, and you can sort of get the feeling of an imaginary rocking Portishead song with beats jacked from that first UNKLE album. I love the keyboard spazz-out on the break – it’s like mayhem breaking out in a novelty shop. (Click here for the official Ladyfuzz site.)

Chow Nasty “Ungawa” – Chest-beating Tarzan party rock! This is some fun stuff, and that chant is a crazy earworm that will burrow through your skull if you don’t watch out. I’m glad that we have these guys, because God knows there’s a tiny little gap in the world ever since The Make-Up broke up a few years ago. (Click here for the official Chow Nasty site.)

Fiona Apple @ Nokia Theatre, 12/11/2005
Get Him Back / Better Version Of Me / Shadowboxer / To Your Love / I Know / Sleep To Dream / Limp / Paper Bag / Tymps / Oh Well / On The Bound / Red, Red, Red / Not About Love / O’ Sailor / Get Gone / Fast As You Can // Extraordinary Machine / Criminal / Parting Gift

Fiona Apple “Not About Love” – Fiona Apple didn’t speak very much during this show, but when she did, she mostly talked about being nervous and worried. If you know a thing or two about Apple from over the years, this shouldn’t be so surprising, but in the context of a performance so incredibly assured and compelling, it’s a very curious thing. If she never said a word, it would all seem entirely effortless. She throws herself into every moment of every song, investing every lyric with the fullest of emotion, be it nuanced as in “I Know” (a song which ranks in the highest percentile of my favorite songs ever; I was feeling chills the entire time), or ferocious and raw as with the “Sleep To Dream”/”Limp” bitterness twofer. “Not About Love” was a particular highlight, with its heavy vamp feeling like fists to the gut, and a manic outro that barely felt tame in spite of the band’s obvious control. It blows my mind that a person could be among the best vocalists and songwriters of their generation and on top of that be drop dead gorgeous and still deal with crippling pangs of doubt, but I suppose we’re all better off with some humility.

(For other very OTM reviews of this show, please visit Tom Breihan’s Status Ain’t Hood and SF/J.)

It’s so unfortunate that the critical reaction to Extraordinary Machine ended up getting so badly muddled by a debate over the relative merits of the Jon Brion and Mike Elizondo versions. I maintain that the final product is better by far, but in any case, the basic quality of these songs remains the same, and the best record of 2005 ends up getting screwed over by vote-splitting. I’m sure that in the future, this album will earn the reputation that it deserves, but it absolutely vexes me to see it get passed over by many of my peers in favor of flimsy hackwork in the meantime. I suspect part of it is due to Apple’s subject matter. Writing brilliantly on the topic of love is hardly a fashionable thing – lord knows Stephin Merritt has to wrap up his projects in novelty just to get any serious attention at all. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Destroyer “Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever” – A majority of the Destroyer catalog sounds best at night, but this track has the power to turn any moment of the day into the wee hours of the morning. It’s the perfect music for stumbling home in the cold, ready to fall over but still too far from your front door. It’s the sound of your stray thoughts echoing off the walls as you wait forever on the subway platform, barely keeping your eyes open, and the obscure lyrics start to make perfect sense if just because Dan Bejar is delivering them with such convinction. The sick priest learns to last forevah! Yeah, of course he does. Me too. (Click here for Merge’s Destroyer site.)

Some Other Circus Girl Is Dressing Up Tonight

Gene Serene & John Downfall “The Hours” – Previous songs by Gene Serene have seemed almost freakishly self-assured and confident, but this track is nothing but raw vulnerability, as she laments “the hours I put in / to be the other girl.” It’s the flipside of “I Can Do Anything” and “You Want Me,” the sort of nagging insecurity that motivates one to create a seductive persona in the first place. Something has to be driving your competitive impulses, you know? The music itself is gorgeous, built on the foundation of a slowed down version of the Cure riddim, distant guitar sounds, and warm, delicate bass notes. (Click here to visit the official Gene Serene site.)

Los Super Elegantes “Dance” – This is technically an ESG cover, but there’s got to be a better word for what Los Super Elegantes do with this song. The basic elements that make “Dance” one of the best dance songs ever written remain intact, but the band adds new verses and hooks that actually build on the greatness of the original. It’s rather like buying a buying a beautiful old house and renovating it so that everything you add to the structure only enhances the aesthetic charm of the design. (Click here for the official Los Super Elegantes site.)

