awesome song day! - "baby i'm just a fool"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

spiritualized - "baby i'm just a fool"
songs in a & e was released in may.

spiritualized and portishead share common ancestry, in my head at least. both hyper-pioneering english bands who peaked and kinda faded by the time i was hip enough to know who they were, it seems like more than coincidence that they have both returned in 2008, each with a fierce, career-defining record. the history of songs in a & e is so well-established as to be chicken feed by now: jason pierce got some terrible form of pneumonia, and found the inspiration for this record in his near-death experiences in the accident & emergency ward. pierce's work has always favored the ethereal/transcendental, so songs in a & e isn't much of a departure; instead, it is a bold, fervent, and engrossing work that builds on spiritualized's druggy past and finds a semblance of redemption in pierce's restoration of life and livelihood. fluctuating wildly between sorrow and serenity, songs in a & e is nearly divided in half by "baby i'm just a fool," a tender-seeming track backed by a melody beaten on wooden blocks, anchored in the repeated lyric "you're so fucking self-assured / i'd rather let you down than let you go." though not as catchy as "soul on fire" or as self-pitying as "don't hold me close," "baby i'm just a fool," with its faux-carefree singalongs and languid latin feel, is the song that stays with you the longest, and feels better with each listen.

awesome song day! - "took my lady to dinner"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

king khan and the shrines - "took my lady to dinner"
the supreme genius of king khan and the shrines is available on vice records.

it's kinda ironic (and more than a little disappointing) that "blog bands" tend to suck more often than not, and i've learned to approach any buzz band with a hefty level of trepidation & skepticism - explaining my delayed appreciation of the 11-piece psychedelic soul garage monster & king khan's decidedly personal lyrics. the supreme genius of is a "greatest hits" collection (no mean feat for a band with only 4 full lengths), and sounds more lo-fi than no age. their kickstarted soul finds common heritage with the dirtbombs, whose "your love belongs under a rock" invariably finds its way into my head after only one king khan song - their frontmen share a puckish extravagance and a smoker's croak, and their grit-coated guitars dominate wholeheartedly. "took my lady to dinner" has the most irresistible chorus - wailing so loudly that his voice cracks, king khan belts out a love song to his woman - "she's fat, she's ugly, she's fat and she's ugly but i love her!" true love has never sounded so true.

awesome song day! - "the bears are coming"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

late of the pier - "the bears are coming"
their debut album fantasy black channel is due in august on parlophone.

late of the pier is one of those bands that kinda became ubiquitous in my head for no particular reason; i credit their rather unique/inexplicable name for their staying power. i had heard of them a couple times before i tracked down whatever they had floating around online, and i'm mighty glad i did so. while late of the pier's influences seem rather transparent at first, "the bears are coming" is a really intelligent song that far surpasses any off-hand dismissal of "nu rave." i've listened to it as much as i have anything else this week, and not only is it beyond catchy, it's diverse, eclectic, and smart. though musically dissimilar, i've found myself comparing this song to one of beck's more tangential tunes in its approach, but that might just be me. "the bears are coming" has a sick hook, but the final minute of the song is arguably the best; that's after the song finishes its verse-chorus-verse rotation and delves into something far less predictable. it's definitely a grower, but also definitely an awesome song.

awesome song & dance day! - "swimming pools"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

thao & the get down stay down - "swimming pools"
buy we brave bee stings and all from kill rock stars.

you know her, i love her, here's thao's new video for "swimming pools."

awesome song day! - "21st century pop song"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

hymie's basement - "21st century pop song"

buy their self-titled record from lex.

hymie's basement, a collaboration between why?'s yoni wolf and fog's andrew broder, is pretty awesome. recorded in 2003, this album is a study in suburbia epitomized by its first track, "21st century pop song." delivered in wolf's characteristic discontended deadpan, and buttressed by broder's unsuspectingly playful arrangements, hymie's basement captures the reckless bravado, gnawing self-doubt, and sheer tedium of "normal" american lives, a concept sold to us by the silver screen. wolf preaches like a boy in the trenches of suburban malaise, wrestling with shallow archetypes of humanity - the beer-swilling sports fans ("let's root root root for the home team, shout like you're dead at the tv screen"), the aimless drivers ("you put your life in the hands of the highway designers") - and emerges bitter, but determindedly his own person.

awesome song day! - "back burner"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

isobel campbell & mark lanegan - "back burner"
sunday at devil dirt will be released may 5 on v2 records.

this song makes me want to be a heavy drinker.

awesome song(s) day!, courtesy of stars and sons!

