Racing In the Sheets

I heard Demographer Phillip Longman on NPR about a week and a half ago, arguing that the discrepancy in birth rates between religious conservative families (higher) and more liberal families (lower) presages a continued, inexorable slide toward political conservatism in this country and generally, around the world.

This means that, not only will Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) dominate the discourse here, but ultimately, that they will vie with conservative Muslims for what's left above water in 2200.

Here's a USA Today editorial expressing his theory in a nutshell.

If you sit where I do, it's a depressing thought. But I can't allow that kind of deterministic view to take hold; after all, there are all kinds of social and political forces at work independent of what our parents' political views are.

Still, for those of you who find yourself on the left side of the current cultural divide, I offer these songs as a musical plea to indulge your procreational impulses along with your recreational ones. Get thee to a sack! Or a spermbank! Or an adoption agency!

For those on the right, give yourself a break! Kids are a handful!
Mobius Band - Multiply
Buy it!
A Certain Ratio - Shack Up
Buy it!
Bad Religion - How Much is Enough?
Buy it!
Chino - Uno Mas
Buy it!
Luther Vandross - Never Too Much
Buy it!
Nice and Smooth - Sex, Sex, Sex
Buy it!
Queens of the Stone Age - Do It Again
Buy it!

Odds, ends

Just a few danglers I had floating around on their own, from early forays into digitizing my old collection. Really good things here.

The Lavender Faction - In My Mind
1990. Became an immediate obsession of mine upon joining up with my college radio station. Bought the two things I could find. Played them often. Swirly guitar pop of the sort that Slumberland bands were just starting to dip their toes into.
Buy it!

Dexy's Midnight Runners - Plan B
1981. Kevin Rowlands has received enough press praising him as a genius before his time. I agree, for what it's worth. This track, in particular, takes you through a variety of scenic, souly moments with Kevin and his raggedy band of street urchins.
Buy it!

Tuxedomoon - In A Manner of Speaking
1985. The lonely voice of Winston Tong in a cavern of despair. Martin Gore covered this on his "Compulsion" EP many years later.
Buy it!

That Petrol Emotion - The Deadbeat
1986. Fresh out of the Undertones, the O'Neill brothers made an incredibly creative, underrated record of guitar pop. Allmusic tells me this record includes a cover of Pere Ubu's smash-hit Non-Alignment Pact, but my copy, unfortunately, seems to be missing that track. Maybe it's vinyl-exclusive...hey, is that my belly button?
Buy it!

The Church - A Different Man
1982. For some time, this standout single was only available in the US only on an import CD. Now it's only available (I think) on a different import CD. For the record, I prefer the sound of the German polycarbonate to the French. Still one of my fave Church tracks.
Buy it!

Gut Twisters #1

I think it's time for another sporadic feature, this one devoted to songs from my pre-teen to adult years that have shredded my guts with slow, deep cuts. These aren't just run-o-the-mill sad songs, but the ones that struck hard, penetrated thoroughly, and just refused to let go.

Or maybe it's just a bunch of cheesy breakup songs. Whatever it is, embarrassment will surely fall upon my house for it. But that's the price I'm willing to pay to assemble my love-history in song. In any event, dig into a box of kleenex, and let's get started.

Barry Manilow - Mandy
As a youngster, my love of this song was a harbinger of the long, sap-filled existence still to come. I used to think it was all about how this Mandy "kissed him and stopped him from shaving," which isn't that cute, but is an indication of how influenced my mind was by commercials from the idiot box.
Buy it!

The Halo Bit - Let You Know
Alex Kemp's (Small Factory, Godrays) second or third band, the record was a little hit-or-miss, but mostly hit, like this epic little yearner that made for all kinds of good-bad-sad-sad in my little basement hovel in college.
Buy it!

Depeche Mode - But Not Tonight
Holy crappenstein, this song, which I managed to live without from high school to thirtysomethinghood, has only recently returned to my player, and not a moment too soon. How many times this accompanied various overcoated nighttime meanderings in my Valley Forge Military Academy walking loop, I cannot say. But times-a-many. Prayers for rain, Philly Titans, and whatever other drama I could milk out of by charmed life.
Buy it!

Lloyd Cole - Loveless
Another from the high school rain period, this one coming to prominence during my first foray into true love. Not sure how I ended up buying this record, but I remain utterly unable to shake the Cole, in spite of the many cooler-than-Cole periods I tried to go through.
Buy it!