Please note that both acts today are currently unsigned. This is sort of mindboggling given all the mediocre or outright awful acts who actually do have labels.

Making Me Feel Like I’ve Never Been Born

New York City radio, 12/8/1980
Los Angeles radio, 12/8/1980

Courtesy of WFMU’s Professor, these recordings scanning the airwaves of NYC and LA on the night John Lennon was murdered twenty-five years ago today capture some small amount of the initial grief and confusion that immediately swept the nation as news of his demise travelled from coast to coast. (Click here to buy it from WFMU.)

Matthew Sweet “She Said, She Said (Live)” – Of course, Lennon’s death in 1980 came when I was only a year and a half old. Like most everyone else, I learned most of the Beatles catalog through radio osmosis as a kid, in some cases not realizing that some popular songs were by The Beatles until much later. (This is definitely the case for a lot of the hits from from the The White Album onward – all of my exposure was heavily skewed towards the early singles from before 1966.)

My first exposure to “She Said, She Said” came via this cover by Matthew Sweet Born To Choose compilation that I bought in early 1994 for its R.E.M. and Pavement content. Aside from The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” it’s probably the most famous song that I first knew as an obscure remake. When I noticed that the song was a Beatles original in the liner notes, I realized for the first time that the band had great songs that were not hits, triggering my purchase of every major Beatles record in rapid succession over the course of 1994. I started with Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour, which remain my two favorites, and kept buying them out of order until I got around to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which I had perversely put off for some reason in spite of its reputation. (Click here to buy it from Amazon for a penny.)

My Name Alone Can’t Be Denied

Mike Jones “Cuttin’ (Remix)” – Is there another artist in contemporary pop music who is as consistently on-message as Mike Jones? Virtually every lyric on Who Is Mike Jones reiterates one of maybe ten key talking points:

1) His name is Mike Jones. (MIKE JONES!!!)
2) The name of his album is Who Is Mike Jones?
3) His cell phone number is/was 281-330-8004, you can feel free to call him.
4) Thanks to his skills as a hustler, he is about to become a superstar.
5) Formerly disinterested women want to get with him now that he is famous.
6) As a result, he does not trust scandalous hoes.
However, he does enjoy the following:
7) Swanging.
8) Woodgrain steering wheels.
9) Purple drank.
10) Princess cut diamonds.

Where others might see a lack of versatility and lyrical creativity, I see an artist who has intentionally or not created a hip hop equivalent of De Stijl, yielding compelling results from a highly stylized set of essential elements and limitations. And if you cannot appreciate that, I don’t know how you’re going to argue with that ska backing track and the yodelling sample. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

August Darnell “Christmas On Riverside Drive” – Sleigh rides, roasting chesnuts, drinking cider from a wooden cane, hanging out with his girlfriend in uptown Manhattan – it’s not hard to understand why Mr. Darnell opted for Christmas in NYC rather than San Bernardino. This is a perfect song for Christmas parties, which is why I’m getting this out of the way early in the month in case any of you will be hosting or DJing one. (Click here to buy it from Ze Records.)

I Like Dahncing At The Disco

Goldfrapp @ Nokia Theatre 12/5/2005
Train / Tip Toe / Koko / Slide In / Number 1 / U Never Know / Lovely Head / Fly Me Away / Satin Chic / Beautiful / Ride A White Horse / Ooh La La // Strict Machine / Black Cherry

Goldfrapp “Ride A White Horse” – It’s so rare that I get to see a proper keyboard driven pop band perform live, much less one that completely delivers the goods from start to finish. Goldfrapp play like strict machines, nailing every part of their songs with scary precision and visceral urgency. The band were accompanied on five songs in the set by a pair of dancers who performed choreographed moves in different fetish suits for each tune. (Wolf masks and bikinis for “Train,” silver latex robot suits for “Slide In,” disco-ball horse heads and tutus with horsey tails for “Ride A White Horse,” etc.) It’s a brilliantly designed spectacle for sure, but the songs are still the most impressive thing about the show. Some of the selections came alive in the performance -“Fly Me Away” and “U Never Know” were more effervescent compared to their flatter studio counterparts, and “Lovely Head” was dynamic rather than just haunting and ethereal – whereas “Ride A White Horse,” “Train,” “Koko,” and especially “Ooh La La” built on their foundation of inherant excellence with an extra jolt of energy and sexuality. Goldfrapp will be touring North America in the early spring of next year, so if you have any love for the band, I strongly encourage you to see them if they come to your area. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK (American version will be in stores on March 7, 2006.)