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

stars and sons - "if it's good for me" & "comfy now"

download the goat show ep right here, sans payment.

earlier this week, i got an email from michael lord, asking me to give his band stars and sons (uk) a listen, and if i would like a cd. so, i clicked my way over to their myspace to give them a test listen, when i saw that they were being so generous as to give away their debut, the goat show ep, for free, and asking just a pound or two through a paypal button. now, nothing piques my interest like free music, and i downloaded it right then and there.

though stars and sons is a new band, they already seemed to have their own impenetrable mystique (maybe), surrounding mike lord, who is supposedly "dead(ish)." there are pictures of the band on their myspace photo page, but they are all wearing black-and-white xeroxed masks, and they are always alone in the picture. curiouser and curiouser. maybe mike lord isn't actually dead (duh), but actually every member of the band? (although this picture is definitely of a woman.) okay, that isn't a huge stretch, but it's a pretty elaborate deception for a myspace page, and it's very intriguing. it's also quite convenient (if you're digging the mystique deal) that the band is named after a broken social scene song, which makes it not very easy to do any research on them (there are six google entries for "stars and sons" before the band). the most suspicious? the webwaves have been silent since i emailed mike back for more information. who doesn't work a little for free publicity? c'mon - he's totally dead!

all sleuthing and jokery aside, i've really been digging the goat show ep, and not because of the intrigue. stars and sons play baroque, schizoid pop in the vein of nation-mates guillemots, rife with addictive piano, arching and understated vocals, and occasional squealing guitar solos. "if it's good for me" instantly caught my ear, self-mocking and cheesy (my sister thinks it sounds like an 80s montage), and hooked my on the rest of the record. the goat show ep is so unbelievably camp, more so than anything patrick wolf or owen pallett or fyfe dangerfield could dream up, that it has just totally won it's way into my headphones...and my heart. "comfy now" is probably the other best song on the goat show ep, also driven by a manilow-on-crack piano and has one of those super guitar solos, and is lush and abrupt and really, really good. so good, in fact, that it is both free AND worth spending money on, so go download that shit, and give stars and sons some money love via their myspace.

update: ok, i have to retract my statement that stars and sons are camp-er than patrick wolf. i forgot he wore satsumas on the belt of his hot pants at connect.

awesome song & dance day! - "break"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

son lux - "break"

well, i certainly don't need to tell you how much i fucking love anticon., but in case you haven't been paying attention, i do. a lot. the new why? is fucking excellent (no surprises there), but i'm even a little more excited for at war with walls and mazes, the debut album from anticon.'s newest signee, son lux. back in november, i went to see sole at the knitting factory, where son lux opened - their first nyc show. i liked their set a lot, just never got around to writing up the review, though my notes tell me they were really good - they traveled with their own visual-effects operator, which they projected on the wall, were "abstracted & fluid," and had some "maggot brain"-esque funkadelic sounds, and were still "unmistakably glitchy." sounds like a good recipe, no? well, "break," the first album track released to the public, has just had its video released, and it's fucking awesome. directed by finbar mallon (another name i'd kill to have), the video is done with stop-motion and sped-up-motion, and follows the numerous, awesome adventures of pieces of string, imaginatively capturing "break"'s tender dissonance.

peter travers of rolling stone calls it a "must-see."

the previous statement is a lie.

preorder at war with walls and mazes from

awesome song day! - "cassius"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

foals - "cassius (live on xfm)"

if there is one thing i wish indie rockers would learn from hip hop divas (and nas, who is not a diva), it's how to pull off a diss track. i would love nothing more than to have massive indieland feuds (a dream matchup would be team love and southern lord) and bands writing songs about how much the new vampire weekend sucks (yeah, you weren't actually expecting me to like a buzz band, were you?). i'm not sure if "cassius" really falls into the "diss track" category, since it's unclear whether frontman yannis philippakis is singing about this french band, but i'd like to imagine that he is, especially when he sings "cassius it's over /you're second best second best second best second best." sounds like a diss track to me, and it fits into the pre-existing anglo-franco conflict. as a proud supporter of scotland (as if you couldn't guess, right?), i just want to say: go france!

