Archive for 2005

Tell Me, Are We Having Fun?

The Howling Hex “Pair Back Up Mass With” – This Howling Hex album would seem to prove my hunch that Neil Hagerty is at his best when he has a female foil. Weird War and his solo albums were alright, but his music goes down much easier when his incredible dudeness is diluted by some femininity. This new woman on vocals (I can’t seem to find her name anywhere) is a far cry from Hagerty’s guttural Royal Trux partner, Jennifer Herrema – she’s considerably more femme, and often sings with a slight drawl that compliments his space-boogie guitar playing rather well. At times, her diction seems odd and forced, as though she’s singing the words off of cue cards. It sounds rather like some disembodied country singer performing song-poems from the great beyond. (Click here to buy it from Drag City.)

Bertine Zetlitz “Fake Your Beauty” – Two not-so-shocking facts about this song: 1) It’s from Norway and 2) it’s from an album called Rollerskating. (Possibly the most appropriately titled album of the year thus far.) If you’re allergic to Europop or early 80s disco, please avoid. Otherwise, this is a very good time. (Click here to visit the official Bertine Zetlitz website.)

Elsewhere: Sean Michaels has returned as the regular writer of Said The Gramophone.

I Sure Hope That’s It

Fiona Apple “Used To Love (rough mix, radio rip)” – At first, it seemed like a cynical attempt to recreate Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot buzz, but after all this time, it’s pretty clear that Sony’s refusal to release Fiona Apple’s third album is the real deal. In a purely abstract way, I understand where the label is coming from – rap and mainstream pop acts are the easy money, and it would take a bit of clever marketing (read: effort) to make the most of Fiona’s album. But they are being shortsighted – if anything is obvious now, it’s that her fanbase has not abandoned her, but have instead become more devoted; rather like what happened with Weezer between their second and third records. Fiona Apple’s appeal is surprisingly broad, and spread out through various pop constituencies, and could easily grow beyond that, but it would require a bit of clever marketing to reach out to all of these different people, and this is obviously what Sony has no interest in doing. This has nothing to do with the accessability of the music – if they could sell a million copies of When The Pawn Hits… (which had no crossover radio hits a la “Criminal” and “Sleep To Dream”), they can at least get this album up to gold certification on the strength of her core fanbase.

Of the five songs which have leaked from the record, this rough mix of “Used To Love” is the most familiar, as it stays closest to the sound of her previous album. Other songs flirt with cabaret and musical theatre, but in a subtle, natural way which is rather unlike the shrill, faux-precocious approach of her younger contemporary, Nellie McKay. Apple’s music still packs an emotional punch, but her lyrics and melodies have grown more mature and understated as she ages, hinting at even greater possibilities if only she were given the chance to record and release more material.

If you enjoy this music, you ought to contact Sony and let them know that you want to buy this album. Corporations only understand numbers, and you should be counted. (Click here to visit the Free Fiona website.)

Elsewhere: Eugene Mirman plays the part of M.I.A. in Aziz Ansari’s comedy routine, Aziz, Will You Be My Valentine? (heart) M.I.A.

You Got This Thing That Follows Me Around

Babes in Toyland – “Bruise Violet”

There came a time, when I was maybe 13-and-a-half or so, that Courtney Love just wasn’t angry enough for me. The way that I felt towards those people I used to call friends, and those girls in the locker room with the Green Day patches on their L.L. Bean bags, and my mom, and my teachers… even Pretty on the Inside was too nice.

Then I discovered Babes in Toyland.

“Bruise Violet,” from their 1992 Reprise album Fontanelle, is ostensibly about singer Kat Bjelland’s ex-friend Courtney (conspiracy theories abound as to whether Hole’s “Violet” was a response song), but anybody who has ever been wronged can relate. When those guitars stab and that rhythm swings and Kat screeches, “YOU FUCKING BITCH, WELL I HOPE YOUR INSIDES ROT,” we’re all bratty adolescents who think the world owes us everything.

