A Little Charm Can Only Get So Far

Funny Ha Ha – If you’ve ever listened to a recording of yourself having a conversation, you’ve more than likely noticed with some degree of horror all of the verbal tics and filler that stuff up the cracks in your speech. Funny Ha Ha is a character study about an underemployed postcollegiate young woman named Marnie, but there isn’t much in the way of plot or arc. Instead, writer/director Andrew Bujalski and his cast of amateur actors give us a window into the inner lives of Marnie and her constellation of similarly directionless friends and acquaintances via the subtext of their fragmented language and subtly passive-aggressive behavior.

Marnie is a person who is entirely at the mercy of her kindness and generosity, allowing people to walk all over her as she clumsily attempts to mask her emotions for the sake of others and mutters a perpetual stream of apologies. Her fear of confrontation and rejection runs so deep that she’s practically straitjacketed her id lest anything ever “get weird.” Meanwhile, her submerged desires are so transparent that everyone around her knows exactly what she’s thinking, but since they share most of the same social dysfunctions, they never say exactly what they mean either. Since she is beautiful, witty, cool and endlessly accomodating, she is surrounded by people who like her, and more than a few men who nurse futile crushes on her. Sometimes she seems to be in denial about this but more often she seems overwhelmed by possibility and retreats into self-sabotaging behavior such as pining for the most unavailable man that she knows and keeping her friendships superficial and emotionally distant.

Funny Ha Ha is particularly interesting to me in contrast with Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller’s shortlived television series Wonderfalls, which I recently viewed in its entirety on dvd. Wonderfalls is also about an underemployed recent college graduate who isn’t quite sure what to make of her life and just so happens to be a funny, pretty, willowy brunette. The similarities mostly end there, though. Whereas Marnie is only occasionally articulate, Wonderfalls‘ Jaye Tyler seems overly impressed by her own cleverness and talent for sarcasm to the degree that it often alienates those around her. (See also: Lorelai Gilmore.) She’s built up her own misanthropic self-mythology to the point that she’s come to view her most aggravating flaws – a tendency for condescension, rudeness, selfabsorbtion, laziness, and a dismissive attitude towards anyone who can function and thrive in the “real world” – as being strengths worthy of celebration. She’s from an upper middle class family and graduated from an Ivy League school, but she’s strangely content living in a trailer park and working in a tourist-trap gift shop. She’s smart and talented, but lacks ambition and fears effort. She’s rejecting her privilege, but not for any moral or intellectual reason. She’s just scared and immature and slumming it out until something comes along and happens to her.

Wonderfalls‘ central gimmick is that Jaye interacts with mass-produced representations of animals who offer her practical and challenging advice that forces her to step outside of herself and discover her potential for change and capacity for helping others. The nature of the talking animals is wisely kept vague, but I choose to interpret it as simply being a manifestation of the disassociated rational part of herself that she barely acknowledges as being within her. Each episode is built around a different animal trinket and set up so that the episodes can more or less write themselves around this conceit, but the story actually would have been a lot better if it had been a executed as selfcontained movie. After the first three episodes, the program becomes repetitive and increasingly contrived. If the series was allowed to continue, I’m not confident that it would have held up, mainly because as Jaye becomes less selfabsorbed and more generous, the basic tension in the narrative would dissipate. The beginning of Jaye’s transformation is very engaging, but I suspect that the closer the character could get to the end result, the show would become increasingly dull and selfrighteous.

Funny Ha Ha would actually make more sense as an ongoing story, since it is already a series of vingnettes that begin and end abruptly. Though the film says everything that it needed to, the lead and supporting characters have plenty of room for growth and the situations are kept open-ended enough for indefinite continuation. If I was in charge of original programming at HBO, I would be throwing bags of cash at Bujalski and his cast to convince them to turn the movie into a series that could take the place of the departing Six Feet Under.

Though I recognize more from my own lived experience in Funny Ha Ha, Wonderfalls is a far more devasting narrative for me, primarily because I see so much of the worst in myself in Jaye Tyler. The arrogance, the sense of entitlement, the selfdefeating laziness – I couldn’t help but cringe constantly from identification. In spite of the fact that show is light, goofy, and highly stylized in a post-Joss Whedon sort of way, making my way through the episodes was actually a very difficult task since I would get bummed out after viewing every episode and put off watching the next installment for a few days. Funny Ha Ha is technically more downbeat (though it never quite comes off as melancholy, thankfully), but since I’m mostly recognizing my friends and acquaintances in its story rather than myself (Marnie is like a composite of at least six female friends that I’ve had over the years), it brings out my affection and sympathy for those types of people rather than touch on any of my own insecurities.

