white williams – “new violence”

Understandably short, since there isn’t much of an idea here, but I’m a sucker for driving bass.

New Violence

best coast – “boyfriend”

Fun, lo-fi summer album. I probably coulda picked any of these songs at all; this one does a fine job of giving you the basic mood.

-Kevin

tally hall – “taken for a ride”

Tally Hall is a tough act to describe, but I’ll take a shot at it: An electronic/folk/hip-hop band with vocals that resemble five  acappella Weird Al Jankoviches. Half of their songs are kind of ridiculous jokes rife with self-referential humor, beat-boxing and the whitest rap you’ve ever heard. I think this song shows legitimate chops though, particularly the warm chorus.

-jakeyp

bettie serveert – “tom boy”

Catchy little tune from a Dutch rock group that’s not actually named after the singer (she’s Carol van Dyk). This was off their first album from 1992; I think they’re still releasing music.

Frank Zappa – Watermelon in Easter Hay

Alright, here’s one to just sit down and listen to. Zappa battled the PMRC (a quasi-private pet project of Al Gore’s wife, Tipper, that is responsible for the warning labels on music today) passionately during the 80′s, but in 1979, before any of that, he released “Joe’s Garage,” a concept album about when our government finally decides to criminalize music. During one of the last songs, Joe, imprisoned for refusing to stop playing his guitar, is sitting in his jail cell, imagining the world’s last guitar solo. GODDAMN. This is a live version without the narration, but with an excellent backing band, trained to play over 200 of Zappa’s songs for his last tour before he died. Also, with his dying wish Frank asked that nobody, but his son Dweezil, play this song on stage… this guy was the mother-fucking Howard Roark of rock music.

-Kevin

frank zappa – “wind up working at a gas station”

I get the impression that with some Zappa songs, he had composed an instrumental piece, and decided “What the hell? Let’s use voices here, and why not write some lyrics for it?” The second half of this song is a good example. Terry Bozzio sings like a nut-job.

-Kevin

wilderness survival – “all the ways I do”

song is right over here

I am convinced this is Beck and he is under a new secret name and just has a cold or something to sound a little different, but all signs from this song direct me to Beck. Anyway good song.

-keylay

gnarls barkley – “reckoner” (radiohead cover)

This is probably one of my favorite covers of all time.

-jakeyp

phantogram – “mouthful of diamonds”

phantogram – \”mouthful of diamonds\”

This song has “car commercial” written all over it, and I mean that in the best way possible. I can see this band becoming pretty big on the blog circuit.

-jakeyp

rjd2 – “walk with me”

RJD2 is definitely off his game, as solidified by his recent release The Colossus which combines his lackluster indie-rock stylings with some obviously decaying turntablism skills. If any song makes an argument for his singer/songwriter angle though, it’s this tune. It’s certainly no Ghostwriter, but Walk With Me is a catchy little tune.

-jakeyp