Courtney Love - The Second Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Just to be clear, in case you haven't heard, this was a band named for the lead singer of Hole, and did not feature said personage. It was the work of Pat Maley and the gifted Lois Maffeo. This song is the definition of wistful, and it shaded a certain period of college with a kind of generalized, gossamer lovesickness.
Pester K Record to re-release it.

Future Gut Twisters promise to be far more embarrassing. xo

Music for Global Overheating

Forgive me my tirades (tire-aids?) on the issues of the day, for they come bearing gifts of good music. On 60 Minutes tonight, NASA's Jim Hansen took the Bush administration to task for doing nothing about the problem of global warming, and worse, attempting to muzzle NASA scientists when they've tried to raise the alarm. Meanwhile, Hansen and other scientists have discovered all sorts of evidence that Global Warming is accelerating at a much higher clip than previously guessed. (The image of Greenland's ice sheet, above, I believe, is already out-of-date) This means that, unless things change, LA and Lower Manhattan could be underwater much sooner than scientists had guessed. Wildly unpredictable weather (I bring up once again WinterSpring and SummerFall, the seasons that are already alternating every week, it seems), drought here, flooding there, ice age somewhere else, etc.

To me, this is kind of the ballgame, if we don't do something to slow it down. The NRDC has some suggestions. There. That wasn't really a tirade at all.

Why not fire off a Letter to the Editor or your Senator while you listen:

Mountain Goats - Warm Lonely Planet
Buy something else!

Zwan - Endless Summer
Buy it!

Microphones - Ocean 1,2,3
Buy it!

Joy Division - Ice Age
Buy it!

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Cities in Dust
Buy it!

Joan of Arse - Buried at Sea
Buy it!

Everything But The Girl - Riverbed Dry
Buy it!

Codeine - Sea
Buy it!

!Exclusive! The Get Quick -- With Synths

Over at the other blog I promised another dose of exclusive The Get Quick demos and b-sides, and here is where I deliver. As I've editorialized elsewhere, The Get Quick's debut How The Story Goes, released last summer, is a purposefully slick piece of power pop. In the context of the motherlode of unreleased stuff delivered to my door recently, the record is a middle ground that lies between other moodier, spacey material and really amped-up, lysergic rock. Below we're offering two tunes of the former flavor. The first, "Arp Music," is a surprisingly serene, synth-led instrumental that wanders up to a cliff and then falls right off. The second cut, a ballad titled "April Fools," has an undeniable hook that packs a bit of Westerbergian power a la "Answering Machine," (well, with an acoustic guitar). The tunes'll be up for a week, get 'em while you can.

The Get Quick -- Arp Music -- Unreleased
The Get Quick -- April Fools -- Unreleased

[Buy How The Story Goes from Insound]

The M Notes, Entry No. 702

[The following is true, and is transcribed with a nod to the excellent short story "The Albertine Notes," a sample of which you can read here]

"...By the mid and late '80s I was using so much M that, some 20 years later, I still live with its irreversible effects. Of course, we're talking about MTV. Kell, McNeil and I, we called it M back in the day. Virtually unregulated in its early iterations, you could score it just about anywhere with a TV in any decent-sized suburb. Later we would casually refer to it by new sub-brands, usually "Yo!," to which we dutifully tuned in at "10 and 10 again" at the behest of Dre and Ed Lover. Through much of the drug's first decade, I used for hours at a stretch. Thank God, the new, allegedly more potent M of my post-collegiate years just simply doesn't fire my neurons, as the active ingredients have been swapped out for others designed to hook those seeking cheaper, eternally teen kicks.

Thing is, my neurons still autonomously fire at the behest of long-gone stimuli from the *old* M. Like an amputee still feels pain in his or her missing limb. These days the effect of mainlining all that pure M is a constant buzz underpinning my daily activities: walking the dog, document review, blogging -- the M is always there. And it is when my mind is at its most blank (and, ergo, most vulnerable) that the M flashbacks strike hardest, hijacking my consciousness and blasting a seemingly random song (with video accompaniment, of course) behind my eyeballs. This happens every single morning between the time I rise and the moment the hot shower hits the back of my neck. Only the songs aren't really random. In order of most-often "played," they almost always are one of the following:

Sammy Hagar -- The Two Sides Of Love -- VOA (1984) [buy it!]
.38 Special -- If I'd Been The One -- Tour De Force (1984) [buy it!]
Daryl Hall -- Dreamtime -- 3 Hearts In The Happy Ending Machine (1986) [buy it!]
Insiders -- Ghost On The Beach -- Ghost On The Beach (1987) [buy it!]
Y&T -- Summertime Girls -- Down For The Count (1985) [buy it!]