Charlotte Hatherley “Rescue Plan” – In one of the most amusing and endearing scenes in Funny Ha Ha, Marnie writes out of list of things to do – go a month without drinking, make friends with a co-worker, spend more time outdoors, learn how to play chess, some loosely defined “fitness initiative!!” That is nicely echoed in the lyrics of this song, as Charlotte Hatherley (yet another clever, pretty, willowy brunette!) sings about her own list of list of resolutions, which she calls a “rescue plan” to “guarantee” a change in herself. To Marnie’s credit, she actually goes out and makes a solid attempt to do everything on her list. It seems like a more healthy and realistic ap

proach to life than the more dramatic gestures of Jaye Tyler. It’s possible that more longterm change can result from a confluence of minor alterations of lifestyle and daily routine than from more radical steps that require a lot more energy and commitment, thus allowing for a greater opportunity for frustration and failure.

“Rescue Plan” is taken from Hatherley’s debut album, which remains one of my favorite records of the past five months. (It was released in the UK sometime in 2004, but I never heard it until January.) It’s not one of the most immediate songs on the record – in terms of instant likeability, it is difficult to compete with the singles “Kim Wilde” and “Bastardo,” and the epic “Stop” sounds like all the best indie rock of the 90s melted into a puddle – but it has a casual, easygoing charm that suits its lyrics rather well. I hadn’t fully paid attention to the words until just recently, but I had already associated the track with a mixture of doubt and cautious optimism. The arrangement and guitar playing on this song is absolutely lovely, but easily overlooked and underrated since it isn’t particularly flashy or fashionable. This is true for most everything on Hatherley’s record, which often seems like a love letter to the indie and alt rock of the 90s from a person who clearly loved Veruca Salt without any “guilty pleasure” baggage and seems to be one of the rare musicians who is more influenced by the songs on The Bends that weren’t gentle power ballads. (Click here to buy Charlotte Hatherley’s album from Double Dragon. Click here to buy the Wonderfalls dvd set from Amazon. Funny Ha Ha is currently playing at the Cinema Village in NYC, and will be airing on the Sundance Channel on 5/20 at 2 PM, 5/25 at 6:30 PM, and 5/28 at 7:30 PM.)

Look Long Time In My Pretty Eyes

The Twin (featuring Avenue D) “Fire-Desire” – In a genre dominated by homophobes, one excellent queer ragga song can seem like a minor miracle. Believe it or not, this is Boy George sparring off with raunchy NYC hipster booty MCs Avenue D for the affections of some lucky Chi-Chi Man. A bit of advice: If taken literally, “Can I put fire in your rectum?” is a kinky request that ought to be declined. (Click here to buy it from More Protein.)

Jonathan Coulton “Skullcrusher Mountain” – If you have a high tolerance for smirky humor and mainstream country pop, this will probably seem like some kind of gift from above. Coulton nails the contemporary glossy American singer-songwriter aesthetic while subverting the genre with bizarro lyrics written from the perspective of a reclusive mad scientist/supervillain in love with his dim-witted but beautiful hostage. Though the song is awash in a sea of irony, he nevertheless manages to make lines like “even my henchmen think I’m crazy” and “isn’t it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?” seem genuinely poignant by delivering the vocals with a sincere tone and employing the classic tricks of sappy pop songwriting. (Click here to buy it from Jonathan Coulton.)

It’s All So Temporary

The Hospitals “Rich People” – My favorite kind of noise-punk is all about a contagious enthusiasm for weird sounds rather than some macho, puerile need to be obnoxious and difficult. There’s so much raw energy and excitement in this track, it’s pretty much everything that I want from a DIY art punk record. By the time the big guitar riff (which sounds just like this one song a lot of marching bands play at football games) kicks in , it sounds like singer is surfing on an enormous tidal wave of delay. It’s impossible to imagine that these guys didn’t have an incredible amount of fun recording this session. (Click here to buy it from Midheaven.)

Kidz Bop “Since U Been Gone” (VIDEO – Click/save, please do not stream or direct link from elsewhere!) (mirror) – Wormseye Films’ video for the Kidz Bop version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” might be the most joycore thing that I’ve ever seen. I can barely contain my enthusiasm for this video. It’s beautiful, clever, cute, inspiring and joyous. It’s the most satisfying piece of cinematic art that I’ve seen this year aside from Arrested Development. Here is a list of twenty things that I love about the clip. (Thank you to Scott Stereogum!)