seriously though, cassius does kinda suck. check it.

even if the idea of an electropunk diss track doesn't appeal to you, you should like this song anyway. it's all elbows and sharp guitars and groovy post-dance beats and too-skinny jeans. sounds like the perfect recipe for success, doesn't it? hmmm...didn't i say i don't like buzz bands? at least foals has an original sound, instead of ripping off paul simon.

foals play bowery ballroom on 2/12 (who has no thumbs and his ticket for this already? mr. mammoth) with also-awesome team robespierre. they then play silent barn (915 wyckoff in ridgewood) with tba guests on the 13th, and chop suey in seattle on the 14th. those are their only american dates. hope cassius don't show up for their 4 dates in france/see other (mostly sold-out) tour dates at their myspace.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, you can get more live traxxxxx (it's funny, because foals have a song called "xxxxx") at the fan-run foals band dot com.

pre-order the cassius single here; it's released in the uk on march 10.
foals' debut antidotes is due april 8 on

awesome song & dance day! - "i wish that i could see you soon"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

herman düne - "i wish that i could see you soon"
giant, herman düne's fifth album, was released by source etc. records in europe.

french anti-folksters herman düne were awarded the honor of having written the 89th best song of 2007 for this gem, a sweet, catchy love ditty, but the best part of the song is the video, directed by toben seymour. two different versions of the video have been released, the "work in progress" one and the completed one, and i have to say, i think the work in progress one is way cooler. but check 'em both out and see what you think. i guarantee this - you're gonna be jealous of herman düne's dancing ability.

awesome song night! - "teenage riot" (with epic p.p.s.)

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

ruby isle - "teenage riot" (sonic youth cover)

this song made the rounds back in march of '07, but it's so good, i had to serve it up again. ruby isle is a trio from athens and minneapolis, comprised of mark mallman, dan geller, and aaron lemay. mallman and geller are well-known in their own rights, mallman as the composer of "marathon 2," the longest song in history (clocking in at 52+ hours), and geller as half of the fantastically awesome IDM outfit i am the world trade center. having joined forces with lemay, ruby isle make slick, smart, and bratty electropop, often covering better known bands. in addition to this version of "teenage riot," ruby isle made some waves recently with their destroyer/elbo.ws stunt a couple months ago. anyway, this song is fucking awesome.

p.s. hear more ruby isle covers (including a download of "tyrant" by black mountain) at their myspace.

p.p.s. so i did a bit more research, and got a tip or two, and it turns out this elbo.ws deal is more than just a one-off - it's a regular deal for geller, mallman, and lemay. the hello, blue roses song was just the beginning of what has become an epic project: "we are going to continue to do covers of the #1 spot on the elbo.ws hot tracks chart on a semi-weekly basis until we get bored or the songs get bad." this week's track is a mash-up cover of steven malkmus's "baltimore" and m.i.a.'s "paper planes," completely refurbished and re-imagined, ruby isle-style. check it out here. you can also download all the previous ruby isle/elbo.ws covers from here.

awesome song christmas! - "spell for a weak heart"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

final fantasy - "spell for a weak heart"

the out-of-print young canadian mothers ep was released by escape goat records.

yeah, so, final fantasy is my favorite band. this is a great little ditty from owen pallett's hopelessly out-of-print 2006 ep, young canadian mothers. the ep also features "peach, plum, pear," pallett's popular cover of the joanna newsom track.

merry christmas!

awesome song morning! - "i'm a pretender"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

the exploding hearts - "i'm a pretender"
buy guitar romantic from dirtnap records.

