Archive for February, 2010

the postal service – clark gable

In my continuing Sunday series of fantastic songs that everyone knows but im posting anyway and not talking much about, i bring you this number from The Postal Service. …read more and hear the song…

prince – i would die 4 u

I completely forgot about this song until I heard it about a week ago in between sets at a show, and it pretty much got the whole crowd moving. I feel like if I’m ever a famous musician, I will always make sure to play high energy music right before my set. What’s sort of weird is that A)today’s song is over 25 years old, and B)Prince is 51 years old! I mean, I guess you’d have to be if you had a hit song over 25 years ago, but it’s just strange. For some reason I didn’t think his name was actually Prince, but if it’s on Wikipedia, then it must be true. …read more and hear the song…

bear in heaven – casual goodbye

Though Brooklyn’s Bear in Heaven has been around since 2003, it was just last year that they made their biggest splash with their album “Beast Rest Forth Mouth”. Since I’m usually way behind the game, I just finally picked up this album a few weeks back and have given it a few listens and am really liking what I’m hearing. I’ve been struggling with how to describe the sound of the album, but I think I’m comfortable in saying that it reminds me a little bit of the subtle electronic future and/or outer space, but not in an over the top way. …read more and hear the song…

tune-yards – sunlight

Tune-yards (which I guess is technically written as tUnE-yArDs) is the solo project of New England’s Merrill Garbus. She recorded the whole album with a voice recorder and mixed it using some sort of downloadable shareware. Oh yeah, and she played every instrument on the album. The recording process definitely gives her tunes a raw sound, sometimes a little too raw, but it still works for me. …read more and hear the song…

joanna newsom – good intentions paving company

California native Joanna Newsom may quite possibly be the most polarizing musician in the world of indie rock. People either want to bear her children or they think she’s the worst thing since non-sliced bread. I have to admit that I have typically fallen into the latter of those two groups. I hadn’t really heard a ton of her stuff, but I just couldn’t get into the couple of songs I heard from her Ys album a few years ago. Her new TRIPLE(!!) LP (yes, triple!) “Have One on Me” was released to the masses yesterday, and if the other songs are anything like this one, I may have to reevaluate my opinions. …read more and hear the song…

coeur de pirate – comme des enfants (le matos andy carmichael remix)

There are a few notable things about this Friday tune, which I unabashedly stole from our good friend The Music Ninja. The first is that it’s probably the longest song title ever to be featured on the site. Second, and more importantly, as far as my memory serves me, this may be the first foreign language song we’ve ever featured, unless there’s something I’m forgetting. Which attests to how much I like it’s sound since I really have no idea what it’s about, despite many years of French in school. …read more and hear the song…

broken social scene – world sick

I’d heard that Broken Social Scene was coming out with a new album this year, but I was surprised when I saw last Friday that they had already released the first single to the masses. I first saw them live back in the fall of either 2007 or 2008, I can’t remember. But what I do remember was a pretty epic performance, clocking in at about 3 hours, and which included 10+ members on stage at any given moment. They even invited the whole audience on stage at one point to dance and sing along, despite the reluctance by the security. …read more and hear the song…

st. vincent @ the crofoot 2.19.10

After many weeks of waiting, this past Friday night, I finally got to catch St. Vincent, the stage name of the lovely Annie Clark, live at The Crofoot in Pontiac (which seems to be the venue of every show I go to these days). There was a little stress in my decision because Kings of Convenience were also supposed to play the same night at the Crofoot, but due to some illness they postponed most of their tour, so the positive is that now I get to see them both. St. Vincent was originally scheduled to play the tiny Pike Room, then moved next door to the Eagle Theater, and eventually to the larger Crofoot, which was much needed as the place was pretty packed. …read more and hear the song…

peter schilling – major tom

Ever have one of those songs that you’ve always liked but never knew who it was by or what it was called? That’s the story behind this week’s Saturday throwback, “Major Tom” by Peter Schilling. I was able to finally discover the origins of this song after a cover version by Shiny Toy Guns was used so well in a Lincoln MKZ commercial over the past few years. While that version is great, I’m still a little partial to the original. …read more and hear the song…

beach house – zebra (ring trick remix)

I make no secret of the fact that I typically write up these posts a few days in advance. Because, let’s be honest, I’m kind of lazy, so its tough to keep up with something on a daily basis. But I just heard this one late at night and decided to write it up on the fly. My first thought when I saw a Beach House remix was, “Oh no they di’in”, because I expected it to be terrible. Actually, I think I just had no idea at all what to expect from a remix of a song from one of my favorite albums of the year thus far (qualifying statement: despite the fact that it’s only mid February, it has already been an exceptional year for new music). But any doubt I had was quickly relinquished thanks to San Fran’s Ring Trick. …read more and hear the song…

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