Maxi Geil is the alter ego of Guy Richards Smit, an artist who began as a painter, but has since branched out into comedy, film, and pop music. His debut album with his band Playcolt, A Message To My Audience, is perhaps the most unjustly neglected pop album of the year; an epic glam record which would be dominating rock radio and filling arenas in a better world. In December, Smit’s film Nausea II, which features Maxi Geil and music from the album, will debut at the Museum Of Modern Art in Manhattan. Last week, I met with Smit at his studio in Brooklyn to talk with him about the band and his various projects. Later on in the interview, he speaks about a few specific songs which are included here as mp3s.

Matthew Perpetua: How did the Maxi Geil project begin?

Guy Richards Smit: Well, I started doing a lot of work with watercolors, and the songs started with the titles of the pieces, or things that people would be saying to each other in them. I started to put them together. I had been in bands since the 80s, and I had also done some work as a comedian called Jonathan Grossmalerman, working these ideas in as jokes. The character was this washed-up art star from the 80s, he was a “big painting” man, so he was like this kind of Schnabel character. He had done films and made a record, as Schnabel did, and now he was going to try to do stand-up. It became this kind of desperate confessional. It was enjoyable for me to try to work art into a joke pattern. Comedy has its own rules – how to set up a joke, how to finish it. That character did well, and I got some recognition for it, but after that was done, I was starting to get noticed as this stand-up artist, and I didn’t want to do that anymore. I was still interested in the doing the character of an egomaniac, and how he navigates through the world, and the sort of mythology that he sets up for himself so that he can be cruel to other people, essentially. Whereas Jonathan Grossmalerman was sort of a loser, in a way, I wanted a character that was less of a loser but just as delusional.

MP: Something where the world supports that ego?

GRS: Exactly, yeah. You see it with George Bush, and how people handle him, and you think ‘why would they admire this guy?’ But people seem to want a guy like that. So this character is delusional but seemingly harmless, and people support this kind of destructive path.

MP: How did you start working the project into the films? Did the characters exist before the films?

GRS: Sort of. Maxi Geil, which means ‘super-horny’ in German, was the star of a movie I did called “The Ballad Of Bad Orpheus.” Maxi Geil plays this horribly cruel sailor who keeps his crew from mutiny with his golden voice. That got showed at the MoMA, and I had been wanting to do a larger-scale thing with more characters, and more self-reflection. I had basically been writing this for a very long time, and started it, but funding disappeared and I started working on other projects. Then I got a call from the MoMA, and they said “we’re doing this premieres thing,” and they are showing this new Jean Luc Goddard film and a reissued Scorcese film. They asked me if I had anything new, because it’s all new stuff at these events. They were like, “we know you were working on this thing, is there any way that you could get it done in time?” And so everything kicked into high gear, and I started to complete the film. By that time, we had already recorded all of the music. “Please Remember Me” is the song that Maxi sings at the press conferance when he quits the porn business, “Paying For Something New” is from when they all go on their shopping expedition, and “Sunday Morning” is the final song, where they wake up in love, the ecstatic finish.We had done some performances which had been scripted. At one point we had Zoe in the band, and she was the second back-up singer. She would get fired from the band during the show, and wander around backstage, and start drinking. She’d return for one song, and there would be a sort of tension. Anyway, I wanted to do all of this, but also have all of them be good songs. As much as they were part of this larger project, I wanted them to stand on their own and be listenable as a pop record. They don’t have to be part of a movie or a performance.

MP: Do you find that music is any more or less successful than painting or film in getting across your ideas?

GRS: Yeah, except for there’s a whole section of people who don’t even seem to listen to lyrics. I’ve always been a person who has listened to lyrics, so I never understood that, but I’ll talk to our old drummer and I’d be like “that’s the part where I go ‘blah blah’,” and he just says “I don’t know, because I’ve never heard your lyrics at all.” He thinks of it terms of music. And I know that when I talk to him about other bands, he just doesn’t listen for lyrics. So in that sense, it may be less successful. But it’s more successful in forcing an engagement with an audience. I think that we all have an experience with records that we’ve grown up with, and we have an experience with paintings that we’ve grown up with, and it is sort of different. For instance, to take a banal choice, “The Scream.” We’ve all seen that from an early age and it connotes an energy, fear and angst. And there are songs which also bring up the same feelings, but in a very different way, so I think that we have traditions in how we relate to them. Both of them are satisfying, but I think that music is just really viscerally satisfying. Again, you get to confront the audience. You get to mock them, gently. You get to get their approval, and whatever cheap narcissistic thrill that one gets. I don’t get the thrill that some people get off the stage, where they need to be on it. But it’s nice knowing that you’re with other people doing something. Last night, seeing Siouxsie, I was really happy that I knew what it was like to be on stage, and I feel that I related to the concert differently. I was impressed with her handling of the stage. Every now and again, you get a thrill of success on some level.

MP: Is that something that you find is less frequent than in painting, where you’re isolated from the audience?

GRS: Exactly. With painting, I really, honestly don’t know what people are thinking. Every now and then, you’ll get a review, and they won’t address the topics you were hoping, and they might’ve missed it or something, and you’re just like “okay.” It could be a good review, but it feels like they are reviewing something else and you think “did I make that?”

MP: Well, often art critics just talk about their own pet ideas which they want to bring up, and everything they look at goes through that filter. At least with music critics, they tend to be a bit more fair and engage the work on its own terms.

GRS: I
think that’s because we universally share more similarities in our approval of music. We must, because a song can become a number one hit with millions of people buying it. Whereas you can’t seem to get that in paiting, because after all, there’s only one.

MP: And people get very hung up about mass production and associate that with inauthentic commercial endeavors.

GRS: Yes, that it is somehow cheapening. Still, there are subtleties that you often can’t approach with music, I think. The closest I think it’s ever come to being like a painting in music, is John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” It’s that clarity and subtlety, that straightforwardness. Somehow it’s always struck me that that song is almost like a drawing. There’s no flair to it, almost. There’s no theatrics to it. It’s so brilliantly straightforward, and even the flair, that whistling, is so intimate.

MP: That’s funny, because you’ve set up your own record to be very theatrical and in the opposite direction of music that you say you think would be more like painting. Are you just trying to engage with music as a form distinct from what you’ve been able to accomplish in painting?

GRS: I think that I’ve got a form in which I can get intimacy reasonably well, so I don’t necessarily need another. The thing about John Lennon is that he had such guts, to do a thing like “Mother,” and I don’t think I could ever do that with music. It’s funny to watch certain musicians wrestle with that, not always to such great success.