...."

[image lifted from http://www.culturaspettacolovenezia.it]

The Anti-Sex Revolution Continueth

I'm on my way out the door, but what the fuck? Is there no end to the backward slide? The Republican-controlled Missouri House has decided to bar condom distribution at county clinics...again. Since 2003, county clinics in the MO have been unable to provide contraceptives and infertility treatments.

A quote: "If you hand out contraception to single women, we're saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that," [Susan] Phillips, R-Kansas City, said in an interview.

I guess the short of it, in my humble, alarmed opinion, is that anti-sex conservatives are on the march in South Dakota, Missouri, (fill in the next one). With stories like this, stories about pharmacist "conscience" bills, anti-gay legislation here and there, and even in the details of anti-choice legislation, the narrative should be screamingly clear. There is a serious movement afoot not to save the fetus, not to prevent unintended pregnancy, but to (bit-by-bit, bedroom-by-bedroom) end recreational sex as we know it, straight or gay, married or not.

Troubling if you like sex. Do we have any sex-likers among our readership?

Songs for your trouble, penny for your thoughts:

Billy Bragg - Sexuality
Buy it!
The Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump
Buy it!
Bloc Party - Always New Depths
Buy it!
Cat Power - Maybe Not
Buy it!
Desaparecidos - Survival of the Fittest
Buy it!
Le Tigre - Deceptacon
Buy it!
Liz Phair - Fuck and Run
Buy it!
Massive Attack - Teardrop
Buy it!
The Notwist - Off The Rails
Buy it!
Pretty Girls Make Graves - Sad Girls Por Vida
Buy it!

Boys, feelings.

Feelings. If we are not dolts, how do boys get them out in our formative years? Do we opt for the all-out arty sensitivity of The Cure? Or do we try something just slightly tougher, like Rites of Spring?

In the mid-nineties, there were plenty of bands who were finding a middle way, a way that tamed the manic angst of hardcore and twisted it up with the heartbroken poetry of more mainstream alternatives, all tightly tucked beneath an almost fifties-era clean-scrubbed boyish exterior. These guys verged on being boys you wouldn't mind bringing home to mom, and their music made sensitive boys and girls (present company included) get all clenchy-chested (even if present company happened to already be too old for that shit).

But generally speaking, Crank! and Jade Tree managed to strike the gold vein just at the right time, unleashing boy-bands of the tolerable sort on confused suburban teenagers from Omaha to Austin to Chicago.

From Crank!:
Mineral - Parking Lot
Buy it!
Cursive - Downhill Racers
Buy it!

From Jade Tree:
Cap'n Jazz - We Are Scientists!
Buy it!
The Promise Ring - Red and Blue Jeans
Buy it!

Of course, these were bands that kept on giving. Cursive is the only one that survives somewhat intact, but half of these guys started playing together when they were like ten, so they have all kinds of years left in them, having played in multitudinous ensembles from then until now. Many of them have also learned how to sing, which may be a plus or minus, depending on which book you read. I lean toward "plus" as I slide into my Adult Contemporary years.

Didn't plan on a bonus, but why not catch up with some of the boys...
Make Believe - Say What You Mean Tim Kinsella's latest (Cap'N Jazz, Joan of Arc, etc.)
Zookeeper's (Chris Simpson from Mineral, Gloria Record)MySpace consulate.
Maritime - Calm Davey von Bohlen (Promise Ring) continues to make it count.
And, because JB once said somewhere that that Maritime song recalled this band for him, why not a dash of K.O.D.?
Kitchens of Distinction - Within The Daze of Passion
Buy it!
And with that, I believe I've come full circle.

Aye, take me back, ye laddies!

The thing about blog darlings Two Gallants is that Adam Stephens sings like all the hippy kids you ever knew in high school or college. His delivery has all the nasal, mildly off-key, quavery, emphatic! delivery of the hippy bard. But good God, this is how it should be done! Skip the quiet jam in the old cafeteria during free period, forgo tentative buskery in front of the Sam Goody in the Ardmore Village mall. Nay, this music should be played loudly, to the back row, with much crashing and bashing, and with conviction, man!

Two Gallants have nailed it. They make it urgent, they make it punk, and they make it fresh to order. Plus, they're about to start touring again, so get your tickets while you still can.
Two Gallants - Age of Assassins
Buy it!
Two Gallants - Fail Hard to Regain
Buy it!

