If You Wanna, Let’s Skip The Sauna

Mutronium “I’m All Over You” – As the northeastern United States settles into a deep freeze, it’s probably a good idea to break out some summery pop for the sake of escapism. This song is an excellent Cars pastiche complimented by some noisy lead guitar straight out of the Joey Santiago playbook and dynamic programmed percussion that flirts with Big Beat, but remains grounded in contemporary power pop. In terms of pop-rock music, this is the song to beat in 2005. (Mutronium is an unsigned band. If you would like to contact the band, please email mutronium @ hotmail.com)

Benny Sings “Little Donna” – I suppose that a lot of my extreme fondness for this song is a direct result of growing up listening to lite FM radio. Like Phoenix, Benny Sings is unironic about this sort of pop music, and write and perform their material with considerable skill and intelligence. Unlike Phoenix, modern pop sounds are kept to a minimum, so songs like “Little Donna” could possibly pass for an actual AM radio hit from the 70s to most laypersons. Be warned – this song is insanely catchy. I feel like I’m never going to get this song out of my head, and I don’t really mind. (Click here to pre-order it from Dox Records.)