MP: Do you think that maybe John Lennon just came to that confidence due to the circumstances of his life? He wasn’t like that in the beginning, of course, and he and the Beatles worked their way up to other things as more people gave them approval, and the culture at large was open to pretty much anything that they would do. I can’t imagine anything like that ever happening again, where people are so trusting of an artist.

GRS: Yeah, and otherwise you get things like Sarah McLachlan which seems like an attempt to be like that, but it’s so awful.

MP: But I think that she just skipped a lot of steps in between. Not just her, but a lot of people who jump straight to that raw, emotional point.

GRS: I think that a lot of my lyrics, particularly “The Love I Lose,” are for me, pretty straightforward. It’s very specific and it is an attempt to touch on that kind of honesty about how people get through life. There’s also an absurdity to it. Basically, it’s the story of Giselle Thurst, a porn star in the film who starts to stammer horribly on a set, and gets kicked off and fired, and she leaves singing this song and has a moment of clarity about her life and what it is to be this kind of lone character saddled with various neuroses and behavior which she can’t seem to control. So she sings about this in a very self-realized way. In a sense, I wrote this very sincerely. I think that we’ve all either been there, or have friends who behave in a way that they can’t control. It’s what I love about people, and what frustrates me about people. The only way I can ever really approach those moments of honesty is with a lot of absurdity because I’m either scared of it, or it makes it more palatable, or I’m not good enough yet, I don’t know what it is. For me, the songs get written from ideas, so I write starting with the words, and a melody comes from that. It comes from a very sincere part of me. I think that my goal is to reach that point of almost total absurdity, and start taking it in on an almost pure level. I could be fooling myself here. Sometimes one lyric will stick out through a load of protective tripe. For instance, there’s a sentimentality to “Artist’s Lament,” with those last lines of the muse singing “come with me.” That is actually meant to be this tender moment. For me, it is a really great place you can go, no matter how much you’re lying to yourself.

MP: The first half of that song, it’s a lot of him saying “I’m an artist, damnit, I’m a beacon of light,” and it seems that he’s reminding himself of this, that he needs to remember this kind of self-delusion.

GRS: It’s what gets you through.

MP: It’s not that he’s totally wrong.

GRS: Right. I kinda mean it. At least from my own personal purposes, I don’t know what it becomes in a song, necessarily, or how people respond to it, but I don’t know an artist who doesn’t have that thought at times.

MP: That you’re doing this for the world.

GRS: Right. And you could actually change it, and it’s really wonderful what you’re doing. And then, of course, later you’re thinking “oh this is awful, I can’t believe I wasted my time doing this.” So in that sense, it’s not ironic. One of the first songs I wrote for Maxi Geil was called “I’ve Got Feelings But My Feelings Don’t Last,” and it’s ridiculous and dumb, but at the same time, we all have these feelings and it’s weird how they don’t stay. They disappear. It’s a weird thing, being sure that you’re doing the right thing, and then an hour later being sure that it’s not. It’s really human, but I’ve never heard a song about it, I don’t think.

MP: How do you feel that the art world, and the rock music and the characters that you’ve created relate to pornography, which is central to the plot of Nausea II?

GRS: First of all, the amazing thing about pornography is that it has a very specific goal. It exists for basically one purpose. I feel that increasingly music and especially art has become this overspecialized thing. One of the things that I criticize in the film is the porn guy who is constantly shooting the same scene over and over again. At one point, when Maxi does this big lecture as to why he’s leaving the porn business, he points out all of the guys who have these weird little websites, and it becomes subculture porn, and like math porn and gothic porn.

MP: Is there actually math porn?

GRS: No, but there could be. There’s definitely at this point, goth porn.

MP: Right, and that’s the whole new frontier in that world, with the Suicide Girls and all the different permutations on that.

GRS: Yeah, then there’s other stuff where it’s just anal, or just facials.

MP: And even more specific than that.

GRS: The art world has absolutely become that way. Lots of painters just doing the same damn painting over and over and over again.

MP: I sort of touch on that in an interview that I did the other day, where the question was “if you could ask any musician a questio

n, what would it be,” and my question was for Bjork. I want to know why she feels that she has to do all of these one-idea records. She started off doing records where every song had its own premise and its own set of ideas, and now this last one is the same basic concept fourteen songs in a row. I can’t imagine that isn’t a result of being immersed in the art world and being with Matthew Barney. Going through art school, that was one of the things which drove me nuts, all of these students stretching one idea into a year’s worth of work. You think, “you’re only going to do that? You don’t have any other ideas? You can’t do a lot of ideas at once?”

GRS: I think that in the art world, if you make one of something, what happens is that it disappears. There’s only one of something, and somebody buys it and its gone. So other people want to buy it, but they want that one idea too. So you have to make a bunch of them. It has nothing to do with art, as far as I can tell. I took Fluxus really seriously in as much as it’s about this journey, the stumbles and awkwardnesses, and making weird shit and hopefully at some point, someone would be interested in your larger project. I did this one song that was called “The Passerby,” and one of the lines was “I offer endless permutations on a single idea / and if it the market can still maintain me, I’ll be here next year.” And also, “I’m a one trick pony, two show only talk of the town.” They have these tiny, short careers, and you know the person from that one piece you saw over and over again.

MP: It doesn’t seem that a lot of these people are eager to reinvent themselves either.

GRS: Well, when they get that specific, reinventing themselves means going back and starting from square one. They don’t allow themselves to move into a different area.

MP: That’s funny, because it really does seem to have nothing to do with art as I understand it.

GRS: No, it’s marketing.

MP: Well, it’s like marketing, but it’s also like being a craftsman. Like, “I will make shoes,” or “I will be a blacksmith.”

GRS: Exquisite doorknobs! The best doorknobs in all of Italy! That’s certainly fine, but y’know, you’re a craftsperson, not the modern notion of what an artist is.

MP: In terms of the art world, it’s about marketing and playing to existing market forces, but in the broader sense of marketing, marketing is more about having a steady stream of new items and getting people interested in new things that they might not be open to naturally.

GRS: I’ve always had good reviews, but my sales have been sort of patchy. And I decided a long time ago that I was going to present everything that I was doing and deal with the patchy sales, hoping that later on people would understand that I have this larger, long term project, and it’s an interesting and worthy project, hopefully. I can put up with some years where my friends are making more money, but with any luck, I’ll come into my own and build a real lasting career. The other technique may be satisfying in the short term, but it’s not viable if you’re interested in sticking around.