20 Reasons to love Fred Armisen

1. His SNL characters are fantantastastic, weird gutbusters (Nüni, Fericito, Prince).
2. He opened for Jeff Tweedy.
4. He used to drum for Chicago art-punk heavies Trenchmouth.
7. He's guested with Les Savy Fav live.
20. He knows how to rock it right, as evidenced by his December iTunes playlist:

Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator
The Damned - Love Song
Prince - The Ballad of Dorothy Parker Buy it!
Oval - ====
Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild in the Country
Wilco - A Shot in the Arm
Petra Haden - Tattoo
Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless Buy it!
Lungfish - Put Your Hand In My Hand Buy it!
Gorillaz - Last Living Souls
Joanna Newsom - Bridges and Balloons Buy it!
The Clash - This Is Radio Clash
The Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods (12" Version)
Sleater-Kinney - Rollercoaster Buy it!

Apart from the fact that he's got both my favorite Lungfish and Style Council songs in there, that's just a damn good list.
Here's Fred guesting in a new short from the women of Variety Shac.

And here's my favorite Trenchmouth single:
Trenchmouth - Making Money for the Freak Machines Buy it!

I think I saw them open for Swervedriver maybe at Cabaret Metro in college. Can't say I remember Armisen, beyond noticing that the band as a whole was "tight" (my attention was rightly focused on charismatic frontman Damon Locks, who went on with Wayne Montana to form The Eternals). But still, Nüni clearly has pedigree.

I almost forgot-- he also appears to have directed this video for the Helio Sequence.

March (Twenty-)One-Offs: Josh Rouse, Tunng

When blogging against the clock as I do each night the process of weighing every single thing against every single other thing too often gets in the way of appreciating a single song. Today I present two very good tracks from respectable records that on the whole just didn't set my music-loving soul ablaze. However, just because an entire set may not catch our fancy doesn't mean they didn't feature individual tracks that made me internally exclaim something akin to "hot diggity!"

Josh Rouse is making waves in the blogosphere and the NPRosphere with his forthcoming Nettwerk release Subtitulo, which streets March 21. Mr. Rouse's brand of airy pop can be a bit too feather-light for my taste; I have the same issue with some of Archer Prewitt's solo stuff. Even so, Rouse's music reminds me of certain great tracks on Sean Lennon's splendid solo set Into The Sun. Check out the cut "The Man Who...," which has arresting girl/guy vocals and a nice dynamic chorus. The whole package, right down to the whispered "1-2-3-4," is really delish.

Josh Rouse -- "The Man Who..." -- Subtitulo [buy it!]

Also hitting American racks March 21 is Tunng's Mother's Daughter & Other Songs [Ace Fu]. The UK-based act does the folktronica thing as well as any, and Tunng's record has already piled up accolades in the UK when it was released a year ago. The various elements at work in the pretty track "Beautiful And Light" are optimally balanced. Acoustic guitar emerges from a passing train and catches a ride on insistent bass and clicks and tones; Warm, fuzzy (not in the Hallmark (c) manner) vocals provide a more comprehensible narrative than you may be used to getting in your light electronic diet. This is a great track for a quiet summer morning at the beach.

Tunng -- "Beautiful And Light" -- Mother's Daughter & Other Songs [buy it!]

Bonus:

Sean Lennon -- Into The Sun -- Into The Sun [buy it!]
Archer Prewitt -- In The Sun -- In The Sun [buy it!]

Thrills!

No great shakes here, just the small thrill that comes from comparing a solo performance to that of the full ensemble. Put on your thrill pants, and let us ride.

Wilco - I am Trying to Break Your Heart Buy it!
Jeff Tweedy - I am Trying to Break Your Heart


Red House Painters - Mistress Buy it!
Mark Kozelek - Mistress (live on KCRW)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Born To Run (Hammersmith Odeon, 1975) Buy it!
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (live) Buy it!

American Music Club - What Godzilla Said to God When His Name Wasn't Found in the Book of Life Buy it!
Mark Eitzel - Nothing Can Bring Me Down (live) Buy it!
The title change! An added thrill!