When I hear Avril Lavigne or Evanescence or whatever, it makes me happy. Because I know that some 13-and-a-half-year-old girl is banging her head against a wall somewhere, and that music is making her feel better. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Babes In Toyland – “Dust Cake Boy”

If “Bruise Violet” is too tame for you, check out this track, from the first Babes album, 1990’s Spanking Machine on Twin/Tone. Having grown up on stuff like this, I hear bands like Wolf Eyes and think “whatever, pussies.” (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Amy Phillips is a freelance music geek who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She writes for such publications as the Village Voice, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Blender, Tracks, Willamette Weeek, Kitty Magik, Decibel and Seattle Weekly as well as her blog, More In The Monitor.

Step Right On The Beat

Love Is All “Felt Tip” – The lyrics are strange and obscure, but even in spite of that, this is certainly one of the most romantic songs that I’ve ever posted on this site. It’s like one moment of intimacy stretched out over a pretty feedback drone (think “With Or Without You” without the bombast, and with Kate Bush on vocals), with a lovely, hopeful bass figure on the outro. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)

Lismore “Pour Un Ancien Ami” – This sounds like female-fronted early 90s Euro-indie rock (let’s say Sleeper or Lush, for example) encased in a block of ice. Either that, or the song equivalent of this drawing that my man John Cei Douglas drew the other day. Chilly but sweet, like music sorbet. (Click here to buy it from Tonevendor.)

There’s No Escaping From The Soul Inside

Downtown “Nowhere To Hide” – The melody and general feeling of this song is very late 60s/early 70s (think Todd Rundgren or the first few solo albums by The Beatles), but the textures and effects scream “late 90s/early 00s.” The result is a song that feels closer to Oasis’ numerous rewrites of “Hey Jude” than the Beatles, and more like Phoenix than old AM radio. This is not a problem for me. I have a soft spot for that slick late 90s sound (I am certain that it will one day be fetishized by nostalgic collectors, musicians, and engineers from my age group), and so this track ends up feeling twice as mellow and comforting as it would already. (Click here to visit the official Downtown website.)

zZz “Lucy” – Dutch keyboard sleaze! I’m very glad that someone out there thought that it was a good idea to mix ? and the Mysterians organ rock with GVSB smarm and a dash of electro. For most of the song, the singer seems to be wandering around in the vincinity of the microphone muttering something about a girl named Lucy, but once the chorus kicks in, he slips into “drunken crooner” mode and the rest of the tune plays out like a heartfelt but somewhat inept karaoke session. Lucy! Lucy! Lucy! (Click here to visit the official zZz website.)

I Was Dreaming When I Wrote This

Shifty Rydoz “1999” – No, not a Prince cover.This is a flashback alllll the waaaay back to the year 1999, when Shifty Rydoz was just starting out and almost no one outside of the scene was taking UK hip hop seriously. There’s a great bit of the old “hip hop’s not a fad!” meme in the lyrics (“back then they said this was just a phase”), which seems kinda quaint given hip hop’s current pop cultural hegemony in the US and increasingly, around the world. (Click here to buy it from UK Record Shop.)

Vitalic “My Friend Dario” – Okay, so now we know what Ladytron or Chicks On Speed would sound like if they channeled ZZ Top. Pretty great, actually! I feel like I should be playing some kind of car racing video game while I listen to it, though. (Click here to visit the official Vitalic website.)

Craftsmen Of Intensity

The DJ night at Funhouse was a let down. There was a good turnout about evenly divided between regulars and friends/acquaintances, but it was spoiled for me by a terrible soundsystem that was never allowed to be louder than a blasting clock radio. No volume, no bass, no movement of any kind. Eh.

The Silures “21 Ghosts” / M.I.A. “10 Dollar” / Funk Cruel “#2” / Gene Serene & John Downfall “U Want Me” / LCD Soundsystem “Disco Infiltrator” / Annie “Chewing Gum” / Lo-Fi-FNK “Unighted” / Fox & Wolf “Youth Alcoholic” / Fox “S-s-single Bed” / Morningwood “Take Off Your Clothes” / Shrag “Punk Grammar” / Futon “Gay Boy” / The Chap “Oozing Emotion” / Amerie “1 Thing (remix with Royce)” / Lady Sovereign “Random” / Puffy “Asia No Junshin (Malcolm McLaren remix)” / Basement Jaxx “Oh My Gosh” / Dead Prez “Hell Yeah (Pistol Pete remix)” / Portabella “Covered In Punk” / Johnny Boy “You Are The Generation… (remix)” / Plastic Operator “Folder” / Erasure “Stop” / Cristina “What’s A Girl To Do?” / United State of Electronica “La Discoteca” / Out Hud “It’s For You” / Gwen Stefani “What You Waiting For?” / Blues Explosion “Mars, Arizona (DFA mix)”

Tom Scharpling & Andy Earles “Angry Mr. Bungle Fan (part three)”

Pierced Girl: What is this?