(You can read an unabridged version of this interview here. Click here to buy the album from the official Maxi Geil! website.)

I Want To Show You What The Stars Are Made Of

Saul Williams “Grippo” – If you can imagine late period Fugazi gone full-on hip hop, it would probably sound a lot like this track, possibly right down to the lyrical style. And that seems to be part of the point of this song, in which Saul Williams symbolically offers up hip hop to white boys on the condition that they “substitute the anger and oppression for guilt and depression.” This is a selection from Williams’ new self-titled record on The Fader Label, which is often quite brilliant but doesn’t feature anything else quite as extraordinary as this song. (Click here to buy it from Saul Williams’ official site.)

Annie “Me Plus One” – Having already put out two of the finest pop songs of 2004 (the melancholy dancefloor anthem “Heartbeat” and the unstoppable “Chewing Gum,” which literalizes the concept of bubblegum pop), Annie is back again with another instant classic off of her forthcoming Anniemal LP. “Music Plus One” is more like “Kylie Times Ten” – a symphony of girly ooohs and ahhs, semi-rapped bridges, disco beats and electro beeps; all coming together like a relentlessly blissful pop hook machine sent to us from the distant future to save us from ourselves.

Elsewhere: Music For Robots is now way prettier! Nice makeover, guys.

With A Little Bit Of “Whooo!,” I’ll Make You Say “Wow!”

Plastic Operator “Folder” This is an amazingly sweet dance pop single built around a computer reference which doesn’t make total sense to me. I think that the singer has “copied and pasted” a love letter into the object of his affection’s file folder, though it’s not quite clear whether or not they are sharing a computer or if this is the world’s first (to my knowledge, anyway) p2p love song. I get the impression that this might be a Mac thing, so I’m a bit out of the loop. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)

A Gun Called Tension “Gold Front” – Though this may not be the most accurate reference point, my immediate gut-instinct response to this song is “Archers Of Loaf going through an Eno phase.” (Maybe specifically Eno’s production on Achtung Baby? I’m not sure, to be honest. I’m responding to that big droning sweep, which is more U2 than Eno, when I think about what Eno’s own music actually sounds like.) This feels a bit more anthemic and epic every time I hear it; I’m certain that this song must be fantastic when performed live. (Click here to pre-order it from Cold Crush Records.)

The Whole Bee Hive

Jukes “I Wasn’t Even Looking” – This song, which sounds like a cross between a solemn Ennio Morricone score and Broadcast at their most portentous, feels like an ideal soundtrack today, as New York enters day two of an incredibly dreary rainathon. It’s not exactly shocking to me that this artist is from Bristol – sometimes it seems as though everything which comes from there sounds as bleak and resigned as this. (Click here to buy it from Twisted Nerve.)

String Quartet Tribute To Beyonce “Work It Out” – For the past two years, I have been collecting string quartet tribute records, mainly those released by Vitamin Records. Since Vitamin tends to focus on current hitmakers and the giants of 80s/90s alt-rock, I assume that their target market must be young fans with a compulsion for completism and a taste for novelty. On one hand, these albums are amazingly inessential and inherantly ridiculous – what exactly is the point of making Marilyn Manson’s music sound ‘classy’? Nevertheless, the recordings can be surprisingly good and suggest an unexpected continuity between modern pop and actual classical music.

In some cases, the character of a song can change rather dramatically with the new arrangement. Nearly all of the songs on last year’s String Quartet Tribute To Beyonce reveal a regal, martial bombast to Beyonce’s music which is mostly obscured by the abundance of soul and funk on the original recordings. In retrospect, this makes a lot of sense – the urgency of “Crazy In Love” is rather like a battle march in its way; the romantic yearning of “Baby Boy” does take on the heightened drama of a grand opera; and “Work It Out” certainly commands attention and respect as though the singer were entitled royalty. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Happy Hardcore Piece

JDS “Higher Love” – When you listen to Happy Hardcore you get stared at. You can be quietly walking down the street one day, perhaps unware of the volume of your headphones, until you realize all around you can hear the metronomic WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP of happy hardcore at 180 bpm. Or try flipping through your Case Logic booklet in mixed company and watch the shrunken grimaces, haughty “evil eyes,” and condescending chuckles when you come to the CD covered with grinning smiley faces and Prince-ly grammar. Even your most pop-friendly friends will view you with a newfound concern.

Obviously the tweest of rave genres, even my ex-girlfriend Nancy – a notorious indie-pop fan – described her one visit to a happy hardcore party as “scary.” The cliché (true, of course) is the “candy raver”: an infantile mind trapped in a (mostly) adult body, all stuffed animal cuteness and body-glitter. As warped as it may seem, it’s really not so different from any other subculture you might toss up as a counter-example. How is a guy caked up with foundation and black-eyeliner any less goofy than someone wearing a dozen candy necklaces? (And besides all candy ravers want to do is hug you, usually, not burn down your church. Admittedly, neither mademy list of things to do today.)

Happy hardcore raves have names like “Hardcore Uproar,” “OVERLOAD!,” and “Lost the Plot.” The last is telling; an ancient phrase for drug-addled delirium, it also highlights that – like their contemporaries sporting rockabilly coifs or ’77-style liberty spikes – they’re essentially reproduction antiques. It’s not for nothing that the genre makes heavy use of sound-tropes that sound best under the influence of ecstasy. Like its cousin in “big room” trance, the sound of happy hardcore is tailor made for that rush surrounding dancers first few ecstasy experiences.

So – the most important part for you playing along at home – what does it sound like? A friend of mine once described it as “fast rave music,” and that’s as good a definition as any, especially if your working definition of “rave” is as superficial as most Americans. It shares gabba’s (happy hardcores angry loner cousin from the European mainland) ridiculously fast kick drum, a sound so attenuated by speed it sounds like a cartoon “sprooooooing!” Unlike gabba’s death-metal atmosphere, it is “toytown techno” taken to an almost religiously pure extreme. Melodies are those of calliopes, video games, cartoons. Synth riffs and stabs have an almost comical, campy flair. Samples are pitched up to levels of near-incomprehensibility. Vocals are mostly trilling divas exhorting you – the dancer – to let yourself go. There are sometimes warp speed breakbeats skittering around the thump (although these may be currently out of vogue), so fast and linear they lose any pretensions to “funk.” It is also, in the words of my friend, “the best thing ever…when you’re in the mood for it.”