It's All A Part Of Winter

Between the near-exhaustion of its Fugazi influences and the onslaught of the jazzy forms that forever divided its fan base into two camps, erstwhile Boston act Karate made a really superlative record. I'm not ragging on what came before or after, because there is a lot of hot stuff to be heard thereabouts. Anyway, I identify listening to Karate with autumn for some reason, but I also always think about the band at this time of year, too, 'cause I saw them play the old alma mater the March after I graduated. So lets take a little time to celebrate some great songs from Geoff Farina's sometimes trio/sometimes quartet's 1997 record In Place Of Real Insight. The first is the rocker "New Martini," with a real toe-tapper of a melodic verse that demands in-car sing-alongs (and attendant in-car ad libbing from The Missus; Farina: "I Can't Remember!!" The Missus: "Me Neither!!"). The second is a sad one, the kind of tune that could get you crying in your sweater if you are walking around with a banged-up heart.

Karate -- "New Martini" [buy it!]
Karate -- "Today or Tomorrow" [buy it!]

Where the buck stops, or, rather, loses its effectiveness

In an age where what's held up as "punk" is about as punk as a nice pair of khaki slacks, and theaters and ballparks are owned by car companies and airlines, I'm happy to announce that there are still limits to the Sellout. Thanks be to God, Inc., Int'l (a division of Coca-ColaColgate-PalmoliveExxonMobilWal-Mart).

I do believe that's the punkest thing I've ever written.

To be honest, I'm of the mind that, if you believe in the product, or you just don't not believe in the product, and you stand to make some money, why not take in a little cash and get your song slathered all over UPNWB. You can always donate half the dough to the liberation of something or other.

But there are limits, and some products are just un-believable-in. And this story brings us the news that Hummer have had a somewhat problematic time finding an indie song, current-ish or otherwise, to hawk its 10mpg machines. Although I do recall, I think, hearing a really excellent Dabrye track in a previous Hummer commercial.

Anyway, it seems that both Trans Am and The Thermals have passed on the substantial wads that Hummer has thrown at them, not to mention 80s Swiss punkwave pioneers Liliput. And Hoboken/Matador Recs rock luminary Lyle Hysen, formerly of Das Damen and a host of other good bands I wish I could remember (The Skunks?), and now works as a middle man in the field, gets quoted in the story too.

I suppose you never know, but my first instinct would be to guess that bands like Trans Am and the Thermals, who make a lot of explicitly political music, would be a hard sell on the hard sell, a hundred grand or a thousand grand (which is, like, a million) notwithstanding.

Here are the songs that you won't hear hawking Hummers. To limits!

Trans Am - Total Information Awareness
Buy it!
The Thermals - It's Trivia
Buy it!
Liliput - Hedi's Head
Buy it!

Big Ol' Dump o' Delight

Snailhouse - Birds and Bees
Mike Feuerstack did double-time for the amazing Woodentops, who spent some time on Fastbacker's floor while on tour with god's gift to sad, lovely people, Julie Doiron. Feuerstack, who continues to perform and record as Snailhouse on his own with various chums, makes marvelous sad music on his own, as evidenced by this gorgeous, languid track. To recap: amazing, marvelous, sad, gorgeous, languid, download.
http://www.snailhousemusic.com

Raising the Fawn - Carbon Paper
Keeping with the theme of North-of-here stars pollenating bands here and there with their talents, here, sometimes Broken Social Scene member John Crossingham's Raising the Fawn do a strident, huge, towering guitars thing, enough to leave you pleasantly exhausted at the end of it all.
http://www.raisingthefawn.com

Sarah Asher - Where the Grass is Green
After all that, why not a dash of simple, melancholy, countrified folk from Columbus, Ohio's Sarah Asher to cleanse the palate? Tickling the tongue and lingering long on the finish, like some kind of wine or something, Asher's music recalls all kinds of vocalists I'm too lazy to think of right now. Somebody help me. Come on.
http://www.sarahasher.com


Bakelite - Pay Back the Weight
Bakelite come on like a ton of flying electrified manhole covers, so heads up. They bring their particular brand of crush right up in your face and spray you with motherfucking chocolate syrup. And hey, has anyone noticed this Canada thing? Somebody should get on that. I think there might be a "scene" there.
http://www.bakelite.ca

Lying In States - QG
Chicago's Lying in States hit the indie rock sweet spot, somewhere near where American Analog Set and Death Cab do their thing. This reminds me very strongly of Ditch Croaker and the Walkmen. There, I managed to cram in four solid references while also avoiding use of the word "guitar."
http://www.lyinginstates.com


Ecstatic Sunshine - Wavechop
Matt Papich and Dustin Wong make ridiculously delirious guitar-on-guitar spazz music that still manages to pack in melody and enough homespun, dramatic twists and turns to make listening to their music a little bit like watching that old Fischli and Weiss video art piece The Way Things Go, which was ripped off for a Honda commercial.
http://www.ecstaticsunshine.com