Me: It’s Gwen Stefani.

Pierced Girl: This is shit.

Me: Well, ah…

Pierced Girl: You should play some Mr. Bungle.

Me: (silent exasperation)

(Click here for the official Best Show On WFMU website and here for Andy Earles’ site. Happy birthday, Tom!)

Be Thankful Every Day For Everything And Pray

Bonde Do Vinho “Mexe, Remexe” – If anyone can provide information about this extremely high energy hip hop/Baile funk hybrid, please let me know. All I know about this record is that it is credited to a Brazillian group called “Funk Cruel” (which might not even be the real name); that the album is apparently titled “10;” and that it seems to be of fairly recent vintage. The entire record is pretty hot, I would love to know more about this.

This just in from reader Lovefoxxx:

the name of this group is “bonde do vinho” there are few funk carioca’s group that goes after “bonde”, like “bonde das tchutchucas” (tchuchuca is like a hot-ass-lolita-chick) all that started was “bonde do tigrão” (bonde is like a train…) who even made some tunes after nelly’s beats! then “MC serginho e Lacraia” came… Lacraia is this ugly ass queer who ain’t a tranny… but dress as woman and dance with small shirts shakin’ the ass…

(Click here to hear more from Bonde Do Vinho.)

Robert Pollard “Dancing Girls and Dancing Men” (Removed at the request of the owner.) – There aren’t many surprises on Robert Pollard’s first post-Guided By Voices album From A Compound Eye, but then again, bear in mind that it was recorded while GBV still existed last year. For the most part, this record is business as usual for Pollard, though in the context of his discography, the songs are more similar to the material on Not In My Airforce, Waved Out, and Kid Marine than anything from the past few GBV records. The sequencing of the album is erratic and seemingly random, going back and forth between samey riff rockers and meandering psych-folk numbers, with an occasional brief poppy tune to lighten the tone. The good news is that Pollard is still making baby steps towards broadening his musical palette by adding more strings and keyboards to the arrangements, but it’s all so frustratingly tentative and cautious. Pollard seriously needs to work with an arranger who is not within his established pool of yes men; someone who will force him to try new things even if it seems scary to him at first.

“Dancing Girls and Dancing Men” is as close to an upbeat dance rock tune as you’re going to get from Bob Pollard. It’s a fine tune, though the vocals could stand to be a lot perkier. It sounds almost as though he was trying to write his own Strokes song, which is actually a very likely scenario for a guy who got his start writing his own Beatles songs as a kid. (Click here to visit the official Robert Pollard website.)

As Sensitive As A Dying Philosopher

Bill Morrison – Excerpts from the Balloon Man: “Sometimes When I’m Low”/”Leftover Turkey”/”Popped Blue Balloon Moods”/”Smog Doesn’t Help” – Bill Morrison is a legend in the world of Southern California public access broadcasting, which is another way of saying that I’ve never heard of this guy before in my life. These are excerpts from a series of recordings that Morrison made in 1971 with the intention of syndicating them as a series of forty minute-long radio programs, but no station in the country would touch them. That’s not much of a surprise given the intense strangeness of the content. In his persona as the Balloon Man he indulged in brief, surreal rants about life, death, sex, and philosophy while blowing up balloons and wearing a “balloonskin coat” made out of popped balloons, “each with its own story.” Morrison vacillates wildly between moments of thoughtful lucidity and unhinged mania, and is just as capable of insight and hilarity on either end of that spectrum. (Click here to buy it from Sharpeworld.)