My favorite happy hardcore track ever is JDS’s “Higher Love”, the second track from the first Happy 2 B Hardcore mix CD. It’s utterly generic in the best possible sense; my description of the genre as a whole works just as well as a description of this specific track. You can dance to it, but I’m old and out of shape and my days of hardcore stimulant abuse are long behind me. So my suggestion is getting behind the wheel on a sunny day, cranking this up, and just flooring it. It’s bliss overload. Jungle is my favorite music ever, because it’s funky, because it’s got (or had) an incredible range of moods/feelings/textures, because it combines so much other stuff I love (house/techno/ragga/rap/R&B). I could never call happy hardcore even close to a “favorite genre” (I wouldn’t call the soundtrack to Super Mario Brothers my favorite music either), but I’d be lying if I said that when “Higher Love” was playing it didn’t seem to make all other music seem redundant. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

(Jess Harvell is a freelance writer who has been published by the Village Voice, Seattle Weekly, and the Phoenix News Times, among other publications.)

For My Bliss

Twitch “Chop Dis Up (Dirty)” – I am not 100% certain if this is the same Twitch from Optimo in Glasgow, but either way this is the kind of quality track that I would expect from him. With its punctuating bursts of white noise, manic beat, and forceful, intimidating vocals, the song is raw and frenetic to the point of seeming like a violent fit. (Click here to buy it from Piccadilly Records.)

Mylo “In My Arms” – This composition reworks the keyboard riff from Kim Carnes’ “Betty Davis Eyes” into a dance track which gradually builds in intensity while at the same time feeling like one moment of pure ecstacy stretched out and sustained for four minutes. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: I’ve been very lazy in keeping up with all of the new mp3 blogs popping up lately, but I do recommend checking out 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Music Is A Virus, The Stypod, Orbis Quintus, Mewsic, Womenfolk, and Sounds Of Sweden.

Also: Do you like Fluxblog, but wish that I would stop being so aloof and open a little, so that you could get a chance to know the real me? If so, check out this interview with me over at The Tofu Hut.

And: Though I am not sure whether it will run tomorrow or the day after that, Jess Harvell will be doing a special fill-in post here sometime this week.

Such Wonderful Examples

Lady Sovereign “Ch Ching” – This song is exactly the reason why we actually need the word “grime” as a genre descriptor. I’m not sure if “grime” is really the best word to describe this sound, but there really needs to be some way of categorizing this music. A lot of what gets referred to a grime just sounds like interesting hip hop to my ears (for example: Dizzee Rascal, Wiley), but this track is just barely hip hop. It’s this strange, mesmerizing, strangely alien mixture of dance music, hip hop, reggae, modern r+b, video game music, and IDM. This exists primarily as a result (or is that a synthesis?) of the past six years of popular black music from both sides of the Atlantic, and a global culture which accelerates and encourages subcultural cross-pollination at a rate unthinkable even ten years ago. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Q And Not U “Wonderful People” – This is apparently part of an ongoing campaign to teach indie kids to dance (again) by presenting dance beats and synth lines in the comfortable context of punky guitar rock – a bit like taking your pills in a bowl of pudding. I’m not criticizing anyone. mind you, and if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I am obviously a big fan of this sort of thing. Q And Not U get some bonus points for a) that excellent synth solo which begins at the 1:50 mark b) feeling a lot less oppressive and heavy than a lot of other indie bands playing in a similar style (!!!, The Rapture, The Faint, Interpol), and c) for getting a great, crisp mic sound on their guitar and drums. (Click here to pre-order it from Dischord.)

We’ll Be Living In Stardust

Mousse T (featuring Emma Lanford) “Is It Cos I’m Cool?” – This might be the best ego trip set to music since The Black Album. It’s hard not to get caught up in the sweep of this song as it shifts from post-punk bass chug to full-on glam rock to orchestral grandeur in the space of four minutes; amping up the drama and piling on the hooks every 30 seconds or so. Much like the Girls Aloud single from last week, this is a ruthlessly efficient song designed for maximum pop thrill. Unless you really fight it (and why would you want to do that?), you will have no choice but to love it. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Alpha Zeta (featuring DJ Zeph and Azeem) “Here Comes The Judge” – Okay, I want someone who knows better than me to tell me if I’m crazy for hearing a bit of Afro-beat in this song. It would be a bit too kind to even call me a dilettante in that genre, given that most of my listening experience is limited to buying a few Fela Kuti reissues back when every magazine was running articles praising him up and down about four years ago. Even if I’m totally off-base in terms of musicology, it at least feels like a hip hop approximation of that sound to me on some level. At any rate, this is a great, soulful tune with some excellent lyrics, particularly the line about your feet falling asleep and dreaming the beat. (Click here to visit the Future Primitive site for more about DJ Zeph and Azeem.)

Elsewhere: Eppy has returned from a brief blogging hiatus with a detailed critical analysis of The Fiery Furnaces’ “Chris Michaels.”

The World Will End, But Not Today

David Wrench “World War IV” – With this song, ghostly pale Welshman David Wrench distills wartime paranoia and election-year angst into one of the most exhilirating pop singles of the year to date. The song moves from one killer hook to the next, building up to what could be the best pop-rock chorus since The New Pornographer’s “The Laws Have Changed.” Thematically, Wrench isn’t far off from the New Pornographers either – like several songs from The Electric Version, Wrench advocates hedonism as a sanity-preserving reaction to political and economic decadence. Since 1999 has come and gone, Wrench just wants to “party like it’s World War IV.” There are certainly worse ways to cope. (Click here to buy it from David Wrench’s official site.)

Excerpts from “The Interactive Dubya,” 8/31/2004 – WFMU listeners grill a “reasonable audio fascimile” of George W. Bush on a wide range of issues including his confusing stance on 527 groups, disgraced New Jersey Governor James McGreavy, and the lyrics to “Desperado”. This was broadcast yesterday as a part of WFMU’s “RNC Remix” stream, which will carry on through Thursday night.

Billions and Billions of Stars

Zolar X “Test Tube Baby” – Zolar X were a pre-punk heavy glam band from Los Angeles in the mid-70s who insisted that they were from outer space and dressed the part on and off stage. The band were mainly inspired by Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie and Star Trek, but somehow ended up sounding like Geddy Lee fronting the Stooges. (Click here to buy it from Other Music.)