01 The way that the directors seem to have no shame about what they are doing. I think that a lot of people wouldn’t fully commit to making a good video for a recording like this, but they seem to genuinely appreciate the song, and this completely ridiculous version of it. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kidz Bop, this is a very faithful cover version recorded by session players, but with a whole bunch of little kids belting out the chorus along with the lead singer. The directors foreground the subtext of the Kidz Bop enterprise and strike gold with a clip about little kids pretending to be pop stars.

02 It’s such an earnest celebration of the creativity and imagination of children, not to mention their ability to make their own fun out of whatever is around them.

03 The way that the “let’s make our own video” aesthetic is maintained throughout all of the non-fantasy framing sequences up until the end, when it cuts to some random home video of a school event that they were taping over.

04 The way the animated drawings of the kid brother are super cute, but not really flashy. They look like actual kid drawings come to life.

05 The design of the animal costumes, especially the ZZ Top walrus. They get the right combination of cuteness and radness.

06 The chemistry between the kids playing the brother and sister. The little bits of bickering seem very real to me.

07 The kids in the audience are about half the age of the tween singer on stage, which totally makes sense with kid logic. Little kids expect pop stars to be older than them.

08 Shark microphone!

09 The face the girl makes when she mimes along to “I even fell for that stupid love song.” It’s like she knows everything and nothing about adult relationships. I remember being that age and aspiring to pop drama and relating to lyrics about things I’ve never experienced. Lucky for her she didn’t grow up with whiny alt-rock.

10 If only I could see just one show in my life where the audience is as uniformly enthusiastic and passionate as this bunch of kindergarteners.

11 The little brother gives the nod of approval from the sidelines – he’s a big shot manager!

12 I stop noticing that it’s not the Kelly Clarkson version of the song by the time the first chorus hits. Every single time!

13 The way that one little girl with the white collar looks like she’s having some kind of religious experience after the tween singer kicks her hair back after the “again and again and again” part.

14 The walrus clicking his sticks in the air during the “Maps” riff.

15 The tiger jumping up and doing a split!

16 The way that crazy Asian kid in the yellow shirt looks like he’s about to turn into the Incredible Hulk.

17 The way the dancing tiger seems clumsy, triumphant, and vaguely menacing all at the same time.

18 That solemn look the tween singer gives the camera before the end of the song. This was a lot of fun, but she’s serious!

19 The way that the singing zebra seems to come out of nowhere.

20 The gator is the archetypal rock bass player – lanky, unassuming, slightly goofy, prone to hopping. He’s Krist Novoselic in green felt.

Feeling Sick, Falling Down

Colder “Downtown” – I find that songs built around loops are best when the repetition is central to the theme of the overall piece. That is certainly the case with this track, which feels like some kind of horrible rut in life made tolerable by excessive medication and cheap thrills. It seems so effortlessly desperate and emotionally barren that I kind of worry for the mental state of its author. If they ever make a sequel to Trainspotting, this really ought to be on the soundtrack. (Click here for the closest thing to an official Colder site that I can find anywhere online.)

Krome Angels (featuring Vula) “Missing You (Sticky Vocal Mix)” – The r+b vocals on this song are somewhat generic, but it’s hard for me to put it down when it meshes so well with Sticky’s bright and bouncy backing track. The vocal hooks are generally effective, but the song really hits it when the half-sung/half-rapped part kicks in on the bridge and it sounds like a broken beat version of Destiny’s Child. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Elsewhere: I am this week’s guest writer for Seattle Weekly’s CDR-Go! column. Basically, I was asked to put together a mix cd and comment on the songs. Most of the selections should be very familiar to people who have been reading this blog consistently since the beginning of the year.

You’re A Nice Guy And I Hate You For That

Brown Brothers “Platform Blues” – I’m sure that it says a lot about me that one of the records that I’ve been most eagerly anticipating this year is the Brown Brothers’ collection of jazz covers of Pavement songs. This is a selection from that record; a rather stunning interpretation of one of the more underrated songs from Pavement’s final record, Terror Twilight. “Platform Blues” is one of the most ambitious compositions in Stephen Malkmus’ catalog, and I think that it can be argued that this arrangement and performance comes closer to achieving the goals of the song than were possible given the limitations of Pavement as an ensemble. Whereas the original is a recording of a charming rock band navigating through an unconventional structure and approximating jazz skronk, the Brown Brothers bring the piece full circle with its influences and realize the song’s full potential. Don’t mistake this record for being a simple cash-in tribute. These are inspired performances that bring new light to the work of one of the finest songwriters of the 20th century. (Click here to visit the Brown Brothers Recordings site.)

