Super Pretty Hazel Eyes

Cloudland Canyon “Krautwerk” – Really, they couldn’t have called this anything else. It’s as if they had been arguing in their practice space about whether they wanted to play a cover of Neu!’s “Hallogallo” or Can’s “Halleluhwah,” and compromised by figuring out a way to play them both at the same time, with a few nods to Kraftwerk and Faust along the way. Question: What is it about this type of music that always sounds totally rad, even when it’s a straight-up genre exercise and there’s not much more to it than aping the sound of records from 30+ years ago? Is it an issue of exoticism and relative scarcity? It’s not as if I’d be so pleased if I just heard some random band jamming on generic blues riffs. (Click here to buy it from Kranky.)

Todd Barry “Fridge, Audience Member’s Tab, Best Celebrity Sighting” – Barry’s dry, low key delivery is ideally suited to this sort of gag, in which he takes a pretty standard stand-up joke — “Hey, you know what totally mundane thing fills me with irrational anger?” — and flips it into an unbelievable scenario that highlights the ridiculousness of unreasonable pet peeves. Bonus: This mp3 answers the question “What magazine would the bass player of the Spin Doctors read on a park bench?” (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Meanwhile, on Fair Game: Yesterday I talked with Faith about “Mt. Rapmore” and Journey’s new lead singer.