Magnolia “It’s All Vain (Sticky’s refix)” – The original mix of this song is becoming a big hit on the UK club charts, but this stuttering, glitchy version by Sticky is the mix which impresses me the most. The arrangement and production is quite busy and frantic, but the pop vocal and shiny robo-acoustic guitar (which is most definitely going to be seen in the future as a distinctly 00s affect) smooth out the sound and sweeten the song like a juice or soda mixer. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Scott Williams & Kelly Jones “Dick Jokes (Rounds 1-3)” – Please note that WFMU will be broadcasting a special “RNC Remix” stream over the internet during this week’s Republican National Convention in New York City. There will be a variety of programming, almost all of which will in some way be protesting the Bush administration and the convention. As a reference to Bill Hicks’ claim that he was “Chomsky with dick jokes,” the stream will occasionally air clips of Scott Williams and Kelly Jones rattling off a series of ridiculous dick jokes to lighten the mood.

Lord Have Mercy On Me

Tundra “Satellites” – Video treatment: A group of people (the band?) walk through the wilderness on a summer evening near a pond or a lake. We never see close-ups of the people; every shot with a human in it is taken from a distance or with the figure in silhouette. Everything is shot in black and white, with a lot of greys on black. We see trees sway slightly in the breeze, and watch as moonlight ripples over the water. There are shots of the people sitting around a campfire and skipping stones in the water. Halfway through, the people take off their clothes and enter the lake. As the song ends, we pull farther away from the action, ending on an expanding panoramic view of the lake and the wilderness around it, the human figures becoming smaller and smaller until you can no longer see them.

This is taken from Tundra’s debut ep, which also includes a long instrumental titled “Evlin Anjra” which is among the most beautiful drone rock pieces that I have ever heard. (Click here to buy it from Microclimate.)

Mary Lou Williams “Anima Christi” – This is a selection from the recently reissued album Black Christ of Andes, an amazing collection of Williams’ gospel jazz recordings from 1962. I am not a religious man, but this is the sort of secular music that makes the idea of being one seem somewhat appealing. Essentially, this is a modified version of the 14th century Catholic prayer “Anima Christi” set to a lovely gospel melody, and sung with an easy, confident passion by the Ray Charles Singers. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

2003 / 2002

7:19 I have the pre-show on in the background. My enthusiasm for the actual awards show is at an all-time low, mostly due to a deeply lackluster line-up of performers, but I can barely pay attention to this pre-show thing. Ashlee Simpson is performing her single right now, and I just don’t care one way or another. I can’t bring myself to even pretend to care about this girl. Her sister at least has the retarded Barbie doll thing and the hilariously histrionic singing voice going for her. There’s just nothing going on here.

7:23 Ashlee has given some of her time to a mall punk band called New Found Glory. Zzzzzz.

7:25 Sway whoops it up like somebody doing a lame Randy Jackson impression. John Norris (who, like Kurt Loder, is brought out like MTV’s fine china at these things) is talking to P. Diddy, who looks like a high society version of Mr. T.

7:41 Wow, Jay-Z looks great. He feels “very vindicated.” They are hyping him up tonight, making his victory in every category seem like an inevitability.

8:00 J Lo begins the show with a…speech.

8:01 Usher performs “Confessions.” This is not even a little bit exciting. Usher is pretty much as big a star as one can be outside of modern rock without having any charisma whatsoever. Usher is only big now because all the big guns didn’t put out records this year. His hugeness is an entirely default thing.

8:03 Usher is looking at himself all wet in the mirror!

8:04 Now he’s doing “Yeah” and it’s just, eh. Snore. Catchphrase song of the year. This is theoretically a medley, but without all of those pesky transitions. Dullest MTV awards opening EVER!

8:07 Will Smith is here to remind us that he had a hit called “Miami.” Now he wants to “give something back.” He’s stalling. Is he just killing time?

8:09 Wait…Will Smith is here to present a presenter? Wha?

8:10 Shaq is here. We know this, because there is a wall of digital flame spelling out his name. Now people are throwing around white towels or something. What is going on? Is this meant to be exciting? Is there a significance to the white towels? Does it symbollize surrender to the…tallness?…of Shaq?

8:13 Way too many techical difficulties! This is such a mess so far.

8:14 No Doubt wins best pop video. Gwen looks adorable.

8:20 Jay-Z wins an award for “99 Problems”, which is no big shocker.

8:23 If this was Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Shakira was a demon, you’d kill her by smashing that big silver shiny thing on her chest.

8:25 Jet performs. Dullness ensues. At least the mod dancers are cute. Nothing can stop this from being the poor man’s White Stripes.

8:31 Did they put all the rock songs in a row on purpose? The rock ghetto? Hoobastank performs “The Reason,” the worst rock hit of 2004. “I’m not a purrrfect puuuuurson.” Ugh. Hoobadude is totally tone-deaf, too.

8:32 The rock block goes on, this time with Yellowcard, who are this year’s Blink 182. Borrrring. This makes Jet seem incredibly great in comparison.

8:37 Jon Stewart! This is not his venue at all, but it’s nice to see him.

8:38 I thought that they announced Bill Murray, but it turns out to be some black dude that I’ve never heard of. Eva Mendes is here, apparently on leave from the set of Romancing The Stone III. Who is that black guy? Is he famous? Is he meant to be amusing?

8:40 Beyonce wins. What do you say about Beyonce? Her outfit is insane. It’s all boobs, legs, and hair. No, not hair. Mane. It’s all about mane.

8:43 Kanye West performs “Jesus Walks.” Can anyone out-pompous this tonight?

8:45 They switch to “All Falls Down” now. Major improvement. Kanye looks fabulous, by the way.

8:47 Chaka Khan is here to do the intro to “Through The Wire.” Nice. I approve. So do Beyonce and Jay-Z, who are grooving politely.

8:55 Missy is back from a safari or something. Xtina looks supercute.

8:56 Usher wins, somehow besting Jay-Z.

8:57 Shut up, Usher!

9:00 Kerry daughters: kinda cool, I guess. Bush daughters: dim, passive aggressive.

9:02 Thankfully, Lenny Kravitz has lost the long flat-ironed hair. Now he’s 2% less douchey.

9:04 Alicia Keys wins for best R+B video, and she deserves it. “If I Ain’t Got You” is a very good song.

9:12 Dave Chappelle is here! Deliver us from mediocrity, Dave!

9:14 Chappelle is squandered.