the exploding hearts are one of the saddest stories in contemporary music, sadder even than callum robbins. the portland, or. pop punk band garnered widespread acclaim for their 2002 debut, guitar romantic, but the band came to an untimely and abrupt end in 2003 when a car crash claimed the lives of three band members. i was given this song on a mix in 2005, and it impressed me so much that i bought the whole album, which isn't as good as "i'm a pretender." it abounds with energy and bad rhymes ("weather was cool so i bought you some fruit" comes to mind), but is just an explosion of cheerfulness, pure pop punk joy, and great hooks. check it out!!!!!!!

awesome song night! - "the anglo saxons"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

the mountain goats - "the anglo saxons"
buy ghana from 3 beads of sweat.

so, john darnielle is a pretty awesome dude. he's certainly one of the most prolific songwriters ever, with ten LPs (his eleventh, heretic pride, is due out february 18, 2008), three compilations, six cassettes, and about ten million other releases. bands with such a staggering output are often off-putting, because it seems so impossible to find a good place to start, what "the best" album to get into them is. well, pretty much every mountain goats album is a good place to start, since it's hard for john darnielle to write a bad song, though you can't really go wrong with ghana, a 68-minute, 31-tracked compilation odessey that features a lot of great mountain goats material. i particularly like "golden boy," "the last day of jimi hendrix's life," "orange ball of peace," and "going to maine," but "the anglo saxons" has a special place in my heart, because i discovered it when i was living in the united kingdom. anyway, enough from me. enjoy this awesome song!

awesome song monday! - "tristan"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

patrick wolf - "tristan"
buy wind in the wires at your favorite independent record store.

i've clearly been enjoying a resurgence of affection for patrick wolf, which has prompted me to listen to his back catalog with more attentiveness. while the album as a whole hasn't captured me like the magic position, "tristan" could be my favorite p. wolf song ever. it's dirty and dark, characteristically sexual, and his voice sounds fantastic, like he's singing through gravel, with an ominous harmonium rolling in the background. i've listened to it about 15 times in 2 days. it's pretty awesome, y'all.

awesome song day/late night! - "b + a"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

the beta band - "b + a"
buy the three eps at your friendly neighborhood record store.

out here on the east coast, we had a bitching thanksgiving - warm during the day, bitterly cold at night. we ate a lot, and ate well, and i find myself listening to the beta band, pre-bed. i've been finding solace in old music lately, and the three eps are an album i could listen to forever. the obvious album standout is "dry the rain," probably the best song the beta band ever wrote, but the three eps are considered the band's best release for a reason. the whole album is exploding with creativity and innovation, keeping it fresh every time you hear it. "b + a," the third track, is a progressive instrumental number defined by its swift internal changes. the beta band spend the first three minutes building "b + a"'s beat, bringing the tension to a climax and backing down, before finally, satisfyingly launching blissfully into the heavy bridge. then they switch back again. it's simple yet absolutely captivating. and totally awesome.

awesome song day! - "love and caring"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

crystal castles - "love and caring"
their full-length debut is due february 19, 2008.

a friend turned me on to crystal castles a couple days ago. their music is like brain crack. i double dare you to listen to "love and caring" and not a) wantonly dance around and b) have to listen to it again, over and over. i've listened to it about fourteen times in three days. it blows my mind with awesome.

edit: i've noticed this page gets lots of hits, so i re-upped the song. enjoy!

awesome song day! - "let's get ready to crumble"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

the russian futurists - "let's get ready to crumble"

buy let's get ready to crumble from upper class recordings.

the russian futurists is the pseudonym of one matthew adam hart, a toronto-based guy who makes shimmering and gaudy lo-fi electronica. bursting from the seams with brilliant pop hooks and cheery choral numbers, let's get ready to crumble is cheerful, positive, and really catchy. but the rest of the album doesn't even hold a candle to the title track, which still manages to light up my mood and make me want to dance after years of listening to the album.

awesome song day! - "ship the majestic suffix"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

danielson - "ship the majestic suffix"

buy ships from secretly canadian.

i've been working on getting into danielson lately, but for a long time, i was stymied by "ship the majestic suffix." the song is awesome, ladies and gentlemen. it opens the album, and i couldn't get past it - i just listened to it over and over again. though daniel smith is a weird dude, he writes incredible songs. ships is fantastic, but the best part of it is the opening track. enjoy.