Eddie Gale “Black Rhythm Happening” – This recording is taken from Soul Jazz’s New Thing! collection, which is a survey of the period of experimentation in the American jazz scene following the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Emboldened by radical politics, the musicians included in the set also radicalized their approach to music and spirituality, often resulting in music that integrated genres and concepts from around the world and broke new ground in jazz fusion. “Black Rhythm Happening” is one of the most subtle yet potent selections from the compilation. The guitar and percussion groove is foregrounded and the vocals of the street choir recede into the background as though they are meant to be interpreted as a field recording. The occasional blasts of horns nearly overwhelm the arrangement, as though they are being superimposed over the recording. The mix and arrangement is very unconventional, but it lends an uncommon sense of depth and panoramic scope to the composition. (Click here to buy it from Soul Jazz Records.)

There’s A Battle On The Dancefloor

Scenario Rock “Skitzo Dancer (Justice Remix)” – “Give me something to dance to, and please, no techno.” Well, at least he just comes out and says it. It’s not a crime to want to dance to music with pop hooks and vocals and lyrics that get you in the mood for fun. This isn’t about hating on techno, and it’s not some kind of rockist manifesto. Having preferences is not the same thing as aesthetic fascism unless you err on the side of narrow-minded bigotry. This is just a song about having fun, and almost every lyric in this song is like a joycore slogan scrawled out in sharpie ink. This is exactly the kind of song that I need right now, and I wish that I had this handy this past Thursday night at the Hammerstein. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Weezer “Perfect Situation” – Nevermind the reactionary slams of Pinkerton loyalists – Weezer’s new album is actually pretty good. I don’t think that anyone could ever mistake Make Believe for being their best work, but to write off this record and the two that came before it simply for being uneven would be to misunderstand the band’s greatest strength. Weezer is a singles band. It doesn’t really matter if they put filler on their albums (there’s about eight good songs on Make Believe, up from six on Maladroit and five on The Green Album) because it’s all about the songs that will end up on their greatest hits collection, and that will inevitably become the best record in their discography. Watching their career unfold is basically like getting the best power pop cd ever slowly doled out over an installment plan.

“Beverly Hills” does nothing to damage their string of perfect singles. If anything, it’s one of their very best to date, up there with “Say It Ain’t So,” “Keep Fishin’,” and “El Scorcho.” I can’t help but feel that people who hate on “Beverly Hills” are guzzling crazy pills. It’s easily the best mainstream rock single of the year so far aside from Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” The song is a shoo-in for the next The OC mix cd, in as much as it is the premise and aesthetic of that show in the form of a three minute pop tune. “Beverly Hills” is essentially the ballad of Ryan Atwood, though the rest of the record, especially “Perfect Situation” and “The Other Way,” is pure Seth Cohen – cheerful and fun in spite of being selfabsorbed to the point of total obliviousness. At its best, the album sounds like a fantasy about being an American teenager in the 00s written by a guy who relates to them a little too well for his age and spends a bit too much time with them because he’s still an undergrad in his mid-30s.

Rivers Cuomo has always come off a guy in a state of arrested adolescence (but hey, that goes for a lot of artists) but the lyrics on Make Believe seem as though he’s either emulating the poetry and emotional intelligence of teens or writing especially for them. The specificity of context and attention to detail that made his early lyrics so charming and relatable are almost entirely missing from this record, replaced by direct statements presented in cold, unpoetic languange that nearly cancels out the emotional impact of what could be the most personal writing of his career. The lyrical content often seems very cynical, especially when one of the best songs on the album sounds as though it was written primarily to fill an underserviced niche in the marketplace for songs about loving your best friend, but if you give Cuomo the benefit of the doubt, you can’t help but assume that he’s an aloof weirdo with cold dead eyes trying to sing sincere, emotional music in spite of himself. That’s pretty fascinating to me, especially since I suspect that the guy might have Asperger’s syndrome after reading that recent cover article about the band in Rolling Stone. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Please Don’t Let Me Hit The Ground