9:16 Okay, it’s crunk time. I’m just not that into the crunk.

9:18 I swear to God, they just showed a bunch of day traders in suits going crazy to “Lean Back”! Best shot of the night.

9:20 Maybe not! Bruce Willis and P Diddy are dancing together now!

9:23 Owen Wilson and Gwen Stefani give Jet a rock award. Nnn.

9:32 Those creepy Olsen twins bring out Jessica Simpson. Hasn’t she been married for about two years now? What’s with the wedding imagery? Does she exist primarily to boost the wedding industry? Is this part of a program to get little girls fixated on marriage to counter trends in young people getting hitched later in life? Either way, her voice is all over the place. She’d never make it on American Idol.

9:37 D-12 (minus Eminem) and two of the guys from Good Charlotte are here to present the award for best video game soundtrack, even though video games are not part of MTV’s regular programming. Welcome to the horrifying future.

9:44 Gap ad. Sarah Jessica Parker shaking her boney ass as though she’s a voluptuous sex bomb = DUD, Lenny Kravitz looking as though he’s been attacked by the dudes from Queer Eye = DUDDER.

9:49 Will Forte is the funniest thing about this show so far, and they didn’t even announce that he’s there. He’s right, Jimmy Fallon is a “complete turd.”

9:51 Wayne Coyne emerges in a bubble!

9:52 Outkast wins best hip hop for “Hey Ya!” I shouldn’t be surprised that Andre 3000 looks great, but somehow I am still wowed.

9:55 Xtina is looking really hot, and this song with Nelly is fantastic. No complaints here.

9:57 I officially really love this song. Is it going to be on her next album?

10:08 Oh come on, another award for Usher? At least the Black Eyed Peas didn’t win. Britney, Beyonce, Missy: robbed!

10:12 LL Cool J has tv screens on the chests of two models standing behind him, promoting his new album.

10:13 Alicia Keys peforms “If I Ain’t Got You.” Nice, but someone needs to tap her on the shoulder and let her know that she isn’t Stevie Wonder, no matter what Clive Davis says.

10:15 Oh wait, now Stevie Wonder is actually there!

10:16 Oooooh, “Higher Ground” now! Pretty awesome, even with Lenny Kravitz on stage.

10:17 Shut up, Lenny!

10:27 Whoa, Ashlee Simpson’s hair looks hideous! Bad call, stylists!

10:28 First video games, now skateboards? I am so not a part of this target demo.

10:30 Maroon 5 beat Kanye for best new artist? Weird upset.

10:37 Alicia Keys pays tribute to Ray Charles, which is nice, but not particularly entertaining.

10:44 The Beastie Boys are here to present the MTV2 award. Yellowcard win, beating out Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Elephant Man. This category makes no sense at all. The guy from Yellowcard looks like Alan Cumming playing Eminem in a tv movie.

10:45 Mandy Moore and Marilyn Manson introduce the Polyphonic Spree. Neat! People from all over the nation are probably confused by this Polyphonic Spree performance. Is America truly ready for an adorable joycore choir?

10:53 Dave Chappelle is back, thank God.

10:54
Tribute to Jay Hova!

10:58 JoJo is remarkably composed and professional for a 13 year old girl. I think that J Lo is controlling her body by proxy.

11:00 Linkin Park get the Viewer’s Choice award. Don’t blame me, I voted for Xtina!

11:01 I’m pretty sure that I mentioned this last year, but Linkin Park really seem like a bunch of IT guys.

11:07 Gwyneth Paltrow is looking pretty great post-pregnancy. Video of the year time. It’s got to be Jay-Z, right?

11:08 No, Outkast. Makes sense though, given that “Hey Ya” is the biggest hit of the century to date.

11:10 Amy Lee’s music is lousy, but she sure is adorable. John Mellancamp wants you to vote for anyone, but we all know that’s not really true.

11:11 Andre 3000 performs “Prototype” on guitar. I remember someone telling me that this song sounds like the Smashing Pumpkins, and yeah, you know what? It does. It’s like a smooth soul version of “Mayonaise” from Siamese Dream.

11:13 Beyonce grooves along earnestly.

11:14 Big Boi is here with “The Way You Move.” I’d prefer “The Rooster,” but okay.

11:15 Now it’s “Ghettomusick.” Good choice.

11:16 “And for the millionth time, “Hey Ya,” goddamnit!”

11:18 People are skipping off to vote on stage as though it’s the happiest thing ever. Voting is a party!

11:20 Wow, they actually have the nerve to cut off “Hey Ya” at the breakdown – the best part of the song!

11:22 I appreciate all of the pro-voting sentiment in the show tonight, but I really wish that everyone would be a little less non-partisan.

Eh. The show is over. I don’t think that it was the worst MTV VMAs ever (that’s probably the one with the two Wayans from the Scary Movie series), but it’s definitely in the bottom three. This was mostly a pretty big waste of my time.

Renegade Underground Society

The Close-Ups “I’m On My Way” – This is apparently meant to be the twee pop equivalent of the Gorillaz, but I’ve yet to see any of the corresponding animation. The cuteness is clearly being dialed up to 11 on this track, with its sunny, super-catchy melody, little-girl vocals (literally!), and lyrics about yummy food in snack bars. There’s really no sense in trying to resist this song’s charms unless you are a robot or have a heart of cold, dark stone. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)

Romanowski “Dance Dance Dance” – Though this may not be the floor-filler that the title implies, this is a very impressive bit of moody funk which blurs the lines between soul, jazz, and rocksteady. This is certainly one of those songs which will make far more sense when heard very late at night. This is a selection from Romanowski’s forthcoming Party In My Pants LP, due out in October. Click here to visit the Future Primitive site.)

Elsewhere: Fluxblog was mentioned in this brief segment reported by Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin on NPR’s Day To Day.

I’d Rather Feel Bad Than Not Feel Anything At All

Pixies “Ain’t That Pretty At All” – This is the second new recording from the Pixies since Trompe Le Monde was released in 1991. It was recorded for the forthcoming Warren Zevon tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich on Artemis Records, which will also include renditions of Zevon tunes by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Van Dyke Parks, and er, Adam Sandler.