Romvelope “Huw And Me” – It’s a bit strange to me that I’ve never enjoyed video games, but I tend to like so much contemporary music that sounds like cut-up arcade soundtracks. I’m not one of those people who wants to listen to rock bands play Nintendo music, you know? I usually find that music very annoying in or out of context, actually. Anyway, the first person to correctly identify the language that this guy is rapping in gets a No-Prize. There are a few recognizable English words here and there, but the rest of it sounds only vaguely familiar to me. (Click here to buy it from Post Everything.)

Who Doesn’t Want To Be Happy?

United State Of Electronica “Umbrella Of Love (Ron Curty Remix)” – Anyone feeling let down by Daft Punk’s dudtastic new album should instead spend some time with United State Of Electronica’s debut from last year, which is just now being reissued with new remixes. U.S.E. are a seven piece live band that play heavily vocodered Daft Punk disco pop and perform like a twee indie Funkadelic. This remix by Ron Curty is not only the Daft Punkiest song in U.S.E.’s discography, but probably also the Daft Punkiest song of 2005 in general. That’s what those guys get for being their own subgenre, I guess. (Click here to visit the official USE website.)

Also: I’m going to be DJing at a FREE indie pop dance party in Brooklyn on Saturday night. The schedule is a bit loose right now, but I should be going on around midnight.

Vacation on North 4th

Surly & Jane present
D A N C E P A R T Y

Fluxbop & indiepop selected by:
Matthew Perpetua/Fluxblog
Shirley Beans
Captain Analog
Chris Nakayummm

Saturday 19th Ten PM
Funhouse Bar
160 N 4th St
b/t Bedford & Driggs
L to Bedford

Believing Sees Me Cursed

Johnny Boy “You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve (Crews Against Consumismo Extended Mix)” – Ideally, a video for this song should include a huge parade complete with shiny floats, confetti, fireworks, and a thousand joyous people pumping their fist in time with the “yeah yeahs!” and throwing shoes in the air for the chorus. The original mix of the song is very grand and majestic, but this version is even more so, as it amps everything up so that it feels like four minutes of ecstatic “WE WON!!! WE WON!!!” triumph. (Thanks to Amy) (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Konono “Paradiso” – Nearly everyone who hears Congotronics is blown away, and with good reason. The Afrobeat rhythms are amazing enough, but the sound of the homemade electronic instruments is not quite like anything else I’ve ever heard. The lead instruments are electric versions of a traditional African instrument called a likembé. It sounds roughly like overdriven electric keyboards, but with a more subtle range of tones. But nevermind the exoticism of it all – this is compelling music, regardless of the relative novelty of its origin. I strongly doubt that you will be able to sit still while listening to this track. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

My Mouth Full Of Love

Blues Explosion “Mars, Arizona (DFA Remix)” – Man, I am sooooooo glad that P Diddy invented the remix, because if it weren’t for him, we probably wouldn’t have this little gem in our lives. JSBX have been given the full-on DFA makeover, expanding their two and a half minute original into a radically different eleven minute dance-rock freakout. Jon Spencer is very effective in this context, but then, that shouldn’t be too shocking – James Murphy is kinda like a more restrained version of Spencer on the more rocking LCD Soundsystem songs. Happy Valentine’s Day, folks. I heart you and your sweet stink. (Click here to visit the official Blues Explosion site.)

Puffy “Asia No Junshin (Malcolm McLaren CD Mix)” – Or was it Puffy that invented the remix? It gets very confusing. The original version of “Asia No Junshin” is the biggest selling single in the history of Japan, but Malcolm McLaren’s remix renders the song nearly unrecognizable by crafting an entirely new song from snippets of the original vocal. This is pretty hot stuff. I would go so far to say this song is “binoculars,” even in spite of the fact that I feel faintly ridiculous using that word. (Click here to buy it as a ridiculously overpriced import on Amazon.)

Everybody Is Running Away From Hell

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

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

P.S.A. (Bad Day)

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

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

Is It Hard To Recall Where You’ve Been?

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

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

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

I’m Changing My Ways Where Money Applies

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

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

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

The Bombs To Make You Blow

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Defrost A Frozen Kiss?

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

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

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

Love Makes Me Feel Alright

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

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

This Is Pretty Weird For Me Too

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

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