New Order @ Hammerstein Ballroom 5/5/2005
Love Vigilantes / Crystal / Regret / Hey Now What You Doing? / Krafty / Transmission / True Faith / Run Wild / Jetstream (w/ Ana Matronic) / Waiting For The Siren’s Call / Bizarre Love Triangle / Love Will Tear Us Apart / Temptation // She’s Lost Control / Atmosphere / Blue Monday

New Order “Temptation (Live @ Finsbury Park 2002)” – This was a great show, but it was more satisfying for me than fun. I had learned about half of these songs in the past two weeks, so my feeling after the show was roughly similar to being confident that I passed a test after cramming the night before. As a result of my crash course in New Order’s discography, I was most excited to hear the songs that were new to me – “Love Vigilantes,” “Regret,” “Krafty,” and especially “Run Wild,” which is a relatively obscure gem that I am fairly certain I would not have discovered unless they had been playing it in recent sets. The big hits were a thrill, but I think I got more out of the giddy reactions of other audience members than the performances themselves, particularly during the trio of showstoppers that closed out the main set. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

For those of you interested in my DJ set, this is what I played:

Set one: Agentss “Agentss” / Johnny Boy “You Are The Generation… (Remix)” / Captain Comatose “To My Song” / Klaus Nomi “After The Fall” / Kylie Minogue “Sweet Music” / Cristina “What’s A Girl To Do” / Futon “Gay Boy” / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Strange Sensation” / David Wrench “World War IV” / Meloboy “Hot Love” / Out Hud “It’s For You” / Gene Serene & John Downfall “U Want Me” / Lady Sovereign “Random” / Annie “Chewing Gum” / Lo-Fi-FNK “Unighted” / United State of Electronica “La Discoteca” / Fox “S-s-single Bed” / The Meters “Cabbage Alley (Cosby Alley)” / Bollywood Freaks “Don’t Stop Til You Get To Bollywood” / Arabesque “City Cats” / X-Wife “Action Plan” / Scissor Sisters “Music Is The Victim” / Jamie Lidell “Multiply” / Fox & Wolf “Youth Alcoholic” / Set two: The Silures “21 Ghosts” / M.I.A. “Bingo” / Love Is All “Make Out Fall Out Make Up” / Prince Francis “Street Doctor” / The Clash “Koka Kola” / The Fall “Theme From Sparta FC” / ESG “My Love For You” / The Knife “Heartbeats” / The Celestial Choir “Stand On The Word” / Prince “U Got The Look”

Lo-Fi-FNK “Unighted” – DJing to a room full of people standing around waiting for the headliner is fairly easy. There’s not much pressure or expectation placed on the DJ in that situation, so I could just relax and play Fluxblog’s Greatest Hits and try to keep people awake and energetic. It was somewhat difficult to gauge the audience’s reaction – I caught a bit of dancing here and there, and I had a few people ask me what I was playing a few times, so I took that as a sign that some people were enjoying my selections. At least four people asked me about Lo-Fi-FNK, so I assume that went over pretty well. It’s such an immediately ingratiating song; lord knows that if I heard it out and didn’t know what it was, I’d try to find out. (Click here to visit the official Lo-Fi-FNK site.)

Scattered Across The Concrete

Crime Mob “Knuck If You Buck (Pistol Pete Remix)” – Fluxblog exclusive! The original mix of “Knuck If You Buck” seems rather lethargic and ponderous in comparison to this frenetic speed-crunk remix by Pistol Pete, which feels like a much better match for the wild, violent theme of the lyrics. Whereas the original mix gets by on a sense of vague menace, this version sounds as though it’s about to bust out into a full-on riot. (If you’d like to contact Pistol Pete, you can email him at petervaleri @ hotmail.com. Click here to buy his previous white label.)

Agentss “Agentss” – The liner notes of Man Recordings’ new Não Wave compilation posits that this is the track that kicked off the Brazilian post-punk movement in the early ’80s. I can only take their word for it, but either way, this certainly sounds like the beginning of something. The entire track is like one long intro, starting off with a heavily reverbed passage with clips of distorted speech and chanting leading up to a spacey rock section with a lead synth part that sounds like R2-D2 doing a scat solo. (Click here to buy it from Other Music.)

Also: If you happen to be going to the New Order show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC tonight, you may want to show up a little bit early – I’ll be DJing before and after the opening act. It should be fun.