Those of you who may have felt that the iTunes-only release “Bam Thwock” (which I absolutely adore, by the way) sounded more like the Breeders than the Pixies should be pleased with this track, which is heavy on Kim Deal/Black Francis vocal interplay and feels much more like the Pixies of the Surfer Rosa era. It’s raw, noisy and visceral, as well as catchy and playful. It feels so great to hear Kim and Black Francis trading off lines like this, as though there was never any bad blood between them. The spark is clearly still there, and now I’m suddenly quite eager for them to record some more new material when at first I felt a great deal of trepidation about that possibility. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

Band Jolle “Hand In Hand” – I know next to nothing about this band aside from the fact that they are Swedish. I wish that I could figure out who this girl’s voice reminds me of – I keep thinking Shirly Manson from Garbage, but that’s not quite right. There’s a certain girliness to her voice and glossiness to the sound which is very teen pop, but the guitars and beat are very much from the Strokes/Interpol school of nouveau post-punk. (Click here to visit the band’s official site.)

Also: As of this week’s 500th column, Glenn McDonald has concluded his regular weekly run of The War Against Silence. Though I seldom share Glenn’s taste and opinions, and occasionally find his prose to be a bit too indulgent and long-winded, I have a great admiration for what he has accomplished with that site over the years. TWAS was one of the first self-published music sites that I ever encountered on the internet, and was part of what inspired me to start this blog. Godspeed, Glenn.

It’s Written All Over Her Face

Kings Of Convenience “I’d Rather Dance With You” – On his recent DJ Kicks mix cd, Erlend Oye covered The Smiths’ “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” but on this Kings Of Convenience track he goes all the way and writes his own damned version of the song without all of the doomed-romantic lyrical baggage. Perhaps I am being a bit unfair, but there is more than a passing resemblence here; and hey, if you’re going to rewrite a Smiths song, you may as well do the very best one of them all. This is more than just a Morrissey homage, of course – there’s bits of The Cure, the Psychedelic Furs, Echo & The Bunnymen, and just about every other romantic British alt-rock band in the mix. Much like the Har Mar Superstar song from last week, this seems as though it was deliberately written and produced in accordance with a dead tradition. This goes beyond retro pop – it’s more fetishistic, like building a highly detailed miniature replica of an old boat. Oye’s attention to detail, along with his gift for melody and low-key vocal phrasing keep this song from being just another tired retread. This is actually good enough that it would’ve probably been a huge 120 Minutes hit if it had only been released in 1988. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Embassy “Flipside Of A Memory” – There’s a good chance that this could’ve been somewhat popular in the late 80s as well, though it is not quite as much of a period piece as the Oye composition. I’m not sure whether or not the lead guitar line in this tune is intentionally paraphrasing Nirvana’s “Come As You Are.” Given that both songs touch on the subject of memory, I’d prefer to believe that it’s a clever and catchy reference, but it could just as well be a lucky coincidence. (Click here to buy it directly from the band.)

THE-THE-THE ROCK

Thank you, Matthew, for having me over, especially since I stood you up the first time. If we do this again, I’ll bring my passions. Today, I have questions.

“Nickelback Sucks” – Nine different strangers emailed me an anonymous MP3 a few months ago. Its original title is “Nickelback Sucks.” My theory is that the real title is “A Whole Kind of Music Sucks” but the fella who cut this together was too much the coward to cop to the concept. The “critical engine” here is that Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me,” the most popular song of 2002 (and 2003?) is structurally identical to their recent hit “Someday.” Lay the songs on top of each other, as our anonymous hater has done (haterz are always nameless, aren’t they?), and we discover the mimesis. Hardy har. Silly, overwrought, unoriginal Jesus Christ Superstars!

But self-similarity can’t really be the point, can it? Would the demographic feel the same way about three Pole tracks laid on top of each other? (Not that you could tell.) Two Ramones verse-chorus affairs stacked up? The Magnetic Fields folded onto themselves, give or take maraca? Hell, I don’t care if someone repeats him or herself, as long as he or she repeats something that works. I think most pop listeners agree and pay attention to results, not Checkpoint Charlie ideas about idiosyncrasy. Only the mad and miserable would deny “Pass The Dutch” because it was kinda like a bunch of other Mosley/Elliott kutchies. As Joshua Clover pointed out to me, “How You Remind Me” is like a Squeeze song: one killer hook run, full speed, into another. Who doesn’t want a Squeeze song wearing Man Rock slacks? Other than a crazy, profligate, crazy person? “Someday” is a lesser single with a better conceit, sort of a grey market rebuild of the engine inside Prince’s “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man”: I love you, but it isn’t happening right now. Build-up, desire for resolution, then deferral. Problem is, “Someday” has some lame-ass verses and is an unworthy heir. Whatevs. But what it is exactly that people hate? The sincerity? The Broadway vocalizing? The hair? Do they hate, perhaps, the nation of millions goldbacking Nickelback? It’s impossible to point this finger without people resorting to taste: “Come on, we’re open-minded. We love pop. Nickelback just suck!” It is hard for me to think of a band I love that doesn’t have some flaw, maybe even a big flaw. I’d love to see a discussion in the comments section. (It would be nice to not revert to “Nickelback sucks!” but do what you gotta do.)

Bluebird “Falling Back To Earth” – Bluebird feel related. They’re on Dim Mak, a hip label. Most of their EP is accomplished, hyper, young man rock watermarked very clearly “2004.” But the first song on this record could be a Buckcherry B-side, and Buckcherry were never tied particularly to the present moment. It’s hot and it’s the first song, so they probably like it as much as I do. (Nobody accidentally puts the best song first.) The singer has neither Joshua Todd’s pipes nor his attitude, but he does a great job moving between hairy, sweaty boy verses and the coasting, girly choruses, a move I will not shortchange. Here’s the chorus now: “Falling back to earth….only to be cut for change?” What is he saying? No matter. Dude is falling back to earth. He skipped Ground Control and just went out there without permission. Listen to the chunked out changes and alpha swagger and then tell me, honestly, how different this is from Nickelback or Buckcherry. Then ask yourself why you care. (Click here to buy it from Dim Mak.)

Josh Todd “The Walls” – Why anyone would care? is a question Joshua Todd must have asked himself at least once. Buckcherry broke up a year or two ago. Who noticed? Todd released a solo album in January of this year. I had no idea. Who did? I only know because moments ago, in an eruption of email kismet, I received notice from a publicist that Todd is now touring this album. Unlike Bluebird, who are poised to enter the indie label pipeline and get their clippings on, Todd is major label refugee putting out his own records. This is a not cool. This is a categorical mismatch. It’s like Dr. Dre on Navarre. If you’re a de jure rock star, you need hotel windows to jump out of and town cars to befoul. You need a budget. Big personalities burn big advances. And yet, Todd continues on the dolo. You Made Me isn’t on a par with the final Buckcherry album Timebomb, an improbably torqued and resonant thing, overstuffed in every direction. You Made Me is more modest, built to accommodate—it’s modern rock with domestic themes and minor modes. But it still has Todd’s voice, which transforms a generic bid into a useful record. I don’t entirely buy “The Walls” but I’m happy to hear Todd run his sales pitch over and over. I hope to see Todd working on Babylon’s dime again. (Click here to buy it from Josh Todd’s official site.)