Distopian Dream Boys

Yeah, we know we spelled "distopian" wrong there, but we're aping Built to Spill there, so pardon us. Because of the inherently adolescent nature of trad rock and roll, themes of rebellion against authority are almost as old as the popularity of the affordable electric guitar. This realization can fuel some interesting conjecture about comparing the relative "punkness" of acts. Take for example our old friends Pat Boone and the Sex Pistols. Was Pat Boone more punk for *not rebelling* (since rebellion was an expectation of rock and roll even as early as when Boone was cleaning up versions of songs by early rock artists) than the Sex Pistols were *for* rebelling? Just because the Pistols rebelled more fervently than, say, The Nuge, is taking an expectation (rebellion) to an extreme actually as subversive as eschewing the expectation altogether?

These aren't the most well-formulated thoughts or examples, but they aren't really intended to be. What they're intended to do is set up this look at the widespread employment of dystopian police state imagery in 1980's rock videos. What better way to show how rebellious you are than to cast yourself in a (fortunately for us, often laughable) situation in which you can show preteens glued to music videos how much you like to stick it to The Man? Who better to laugh at than Kevin Dubrow and the boys in Quiet Riot in this silly clip for the sort of abominable track "The Wild And The Young"? YouTube link below. Watch to the very end for Wink Martindale warning the nation about censorship -- it'll take you back. Post YouTube links to your own favorite relevant videos in the comments.

Saturday, It Is My Day

I feel like I am going to develop a rep around the blog as the "Saturday Poster." So rather than pussyfoot around it, here I embrace it. Below are four tunes sequenced to accompany activities of a perfect Saturday. Call it a musical Saturday biorhythm, if you will. First some notes:

MantaRay's never-released "Saturday" kicks off with an alarm clock, not a wholly accurate representation of how I get up on Saturdays, but it's an appropriate start here. The band, now reformulated under the moniker The Get Quick, inserted my name into the verse at a show on my 24th or 25th birthday. Although it's always been a favorite of mine, that move seals the song's place in history. The Flaming Lips' song is from the band's first perfect album, IMHO, 1992's Hit To Death In The Future Head. The Eggs track, from the sprawling Exploder record, has an amazing Emerson, Lake & Palmer-styled bridge. This is a band that confirmed its genius on almost every song, but incorporating the album's theme into the final moments of this track? Damn... And finally, the Yo La Tengo tune is a nice cool-down track for stirring that last drink and putting and end to any day, not just a Saturday.

9AM-1PM -- MantaRay w/ Ernie Whyte -- "Saturday (Norristown Version)"
1PM-5PM -- Flaming Lips -- "Gingerale Afternoon (The Astrology of a Saturday)" [buy it!]
5PM-10PM -- Eggs -- "Saturday's Cool" [buy it!]
10PM-1AM -- Yo La Tengo -- "Saturday" [buy it!]

Bleep Bleep, Ah Yes...

The good folks at Berlin's Morr Music have brought us more indie-tronic niceness with Ms. John Soda's new album, Notes And The Like. Cut from the same cloth as fellow Germans The Notwist (whose Micha Acher is in MJS as well) and Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda are sleek, moody and dense, topped with cold as ice vocals from Stephanie Böhm (of Couch) and (of course) strings...I can't get enough of this stuff.

Ms. John Soda - Outlined View
Ms. John Soda - A Million Times
buy it!

Shit List

Will we stand idly by as the FCC steals our shit? They already took our fuck!

First, for old times sake:
The Kills - Fuck the People Buy it!

D'Angelo - Shit, Damn, Motherfucker Buy it!
Silverfish - Shit Out of Luck Buy it!
Lord Finesse - Save That Shit Buy it!
Propagandhi - Bullshit Politicians Buy it!

Will we be forced to fall back on tortured pig latin, Snoop Speak, and asterisk-heavy constructions to slide by?
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Tha Shiznit Buy it!

Libertie, Equalitie, Fraternitie

With all the attention being paid to the musical happenings in Scandanavia these days, I think it's important to remember who really started it all. That's right - the French.

Well, actually, the French are probably a bit more world-signifigant for such things as early studies of radiation, existentialism & deconstructionism, imperial city planning and living healthy on nothing but animal fat and booze.

However, French pop, specifically the breathy and sultry wayss of the Chanteuse have always given my heart a flutter. Where, in the name of heaven, did you get those French pants?

Pauline Croze - Larmes
www.paulinecroze.com
buy it!

Francoise Hardy - Et Meme
buy it!