Can’t Help The State I’m In

The Russian Futurists “Our Pen’s Out Of Ink” – Every week, I listen to at least thirty new albums and eps, mostly by artists that I’ve never heard before. The genres can be all over the map, but every week I am nearly guaranteed to screen at least two records that are obviously inspired by one trend or another from the 1980s and/or old video game soundtracks. In spite of what is being said in several lazy reviews of the new Russian Futurists album that you can easily find via Google, their new album is not one of them. I can’t possibly imagine what these reviewers are hearing in this record that is particularly ’80s aside from the presence of keyboards, and the keyboard textures being used aren’t particularly reminiscent of textures widely used in that decade! (Well, the guy’s voice is a little bit like Green Gartside. I’ll allow that.) If anything, Our Thickness is a record that could not possibly exist without the ’90s happening first. The big distorted beats are equal parts industrial and David Friddmann; the tendency to obscure the vocals behind a loud, overwhelming arrangement is straight out of lo-fi and shoegazing; the cut-up style is definitely post-Beck; and the general cheery sound of the album is right in line with the wave of joycore pop coming out of this current decade. But oh no, it’s a record with a lot of electronic keyboards on it and it’s not dance music – it must be 80s retro, right? I SWEAR TO GOD IT JUST MAKES ME WANT TO PERFORM AMATEUR SURGERY ON THESE PEOPLE WITH MY FACE KNIFE. (Click here to buy it from Upper Class.)

Juliet “On The Dance Floor” – Wow, this is like the best Garbage song ever. There’s a certain lightness and grace to this track that I think is missing from Garbage’s actual recordings, which usually seem overbearing and leaden to my ears. The song has a wonderful velocity to it, as though it’s a rollercoaster building up to an exhilirating peak and then dropping you off quickly after the grand finale. Excellent stuff. (Click here to visit the official Juliet site.)

We’ll Have Bizarre Celebrations

Of Montreal “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)” – Don’t let the odd title fool you – this is most definitely a love song. And it’s a very sweet one too, as it imagines romance as an invitation to strange adventures and surreal fantasy. Imagination is so urgent and key, but somehow vastly underrated in the context of relationships. Every love affair should be like a bizarre celebration! (Click here to buy it from Polyvinyl Records.)

Ethan Lipton “Whitney Houston” – Though this song is catchy and amusing, you’re really only getting half of Ethan Lipton’s act by listening to this track. Backed by an “orchestra” consisting soley of a ukulele player, Lipton croons sad little songs packed full of absurd nonsequitors about running off with toothless one-eyed Ren Faire women, magic tricks called “happy!,” enjoying the sight of “thighs in the fatty position,” and in this case, chastising Whitney Houston for seducing and corrupting that “sweet, sweet Bobby Brown,” with a straight face and an incredible level of commitment. (Click here to visit Ethan Lipton’s official site.)

We’re Only Blood On Light On Life

Sonic Youth “Wish Fulfillment (Rehearsal Tapes Version)” – In the context of the Sonic Youth catalog, “Wish Fulfillment” has always been a bit of an oddity in the sense that it’s actually a pretty straightforward love song with a dynamic verse-chorus-verse structure that would have made a lot more sense on alt-rock radio than the actual singles released in support of Dirty. It’s not much of a surprise that the song is a popular favorite among Sonic Youth fans, particularly the ones who got into the band as a teenager in the ’90s. Though the lyrics heavily imply that the song is sung from the perspective of someone stalking a celebrity, it works just as well as a more generalized song about unrequited love. After all, being obsessed with a celebrity isn’t all that different from having an intense teenage crush on someone that you barely know. In both cases, it’s all about creating an elaborate fantasy to justify a superficial interest. It’s just a matter of degree, really. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

String Quartet Tribute To Sonic Youth “Wish Fulfillment” – As with many many of the best string quartet recordings of contemporary pop songs released on the Vitamin label, this version of “Wish Fulfillment” shows the song in a new light rather than simply coming off as an intriguing but inessential adaptation. (This is more or less the case for the rest of the album, though it is mostly quite lovely.) All of the melancholy and hopeless yearning in the original is amped up to nearly unbearable levels, resulting in a grand, dramatic tearjerker just begging to be used as the love theme of some incredibly depressing movie. (Click here to buy it from Vitamin Records.)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Most of the lukewarm or negative reviews that I have read about this movie thus far seem to be from devoted fans who feel as though they’ve been wronged by the adaptation, but since my geekiness has never taken the form of Hitchhiker’s fandom, I believe that I benefited greatly from coming to this film with only a tentative grasp on the concept. Basically, it’s just a very fun movie. It’s about as twee as a post-Star Wars space adventure is likely to get, with or without the brief scene in which the lead characters are rendered in yarn animation. The core cast is adorable but never cloying, and the jokes mostly hit the mark. (I especially enjoyed Sam Rockwell as the vapid charmer Zaphod Beeblebrox.) I admire the brisk pacing of the plot, though I must admit that at a few points in the story I was vaguely confused. Hopefully this film will do well enough to warrant the production of its sequels, as this movie was more of a set up for a series than a fully contained narrative. For me, this is no different from how I relate to the Harry Potter franchise – I am fairly indifferent to the source material, but I’m willing to have a couple hours of noncommital fun with the film version every other year or so.

