Monday Music Roundup

This week the sixth food group becomes Very Small Candies of Different Varieties. So far I’ve sampled some Nerds, some Twix, a few Almond Joys and a tiny box or two of Milk Duds (my favorite). Thank god this only comes once a year or you’d have to hoist me out of the house in a specially designed lift for the very obese, after removing the doors from the hinges.

A newspaper reporter from New Hampshire contacted me the other day for a story she is writing on the shrinking Fun Size candy as we know it (she found my previous post on this travesty). While I am pleased that this “important” issue is getting some coverage in the media (!), she had some extremely deadpan journalistic questions to ask me on the phone. The very very best one was: “Do you believe that these candies now accurately represent the size of fun?” There was a beat of serious silence on the phone line, and then I burst into laughter, for which I immediately apologized. Because she was not joking as I had thought.

How big, exactly, is the size of fun?

“Every Day Is Halloween“
(Ministry cover)
The Postmarks
Okay, well let’s just get this one out of the way. Halloween is tomorrow and so most Americans are busy doing things like scooping the slimy innards out of pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns, and hastily assembling costumes out of what is left in the thrift stores and on the picked-over racks. You? You are cool and collected, listening to this hazy, jangly version of a Ministry song. This is the first of a series of free “seasonal downloads” from Miami’s The Postmarks‘ MySpace page. Their debut album comes out January 2007 on UnFiltered Records.

“To The Floor“
Shrift
I mentioned this sexy little album last year; Shrift is a duo composed of Nina Miranda (from Brighton-based Smoke City) and producer Dennis Wheatley. This trip-hop song is a spun-sugar pink confection with a faint ’80s sheen to the floating female vocals, but with an updated twist. More than anything, it reminds me of the Phoenix track in Lost In Translation, and I do believe this song would fit like a glove in the Tokyo nightclub scenes with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson. Listen to this and I defy you to say otherwise. From this year’s Lost in A Moment album (Six Degrees Records).

“Black Magic“
Jarvis Cocker
This song is off of former Pulp frontman (and reigning titleholder of pleasantly-smarmiest voice in England) Jarvis Cocker‘s upcoming self-titled album, coming out next month in the UK. The title of this song should really be “Crimson and Clover, Pt. 2″ because it is a huuuuge rip off of that stick-in-your-head psychadelic hippie ’60s singalong — but that’s not to say it’s bad. I actually find it quite enjoyable. And I think we can agree that perhaps this song has a better title than this summer’s “Cunts Are Still Running The World.”

“Nevermind The Phonecalls“
Earlimart
Earlimart is originally from Fresno, California, and now relocated to the smoggy hipness of Los Angeles. Pitchfork recently unveiled this, the first of three tracks off their upcoming unnamed 5th full-length album. Earlimart’s last outing, 2004′s Treble & Tremble, was often compared to the work of frontman Aaron Espinoza’s late friend Elliott Smith. Espinoza says, “It’s tricky. I’m never ashamed of my relationship with [Smith] or his effect on me or my life or the band. I could never think that’s a bad thing if people want to put us in the same sentence with him or something . . . and I wouldn’t ever say that the album wasn’t influenced by him, but it wasn’t meant to be a tribute thing.” I can hear those threads in this track, but it is more up-tempo pop with a clean & catchy feel. I like it a lot.

“Blue Hotel“
Willie Nelson
Who would have thought that Willie Nelson would have one of my favorite album covers so far this year? Maybe Ryan Adams is rubbing off on him, making him sleek and stylish for the masses. Wait, Ryan isn’t sleek and stylish. Nevermind, maybe not. But Ryan did produce Willie’s new record Songbird and penned this tune off of it (hear Ryan’s original version here, live). Ryan and the Cardinals also played on the album. I think Willie is a national legend but also an acquired taste, like a good strong whiskey on the back porch.

Please let me know today if you have any trouble with these links – it’s my first attempt at the new EZArchive madness. Update: All files are now Savefile. Arrgh!

Stay safe, goblins.