Better Than Crack Or Smoking Dirt

Mr. X and Mr. Z “Drink Old Gold” – This is an early example of hip hop product placement dating back to 1987. I suppose that in the context of history, Mr. X (the MC) and Mr. Z (the DJ) are a poor man’s Erik B and Rakim or Kool G Rap and DJ Polo, but at least in terms of this one record, it had nothing to do with skills – this is just as good, really. As far as classic hip hop booze anthems go, this is top shelf material. It’s a minor tragedy that this is currently out of print.

The Tough Alliance “Take No Heroes” – This is the work of two young Swedish men who apparently have a deep and powerful love for synthesized strings and horns. Strangely, the guy sings in that nasal whiney style used by lots of corporate mall punkers, but with a peculiar Liam Gallagher-esque inflection which sounds alternately brilliant and irritating. This is a massively catchy song, so if you are trying to avoid getting something stuck in your head for a few days, you may want to sit this one out. (Click here to buy it from Srvice.)

FYI: Sasha is going to be doing a special fill-in post here tomorrow, but I’ll be doing an extra post on Sunday covering the MTV Video Music Awards in real time, as has been the tradition here for the past two years.

Also: Sean over at Said The Gramophone is taking a well-earned vacation, and has a team of guest writers filling in for him this week. It should be pretty interesting.

This Time The World Did What It Told Me It Would

Poto & Cabengo “Life In San Diego” – In the context of the Poto & Cabengo LP, which mostly features electronic manipulations and approximations of acoustic folk music, this song is a bit of an oddball. But then again, this song would probably seem like an oddity in most any context. I’m not sure how to classify this track – it’s not quite loungey, it’s not quite disco, the vocals are slippery and hard to define, a little bit like David Byrne doing an impression of Damo Suzuki. Whatever this is, it is most certainly pop, in a dizzy, roundabout sort of way. (Click here to buy it from Ear-Rational.)

Experimental Dental School “Hideous Dance Attack” – Now this is peculiar. It’s like a garage band playing circus music, with a spazzy singer who manages to somehow combine the most irritating vocal tics of Anthony Kiedis, Julian Cassablancas, and R2-D2 without sucking. Baffling yet totally compelling. (Click here to buy it directly from the band.)

Guided By Voices @ Pier 54, NYC 8/19/2004

Sad If I Lost It / Everybody Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking) / Sleep Over Jack / Girls Of Wild Strawberries / Navigating Flood Regions / Things I Will Keep / Closets Of Henry / Asia Minor / Mascara Snakes / Run Son Run / Window Of My World / Christian Animation Torch Carriers / Back To The Lake / Chief Barrel Belly / Gonna Never Have To Die / Buzzards And Dreadful Crows / Red Ink Superman / My Kind Of Soldier / Queen Of Cans And Jars / Sons Of Apollo / Fair Touching / Beg For A Wheelbarrow / Tractor Rape Chain / Game Of Pricks / Secret Star / Watch Me Jumpstart / The Best Of Jill Hives / Cut-Out Witch / Alone, Stinking, And Unafraid / Glad Girls / Murder Charge

Though I’ve had more fun at other Guided By Voices shows (read: I’ve been in the front of the crowd with all the Postal Blowfish fanatics), this was probably the best GBV show that I’ve seen in terms of performance quality. Though the concert ended somewhat abruptly and without an encore (the venue apparently insisted that the show be over by 10 PM), this was a very strong and satisfying show, focusing mainly on material from Half Smiles Of The Decomposed and other recent releases. In my experience, GBV shows usually start somewhat weakly and build up to an ecstatic climax, but this show began with four consecutive highlights, including “Sad If I Lost It,” a major sentimental favorite of mine which I never thought I’d get to see played live. “Beg For A Wheelbarrow” and “Alone, Stinking, and Unafraid” were particularly memorable and spirited, though “Red Ink Superman” and “Mascara Snakes” were tedious duds which ought to be dropped from the setlist ASAP.

Note to Bob Pollard: just because it ends on the lyric “and that’s the electrifying conclusion” doesn’t make an obscure tune like “Murder Charge” an actual electrifying conclusion!

All My Friends Have Turned To Shadows

Girls Aloud “Love Machine” – For a moment there in the first verse, it sounds as though Girls Aloud are advocating some kind of gender war, but then the song goes off in a more conventional pop direction. Well, as conventional as a song can be with references to “gift wrapped kitty-cats” and the joys of being amphibious. This is mega-shiny upbeat British chart pop with the dial set to DOMINATION. If you are even slightly predisposed to enjoying this sort of thing, it will take over your mind and own you. I wasn’t totally feeling their previous single “The Show,” but this is more like it.

M. Craft “Emily Snow” – I fear that this may sound kind of typical and boring in print, but this is a very lovely indie-folk melody set to a bossanova beat, with some nice distorted electric lead guitar thrown in for good measure. It’s twee, but not excessively so, and the tune has enough late-night charm to set itself apart from the legions of post-Belle & Sebastian indie bands trying for the same thing. Simply put, the melody of this song is just too good to ignore. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)

I Still Want To Dance

Johnny Boy “You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve” – This is a soaring, somewhat twee Phil Spector-esque mini-epic which feels so intensely British that the lyrics may as well be all in rhyming Cockney slang. Only people from the UK make these kind of records nowadays, it has become something like the indigenous music of the British isles. It’s a lovely, vaguely Christmas-y tune, and it really soars when the girl emphatically sings “yeah, yeah!” as the back-up singers coo “ooh baby, ah baby.” (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Superthriller “Ahjustwannadance” – Not all copycat Prince tracks hit the mark, but this funky, shiny little electro tune has enough charm and bounce to it to make it a suitable surrogate for the real deal, circa the late 80s. It’s hard not to love this song, especially when the singer’s Prince impression ends up sounding a bit more like a smarmy Lyrics Born. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)