Special Guest Post By John Cei Douglas!

Spoon “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine” – As we all know, pictures are at least 500 times better than words. John Cei Douglas, the felt tip hip kid of the Midlands, is here to boggle your mind.

(Click here to pre-order it from Merge Records. If you wish to contact John Cei Douglas, you can email him at johnceidouglas @ gmail.com)

That’s Where Your Fantasy Starts

Vox Vermillion “Wanted” – I am not a teenage girl, and because of this fact, this song feels vaguely inappropriate for me, almost as though I am invading someone’s personal space. It’s like the musical equivalent of an illustrated diary in the quirkily decorated bedroom of some beautiful art girl who is just a little too intimidating even for small talk. It’s exotic and mysterious but also sort of mundane in a very warm and comforting way. This isn’t just any old girl-angst. This is epic fairytale stuff, like early Tori Amos pumped up to Evanescence-esque levels of melodrama, but sung with the small, thin voice of a waifish indie folker. (Click here to visit Vox Vermillion’s MySpace page.)

Elsewhere: I highly recommend the Kathleen Edwards song on Pop Text. I briefly considered posting it myself, but there is just no way that I can compete with Abby’s review. She totally nailed it, and I have nothing more to add.

Heaven Knows When I’ll Get My Voice Back Again

Matson Jones “Welcome Back, Mr. Audiotechnica” – Matson Jones write and perform like a post-punk/alt rock band who love everything about their genre except for the sound of guitars. All of the parts that would normally be played on guitar in a traditional rock arrangement is transposed to two cellos, but aside from the signature melancholy tone of the instrument, there is very little in the way of cello-ness to their recordings. (Read: This sounds nothing like Rasputina.) This reminds me of those Vitamin Records “string tribute” compilations in how the players seem to be going out of their way to be faithful to the rhythms and attack of rock guitar while still making a point of playing the music in a different arrangement. It’s a little like translating Jerry Seinfeld jokes into Korean but insisting on delivering them with exactly the same inflections and timing. It’s a little off, but the approach is interesting and appealing enough to push their above-average indie rock over into a higher level of quality. (Click here to visit the Matson Jones official site.)

Artanker Convoy “Crown Vic” – If I say that this sounds like Medeski, Martin, and Wood, I run the risk of scaring off the people who are (understandably) wary of college hippies. If I say that this is a little like Herbie Hancock, that might be too much of an overstatement. If I point out that this sounds a little like ’70s blaxploitation/cop/porn soundtracks, then I am just a sad, sad man resorting to cliche. This song is all of the above and I just cannot win today. (Click here to buy it from the Social Registry.)

Driving Your Body Around

Scout Niblett “Lullaby For Scout In Ten Years” – Since her voice bears an undeniable resemblence to Chan Marshall, Scout Niblett is doomed to a life of constant comparisons to Cat Power. Niblett lacks that soulful, ineffable quality in Marshall’s voice that forces the listener into emotional submission, but makes up for that with a knack for minimal arrangements and a willingness to dramatically stomp on her distortion pedal like it’s 1992. With its slow, stark verses and exaggerated heavy sections, this song mimics the fragile bipolar dynamics of Nirvana’s In Utero more than anything in the Cat Power catalog. (Click here to buy it from Beggars Group.)

Isolée “Schrapnell” -There’s an entire movie in the sound of this song, but I have no idea what it might be about. The guitar motif seems vaguely “cowboys and indians” to me, but everything else seems so crisp and modern, as though it’s taking place in a world that looks like European design magazines. (Click here for the non-very-useful Isolée official site.)