I Need A Rest From Our Petty Little Dramas

ABBA “You Owe Me One” – This was one of the final songs ever recorded by ABBA, intended for a ninth album that would never be completed. The track was eventually tossed off as the b-side of “Under Attack,” but has recently been reissued as a bonus track on The Visitors album in the new ABBA The Complete Studio Recordings box set. This is somewhat tragic, as it’s clearly one of the best songs the group had ever produced (so brilliant that it even has its own fanclub!) and would have certainly been a fine single and quite possibly a very big hit. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

You Want To Hear Echoes

Delta 5 “Try” – This song is the friend everyone has who is stuck in some horrible relationship, hating everything about it, yet desperately attempting to improve it, despite near-total communication breakdown. Trying, trying, trying. But why? And you just want to take them and shake them by the shoulders and tell them to give up, but nothing you can say is ever enough to snuff out that lingering bit of optimistic delusion. (Click here to buy it from Kill Rock Stars.)

Ken Boothe & Joe Higgs “Message of Old” – Ahhhh, the fade-out is too abrupt! The scat singing on the outro is fantastic, it’s such a shame that it’s cut off maybe thirty or forty seconds too soon. Other than that, there’s very little to complain about with this vintage rocksteady cut from Soul Jazz’s consistently wonderful Studio One series. (Also, if you were wondering, the Christian themes running through the lyrics of the songs posted this week are just a coincidence.) (Click here to buy it from Soul Jazz.)

Glory Shone Around

Alabama Sacred Harp Singers “Sherburne” – I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that this is the oldest song to ever appear on this blog, though it is not the oldest recording to be featured here. “Sherburne” dates back to 1783, though it is essentially a rewritten version of the English Christmas carol “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night” adapted for the sacred harp choral tradition of the rural American south. This is a selection from Dust To Digital’s brilliant Where Will You Be Christmas Day?, a compilation of traditional Christmas music that has fallen into near-total obscurity over the past several decades. (Click here to buy it from Dust To Digital.)

No Need For Acting Clever

Belle & Sebastian “Song For Sunshine” – Belle & Sebastian have built their career on an uncanny knack for pastiche, slowly working through the 60s folk-rock canon and on through other familiar sounds of the 60s and 70s. Each new album from the band seems to be a small step forward along the pop timeline, and it’s beginning to seem likely that the band might record a few grunge numbers around 2018, at which point the sound will be suitably old-timey enough for the group’s sensibility. (There will also be a few baggy numbers on that album.) A majority of the forthcoming The Life Pursuit is spent in a nebulous late 70s mode, mainly fixating on the sort of light Thin Lizzy-ish glam that they started on with “I’m A Cuckoo” from the previous LP. “Song For Sunshine” is the most audacious track from the album, as it blatantly apes Parliament/Funkadelic and Stevie Wonder with very polarizing results. I think it’s the best song on the record, and among the most enjoyable selections in their discography. But other people are already blasting it with their Hatorade hoses, and the thing only leaked this week. So approach with caution, and keep in mind that it’s not exactly a proper representation of the album as a whole. (Click here for the official Belle & Sebastian website.)

Gus Gus “Bambi” – Poor “Bambi,” marooned on an album full of so-so late 90s trip hop, cut off from the rest of the world for being the one song that feels timeless on a record that already feels dated despite only being six years old. This is Gus Gus’ end-of-the-movie moment; a gorgeous vaseline-lensed love song complete with sci-fi romanticism and swelling strings. I reckon that it’s at least equal in quality to some similar songs recorded by Bjork around the same time. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Sometimes The Dam Just Breaks

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins “Born Secular” – In a recent interview, Bono claimed that his favorite music was about people either running to or away from God. This song seems frozen in place between the two, like a deer in His divine headlights. This is amazing stuff – I’d say that it’s the best song Lewis has ever done, but I’m still pretty stuck on “I Never” from More Adventurous. The forthcoming LP is very good too, even the Travelling Wilburys song with Conor Oberst on guest vocals! I know that seems totally impossible, but it’s true. (Click here for Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins’ MySpace page.)