I’ve Got A Heart With Your Name On It

Stag Party “Rachel (My Dear)” – Creepy rock songs about obsessive love are nothing new, but Stag Party bring it off with a melodramatic flair, building up horror film tension over a menacing bassline and a wall of trebly guitar tone and releasing it on a slightly unnerving falsetto chorus. What really sells this song is the way the singer intonates the name “Rachel,” investing it with a strange power, as though he has transformed the common name into a sort of sigil through the intensity of his lust. (Click here to visit the Stag Party site.)

Hassle Hound “Lucky Bugs Win Prizes” – This is a selection from Ekkehard Ehlers’ Childish Music compilation, a collection of music written for children by various contemporary songwriters and composers from around the world. Like many of the songs on the record, “Lucky Bugs Win Prizes” only seems to be “children’s music” in spirit, casting off the typical singalong trappings of the genre in favor of an all-ages sense of playfulness and whimsy. (Click here to buy it from Staubgold.)

I’m On A Massive High

Dressy Bessy “The Things That You Say That You Do” – Dressy Bessy’s self-titled album from 2003 is the record that I’m sure Warner Brothers wished that Belly had turned in instead of King, and most definitely the album that I wanted it to be after I heard its first single “Now They’ll Sleep” on 120 Minutes back when I was 14. (That said, I still love the song “Puberty” with a fiery passion.) If only Dressy Bessy had made this record back then; they really would’ve had a shot at a minor alt-rock hit. But I’m not sure if that’s ever what they wanted, especially since they spent most of the 90s stuck in a regional twee indie ghetto that I don’t think they ever disliked. The songs on their older records are fine and occasionally sublime (see: “I Saw Cinnamon”), but this record is so strong and confident, distilling the very best of glossy 90s rock while keeping their identity intact. I wonder if this confidence is a result of not many people being around to care one way or another – the pressure’s off, just like how I never seem to sing as well as when I’m totally alone. (Click here to buy it from Dressy Bessy’s official site.)

Janet Reno’s Dance Party

The Similou “Wild Beasts” – With its moody beats and bombastic fanfare, “Wild Beasts” sounds as though it is skulking about in the same mystical forest as Bjork’s “Human Behaviour” and “Isobel.” The storyline in the lyrics is a bit lacking in narrative depth, but it makes up for that by including a lot of ass kicking. (Click here to buy it from Ginza.)

Anquette “Janet Reno” – This is a booty bass song about a pre-Attorney General Janet Reno and her tough stance on deadbeat dads while she was the State Attorney of Florida. I think that if I said anything more about this, it might spoil it for you. (Thanks to Evelyn McDonnell.) (Click here to buy it and from Buy.com)

Ain’t No Party Once We Crash The Party

Lady Sovereign “Blah Blah Blah (Cadence Weapon remix)” – This is a very inspired team-up, and not just because they are both ridiculously talented up-and-comers under the age of 20 – there’s some real chemistry going on here. Lady Sovereign’s bratty rhymes sound as though they’ve been shot like a pinball through Cadence Weapon’s track, accelerating around the curves of the 007-gone-grime guitar breaks and zooming through the lyrics til it hits the jackpot. (Click here for the Lady Sovereign site and here for the Cadence Weapon site.)

Dopplebanger “Got It Twisted Sister” – Some mash-ups are so seamless and ideally matched that the originals start to sound more awkward than the remix after a while. Going back to the DFA version of The Rapture’s “Sister Savior” after hearing this mix, the vocals sound so stilted and forced, as though he’s the one singing along to wrong music. Mobb Deep’s “Got It Twisted” is so perfect for the backing track that neither recording requires noticeable editing, as though the two were always meant to go together. (Click here for the Dopplebanger site.)

Stuck Between My Shadow And Me

Jamie Lidell “Multiply” – One does not reasonably expect great modern soul music to come out of Warp Records (home of Autechre, Aphex Twin, and Prefuse73) , but here it is, possibly the best soul record of the year and it’s by a white guy from England. Jamie Lidell’s songs are clearly reverential of 60s/70s soul music, but are arranged and recorded under the influence of hip hop and electronic dance music. The modern touches are not heavy handed or glossy, and are mainly textures and flourishes that add an unexpected bit of color to a familiar genre. This track is particularly inspired and catchy, enough so that it seems as though it could be a long lost Otis Redding single. (Click here to pre-order it from Warp Records.)

Ricky Wilde “I Am An Astronaut” – This is the 12 year old brother of Kim Wilde singing a glam rock song about the power of imagination that essentially fuses the aesthetics of Mott The Hoople and The Muppet Babies. It’s kind of astonishing, actually. God bless England and their insatiable appetite for bizarre novelty singles. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)