The Howling Hex “No Numbers” – The latest album from Neil Michael Hagerty floats by in a strange haze, like a half-forgotten dream buoyed to the memory by a handful of vivid details. This track in particular benefits from a liberal usage of reverb and trumpet, making the song sound like a field recording of Hagerty jamming on a subway platform. Sorry to bring Bono into this post a second time, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t seem as though Hagerty is just about to start singing “One Tree Hill” every time he gets on the mic. (Click here to buy it from Drag City.)

Darling, We’re A Fashion, Don’t You Know?

Girls Aloud “Models” – Girls Aloud – British talent show pop girl group, yeah? Well, sure, but don’t get it twisted. They are, in fact, one of the best rock acts in the world right now. I can understand why so many people would make the mistake of believing otherwise – in 2005, rock more often than not denotes a slavish devotion to guitars and the tedium of tradition, with most good acts working within the genre getting by on charm and chops rather than a mad rush of pop energy and invention. Basically, Girls Aloud are a pop rock act that have made the decision NOT to be mind-numbingly boring. They have some obvious peers in contemporary pop – Sugababes, Rachel Stevens, Annie, Kelly Clarkson – but I tend to believe that they are actually most similar to The New Pornographers, at least in terms of the effect that I get from listening to their albums. As with the New Pornographers’ three LPs, Girls Aloud’s Chemistry is on full blast from start to finish, even when they make time for the ballads. The craft is seamless; every track is nearly overflowing with hooks, and every moment is executed with scary precision without ever losing the spark of humanity. The songs give me exactly what I need, but keep me on my toes, often veering from conventional song structures ever so slightly without calling unnecessary attention to craft. As with any great pop art, it has a way of scrambling critical faculties with a manic surge of thrill power, and that’s the kind of high that I wish I could have all of the time. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon UK.)

The Sounds “24 Hours” – There’s a similar sort of energy in this track, though it could stand to up its dosage of adrenaline and sugar. It took me four times to hear this song and realize that she wasn’t actually singing “you fall in love, and then you lose your hair,” which is disappointing, but probably better for the song’s chances in terms of becoming an actual pop hit. Actually, can we find a way to get Kelly Clarkson to record this number for her next album? That would be so ideal. (Click here for the official Sounds website.)

Limited Only By Your Limited Imagination

Ed Shepp “Event To Remember” – Ah yes! It is now open season for holiday-themed recordings. Though the lyrics are focused on a “holiday in December,” I’m sure that many of you will find several of Ed Shepp’s suggestions on how to create a memorable turkey dinner to be very helpful if you’re hosting a Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. (Click here to buy it from CD Baby, here for Ed Shepp’s blog, and here for the archives of The Ed Shepp Radio Experiment.)

Comet Gain “The Punk Got Fucked” – As an alternative to holiday cheer, you can instead listen to this bile-fueled spoken word punk midlife crisis. Set to music that sounds vaguely like Can making fun of The Doors, David Feck rants bitterly about crushed expectations and lingering disappointments in a thick British accent until he collapses into a state of indecision and confusion. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

My Feet Are Dancing So Much

Broadcast “Michael Agrammar” – My name is not Michael, but it’s very common for people to think that it is. It’s not far off from Matthew, I suppose, and it’s a nice enough name, so I’m never very offended. (I mean, if people were accidentally calling me Mike or Mikey or Mickey, I might take some issue.) The only time I ever wish that my name was actually Michael is when I hear this song. Trish Keenan sings the name with a quiet grace and gentle authority – Michael could just as well be her child as it as a lover, a brother, or a best friend. Lyrically as well as musically, the track is intimate and woozy, like a disjointed half-asleep late night conversation set to song. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Judy Henske & Jerry Yester “Farewell Aldebaran” – How square are people now that any busker with a stupid beard gets to be called “freak folk” without having to actually sound as bizarre as this late 60s head-scratcher? The song begins as an urgent, theatrical lo-fi prog-folk thing (you could probably trick someone into believing that it’s Guided By Voices at first), but halfway through, the vocals are put through some kind of extreme processing that makes it sound like the mic has been passed to an opera-loving Dalek. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

She’s Out Of This Time

My Project: Blue “Messed Up in the Heart” – Is this just how Canadians sing now? Was it like this all along, and no one ever really noticed? Or is it just the Canadians who write their own David Bowie songs? There’s some lovely lead guitar in this track – it reminds of something rather specific, but I can’t seem to place it. Any guesses? (Click here to buy it from My Project: Blue’s official site.)

Busta Rhymes “Touch It” – Though this is hardly Busta Rhyme’s finest hour as a lyricist (one “Wait” is enough for this year, thanks), this brilliant track from Swizz Beatz emphasizes his strengths as a vocalist, alternating between a slooooooooowed down Daft Punk sample and minimal, primal percussion. Excellent stuff, though I wish the lyrics were as good as everything else in the track. (Click here to buy it from DJ City.)

The Current Takes You For A Ride

Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory “Decisions, Decisions” – I always feel a little bit strange for enjoying so much music that is obviously designed to accompany drug usage when I myself do not take any drugs at all, unless you count over the counter headache and stomach medication. This song practically smells like marijuana smoke with its wispy flutes and mellow psychedelia, but thankfully music does not in fact have an odor, because I would have to crack open the windows or just turn it off. (I cannot find any site for this album, or a site selling it. The Rough Trade site for Mystic Chords of Memory is not particularly helpful, nor is the MySpace site for the frustratingly Google-proof Nobody.)

Times New Viking “Not High” – Midheaven says: TNV successfully skirt the current homogenization of the rock press pigeonhole. Neither are they new-weird-america, nor are they new-noise-underground. I suspect Times New Viking are at the forefront of a new, yet-to-be defined movement. It’s only a matter of time though. And when that time comes I want to be there. My shrine needs a motherfuckin’ name! I say: Isn’t it clear what this is? It’s nü-fi! It’s so obvious to anyone who enjoys fuzzy, quasi-primitive, incoherent pop rock recorded on terrible, terrible equipment. (Click here to buy it from Midheaven.)

Please Go Under With A Smile

Jamie Lidell “Multiply (Gonzales Mix)” – Not a remix in the regular sense, but rather a new arrangement for a song which appears to be one of the most popular songs to be posted here in the past year judging by the comments box, emails, and conversations with people that I meet out and about. I definitely prefer this stripped-down version of the song, performed only with piano and vocals, accompanied by some light piano bar ambience. The faux-Otis Redding style of the original version was fine enough, but that’s such a common affectation that it was easy for some people to mistake this tune for just another bland Joss Stone-ish coffee shop pop song. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

I’ve Got No Patience For The End

Hand Fed Babies “The Fisherman Feels It” – Paraphrasing: Worrying about the End Times is for the lazy and idle! I’m not inclined to disagree. Gorgeous bass on this track, by the way. The whole thing sounds a bit like someone trying to make a screwed version of the Silver Apples with agitated vocals thrown in for a purposely jarring effect. (Click here to buy it from Hand Fed Babies’ MySpace page.)

Sir Alice “L’Amour Made In Taiwan” – Over the weekend, my roommate and I watched Noah Baumbach‘s debut feature Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell soccer movie, btw), in part because of the fact that we both enjoyed his current movie, The Squid and the Whale. Despite what you may have heard, Kicking and Screaming is a pretty awful film, especially in terms of the 90s Indie Flick About Hyper-articulate Angsty Upper Class White 20somethings subgenre. As with many films of that type, a certain level of narcissistic identification is necessary for a person to develop any kind of sympathy for its relentlessly unlikeable characters, and though this is not always a sign of bad art, I think that one would have to be a wanker of epic proportions to relate to the toxic levels of clueless douchebaggery found in all of the film’s protagonists. I actually feel quite relieved that this was clearly not a movie for me. Anyway, I mention this movie because, if nothing, it is a funny cultural artifact of the mid-90s, and as such, features some amusing cliches of the time. One of them being Friedrich, a black-clad, trenchcoat-wearing guy who just came back from a semester in Germany and has suddenly become an intense pseudo-Eurotrash hipster with a silly affected accent who has his eye on seducing Parker Posey. I imagine that Friedrich would really like this song, and I’m not sure if that’s a positive or negative comment on its quality. (Click here to buy it from Soul Seduction.)